Josef Joffe

Josef Joffe (born March 15, 1944) is editor and publisher of "Die Zeit", a weekly German newspaper, the Marc and Anita Abramowitz Fellow in International Relations at the Hoover Institution, a fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and adjunct professor of political science at Stanford University, and an associate of the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University.

Life

Joffe was born in to a Jewish family ["Yet this Jewish son of Berlin—educated at Swarthmore, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard..." [http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/-berpower-by-joseph-joffe-10087 Review of Joffe's book "Überpower" by Bret Stephens in "Commentary magazine"] ] in Lithuania ["I was born in what is today Lithuania, but I was raised and educated in Cold War Berlin, on the western side" [http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Joffe/joffe-con1.html Josef Joffe Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley] , page 1.] and grew up in West Berlin, where he attended to elementary school and "gymnasium". He then came to the United States at the end of the 1950s as an exchange student, attending high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 1965, and obtained a Ph.D in government from Harvard University in 1975.

In 1976 Joffe started his career with "Die Zeit" as a political writer and grew into managing the "Zeit" Dossier department, an important and often lengthy part of this newspaper which elaborates a single topic on several pages.

From 1982 to 1984 he was a professorial lecturer at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and from 1985 to 2000 he was columnist and editorial page editor for "Süddeutsche Zeitung". In 1990 and 1991 he taught at Harvard University, in 1998 he was a visiting lecturer at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and in 2002 he was a visiting lecturer at Dartmouth College. He has also taught at the University of Munich and the Salzburg Seminar.

Joffe's essays and reviews have appeared in a wide number of publications including "Commentary", "The New Republic", "The New York Review of Books", "The New York Times Magazine", "Prospect", "The Times Literary Supplement", and "The Weekly Standard". His scholarly work has appeared in many books and in journals, including "Foreign Affairs", "Foreign Policy", "International Security", and "The National Interest".

Topics and standpoints

International politics in relation with Germany's position in the world has been a preferred subject for Joffe.

Joffe is known for his global warming scepticism. He has described Al Gore as the "priest" of a (climate related) "secular religion". [http://www.zeit.de/2007/43/U-Klimatismus Beitrag in DIE ZEIT, 18.10.2007: »Ich bin Dein Gore…und Du sollst keine anderen Götter haben neben mir.« I am your Gore - Thou shalt not have any other gods beside me. Climatisizm as a new religion] ]

Memberships

Joffe is member of a variety of head gremia and boards so e.g. as member of the Abraham-Geiger rabbinic seminary in Potsdam, Deutsches Museum, Aspen Institute Berlin, Jacobs University Bremen, Ben Gurion University, American Academy Berlin, Leo Baeck Institut New York and Humanity in Action (Berlin).

Honors

Joffe has received the Theodor Wolff Prize in journalism, the Ludwig Börne Prize in essays and literature, and the German Federal Order of Merit. He has also been awarded honorary doctoral degrees from Swarthmore College (2002) and Lewis and Clark College (2005).

References

Selected Books

* "The Limited Partnership: Europe, the United States, and the Burden of Alliance", Ballinger (June 1987). ISBN 0-88730-216-5
* "The Future of the Great Powers: Predictions", Orion (February 1999). ISBN 0-297-84000-2
* "Überpower: The Imperial Temptation of America", W. W. Norton (June 2006). ISBN 0-393-06135-3

External links

* [http://www.berlingske.dk/article/20060215/danmark/102150022/ Danish Interview from Berlingske Tidende]
* [http://www.hoover.org/bios/joffe Biography]
* [http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Joffe/joffe-con0.html Interview with Josef Joffe]
* [http://openvault.wgbh.org/wapina/barcode48920joffe_2/index.html/ Interview about the Superpowers and Europe] for the WGBH series, [http://openvault.wgbh.org/series/War+and+Peace+in+the+Nuclear+Age/ War and Peace in the Nuclear Age]
* [http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/commencement/joffe.html Commencement Address at Swarthmore College]
* [http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/list.php?author=413 "Prospect" magazine] Archive of articles written by Joffe.
* [http://www.nybooks.com/authors/573 "The New York Review of Books"]
* [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16827 A World Without Israel] Essay published in "Foreign Policy" magazine.

[Category:Swarthmore College alumni]