Mark Curtis (British author)

Mark Curtis is a British journalist, writer, and historian specialising in investigative journalism. He has written numerous books on the foreign policy of the United Kingdom and the United States during the twentieth century.

Biography

Mark Curtis began his studies at the London School of Economics in London, becoming a researcher at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He is a former director of the World Development Movement.

Following many years of involvement in the NGOs Christian Aid and ActionAid (he was director of the branch "Policy and Advocacy" of Christian Aid and the political director of ActionAid), he now works as a writer, journalist, and independent consultant. He is a regular participant in political debates and writes articles for numerous newspapers, including The Guardian, Red Pepper, and The Independent in the United Kingdom; Znet in the United States; Frontline in India; and al-Ahram in Egypt.

He is also an honorary professor at the University of Strathclyde and was formerly appointed to visiting researcher posts at l'Institut Français des Relations Internationales in Paris and to the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Auswaertige Politik in Bonn.

Works

The Great Deception

In 1998 Mark Curtis wrote The Great Deception: Anglo-American Power and World Order, a work whose stated goal was to shed light on various myths of Anglo-American power in the post-Cold War era. Curtis attempts to demonstrate how the United Kingdom remained a key partner of the United States' effort to enforce their hegemony in the world. He analyzes what he refers to as a special relationship between the two countries and concludes that quite serious consequences exist for both states.

Trade for life

Trade for Life: Making Trade Work for Poor People is a work published in 2001. It is a strong critique of the function of international organizations, especially the World Trade Organization (WTO). Curtis analyzes the decisions taken by the WTO in developing states and concludes that these decisions were seldom without bias against the poor countries; he claims that certain of these decisions, notably certain structural adjustments, caused their intended benefactors more harm than good. Further, Curtis regrets that some rules are lacking when their need is called for, noting the relative lack of regulation checking the growth of power of multinational companies. A partner of Christian Aid in Zimbabwe has said that "the manner in which the WTO functions, is like placing an adult against a child in a boxing ring, like Manchester United against a local Zimbabwean team. The WTO judges all countries on the same level, while they are not the same. The WTO must help create a situation where countries are more equal." This is a quotation that Mark Curtis recycles throughout his book.

Curtis concludes by saying that market forces can be used in a different, more egalitarian, manner than the one currently employed by the WTO. He believes that it could benefit developing nations if this goal was pursued.

His book was edited by ChristianAid while Mark Curtis was "Policy and Politics" Director and is freely available.

Web of Deceit

In 2003 Mark Curtis published Web of Deceit: Britain's Real Role in the World. This book has been his most successful to date. It offers a new academic approach to the role of the United Kingdom in the post 1945 world until the current the War on Terrorism. It further criticizes the foreign policy of Tony Blair. Curtis, defending the idea that Britain is a rogue state, describes various relations the United Kingdom undertook with repressive regimes and how he thinks these actions made the world less just.

Moreover, the book analyzes various recent actions of the British Army in the world, describing not only what he characterizes as the immorality of the War in Iraq, but also of the War in Afghanistan, and the Kosovo War. Curtis denounces equally strongly Britain's alliances with states he categorizes as repressive, such as Israel, Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Additionally, he details and criticizes the non-intervention of Britain in the Rwandan Genocide.

Curtis draws most of his research from recently declassified documents by the British secret service. He notably claims to demonstrate the role and complicity of the British in the massacre of millions of Indonesians in 1965, the toppling of the governments of Iran and British Guyana, and what he describes as repressive colonial policies in the former colonies of Kenya, Oman, and Malaysia.

Unpeople

In 2004, Mark Curtis published Unpeople: Britain’s Secret Human Rights Abuses. This book followed a similar line of thought begun in Web of Deceit. Unpeople is based on various declassified documents from the British secret service.

Among the declassifed secret service reports, Curtis asserts that the United Kingdom had given aid to Saddam Hussein in 1963 in order that he rise to power in Iraq; he further posits that the Western Powers, notably the UK, performed various arms deals with the Iraqi government while the Iraqi government was involved in the brutal aggression against the Kurdish community. Curtis asserts that these documents further indict the British government in their role played in the Vietnam War, the coup d'État against Milton Obote in 1971, the coup d'État against Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, and coups in Indonesia and Guyana.

Mark Curtis estimates that approximately ten million deaths throughout the world since 1945 have been caused by the United Kingdom’s foreign policy.

Quotations

• "Curtis is a courageous journalist who uncovers truths which the powerful would rather have silent." Victoria Brittain, The Guardian
• "...a series of outstanding volumes on Britain's crimes of empire -- outstanding work, therefore deeply hidden." Noam Chomsky
• "This country’s best and most radical popular historian." John Pilger

Bibliography

• Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent’s Tail, to be published July 2010, ISBN 1 846 68763 2
• Dirty Wars: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Verso, 2008 ISBN 1 844 67131 3
• Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses, Vintage, 2004 ISBN 0 099 46972 3
• Web of Deceit: Britain's Real Role in the World, Vintage, 2003 ISBN 0 099 44839 4
• Trade for Life: Making Trade Work for Poor People, Christian Aid, 2001
• The Great Deception: Anglo-American Power and World Order, Pluto, 1998
• The Ambiguities of Power: British Foreign Policy since 1945, Zed, 1995

External links

• Mark Curtis' personal web site
• Journalisted - Articles by Mark Curtis
• Mark Curtis at Media Lens
• Mark Curtis at CiF
• Book review of Unpeople in The Guardian.
• Book review of Web of Deceit in The Guardian

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