Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen | |
---|---|
International New York Times, The New York Times | |
Spouse | |
Children | 4 |
Roger Cohen (born 2 August 1955) is a journalist and author. He was a reporter, editor and columnist for
Early life and education
Cohen was born in London to a Jewish family. His father, Sydney Cohen, a doctor, emigrated from South Africa to England in the 1950s.[3] In the late 1960s, Roger studied at Westminster School, one of Britain's top private schools. He won a scholarship and would have entered College, the scholars' House, but was told that a Jew could not attend College or hold his particular scholarship. (The scholarship initially offered to him was intended for persons who professed the Christian faith, as he later learned while researching the affair.) Instead, he was awarded a different scholarship.[4]
In 1973, Cohen travelled with friends throughout the Middle East, including
Cohen's mother, also from South Africa (b. 1929), attempted suicide in London in 1978. She died there in 1999 and was buried in Johannesburg.[8]
Career
Living through a war in Europe was a harrowing experience in many ways, but I think that for everyone there of my pampered generation, it was also an education. In war, you see people pushed to their limits. To try to evoke that, to convey those experiences and so to impact government policy when governments are doing their best to ignore terrible things—that can be rewarding in more lasting ways than most journalism.[7]
In 1983, Cohen joined
Cohen worked for The New York Times as its European economic correspondent, based in Paris, from January 1992 to April 1994. He then became the paper's
He wrote a retrospective book about his Balkan experiences called Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo in 1998.[10] It won a Citation for Excellence from the Overseas Press Club in 1999.[7] Cohen wrote in Hearts Grown Brutal that his coverage of the war changed him as a person, and that he considers himself lucky to still be alive.[11] He later called this period the proudest achievement in his entire journalistic career.[7]
He returned to the paper's Paris bureau from June 1995 to August 1998. He served as bureau chief of the Berlin bureau after September 1998. He took over as foreign editor of the paper's American office in the direct aftermath of the
In 2004, he began writing a column called 'Globalist', which is published twice a week in
After columnist
Iraq
Cohen supported the
He opposed the
In November 2008, Cohen stated that "gains are real but fragile" in Iraq. He criticised Democratic candidate Barack Obama's calls for a 16-month withdrawal from the country, calling it irresponsible. Cohen wrote that "we're going to have to play buffer against the dominant Shia for several years".[14]
Iran
Cohen wrote a series of articles for The New York Times in February 2009 about a trip to Iran. In his writings he expressed
His depiction of Jewish life in Iran sparked criticism from columnists and activists such as
Roger Cohen responded on 2 March, defending his observations and further elaborating that "Iran's Islamic Republic is no
I return to this subject because behind the Jewish issue in Iran lies a critical one—the U.S. propensity to fixate on and demonize a country through a one-dimensional lens, with a sometimes disastrous chain of results.[20]
On 12 March, Cohen accepted an invitation to meet with selected members of Los Angeles's
Cohen argued that the results of the
Israel
Cohen wrote in January 2009 that the
Cohen opposed
Pakistan and Afghanistan
On 8 November 2007, Cohen described the then $10 billion given to the Pakistani government and $22 billion given to the Afghan government as "self-defeating". He called Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf "a dictator with a gentleman's itch". He also stated that "the U.S. must stick with him and maintain aid for now", but it should press Musharraf for more political reforms.[29]
In September 2008, Cohen stated that only the Afghan people themselves can win
In Afghanistan, a Taliban-led insurgency is growing in reach and effectiveness. There's talk of a mini-surge in U.S. troops there—now about 34,000—to counter the threat, but little serious reflection on what precise end perhaps 12,000 additional forces would serve. Until that's clarified, I'm against the mini-surge.[14]
Rupert Murdoch
On 12 July 2011, shortly after the News of the World scandal broke, Cohen, who once wrote for the
Awards
Cohen has won numerous awards and honours, among them the Peter Weitz Prize for Dispatches from Europe, the Arthur F. Burns Prize, and the Joe Alex Morris lectureship at
In 2012, Cohen won the Lifetime Achievement award at the 8th annual International Media Awards in London.[31]
Personal life
Cohen was married to the sculptor Frida Baranek[32] and has four children. They are now divorced. The family lived in Brooklyn, New York[7] until 2010, when he moved back to London, where he'd lived in 1980.[8] Before leaving New York in 2010, he was given a farewell party in July by Richard Holbrooke.[33] He wrote a remembrance of Holbrooke five months later after the diplomat's unexpected death.[34]
Cohen says that "journalism is a young person's game." "When the phone goes in the middle of the night and you're 25 and you're asked to go to Beirut, it's the greatest thing. But when that happens at 50, less so."[7]
Published works
- (With Claudio Gatti) In the Eye of the Storm: The Life of General ISBN 978-0-374-17708-9
- ISBN 978-0679452430
- ISBN 978-0375414107
- Danger in the Desert: True Adventures of a Dinosaur Hunter, New York: Sterling, 2008. ISBN 978-1402757068
- The Girl from Human Street: Ghosts of Memory in a Jewish Family, New York: Knopf, 2015. ISBN 978-0307594662
- An Affirming Flame: Meditations on Life and Politics, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023. ISBN 978-0593321522
References
- ^ a b and became head of the paper's Paris Bureau in 2020 Roger Cohen. The New York Times. Retrieved 2 May 2009.
- ^ Slate Magazine. Posted 9 November 2007.
- ^ Roger Cohen (30 November 2009). "A Jew in England". The New York Times.
- ^ Cohen, Roger (30 November 2009). "A Jew in England". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
- ^ Cohen, Roger (29 October 2007). "Return to Bamiyan". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 May 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f The New York Times Names Roger Cohen Foreign Editor. Business Wire. 14 March 2002.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Roger Cohen: My Life In Media. The Independent. 12 February 2007.
- ^ Op-Edcolumn, The New York Times on-line, 29 July 2010. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
- ^ In the Eye of the Storm: The Life of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. Entertainment Weekly. 23 August 1991.
- ^ Roberts, Walter R. (1999). "Hearts Grown Brutal". Mediterranean Quarterly. 10 (3): 137–139.
- ^ Hearts Grown Brutal – Reviews. Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
- ^ Cohen, Roger (17 January 2008). "A Center Called McCain". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
- ^ Cohen, Roger (17 June 2007). "The Long View in Iraq". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Cohen, Roger (8 November 2008). "Real Wars and the US Culture War". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
- ^ a b Cohen, Roger (22 February 2009). "What Iran's Jews Say". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 April 2009.
- ^ a b Tugend, Tom (16 March 2009). "Roger Cohen spars with Iranian Jewish expats". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 30 April 2009.
- ^ "Roger Cohen's Very Happy Visit with Iran's Jews. Jeffrey Goldberg's Atlantic Blog. 26 February 2009.
- Jerusalem Post. Archived from the originalon 6 July 2013. Retrieved 22 April 2009.
- ^ AJC Responds to Roger Cohen Columns on Iran Archived 24 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine. By Dr. Eran Lerman. American Jewish Committee. 13 April 2009.
- ^ a b Cohen, Roger (1 March 2009). "Iran, the Jews and Germany". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 May 2009.
- ^ "An Invitation for Roger Cohen". The Atlantic. Retrieved 11 May 2009.
- The Huffington Post. 16 March 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2009.
- ^ Cohen, Roger (14 June 2009). "Iran's Day of Anguish". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 June 2009.
- ^ Flynt Leverett; Hillary Mann Leverett (2013). "Letters: Going To Which Iran?". The New York Review of Books. 60 (12). Retrieved 23 June 2013.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Cohen, Roger (11 January 2009). "Mideast Dream Team? Not Quite". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
- ^ Cohen, Roger (5 April 2005). "Turkey Wants U.S. 'Balance'". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
- ^ Cohen, Roger (8 March 2009). "Middle East Reality Check". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 May 2009.
- ^ Cohen, Roger (2 August 2014). "Opinion - Why Americans See Israel the Way They Do". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
- ^ Cohen, Roger (8 November 2007). "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Musharraf". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 May 2009.
- ^ Cohen, Roger (11 July 2011). "In Defense of Murdoch". The New York Times.
- ^ International Media Awards – Winners 2012
- ^ Cohen, Roger (April 2016). "Opinion | A Time of Bullies". The New York Times.
- ^ Keller, Bill, "Dealing With Assange and the WikiLeaks Secrets", The New York Times Magazine, 26 January 2010. (30 January 2011 p. MM32; on-line p. 3). Retrieved 1 February 2011.
- ^ Cohen, Roger, "The Unquiet American.", Op-Ed, The New York Times, 16 December 2010 (17 December 2010 p. A39 NY ed.; also International Herald Tribune 16 December 2010). Retrieved 1 February 2011.