Jonathan Steele



Profile:
Full name: Jonathan Steele

Area of interest: International affairs

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian

Email: [mailto:j.steele@guardian.co.uk j.steele@guardian.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jonathansteele

Blog:

Representation:

Networks:



Biography:
About:

Education: Cambridge University; Yale University: Economics (MA)

Career: The Guardian: reported since 1965; bureau chief in Washington 1975/1979 - in the 80s he reported from southern Africa, central America, Afghanistan, and Eastern Europe; Moscow 1988/1994 - in the 90s he covered Kosovo and the Balkans. Since 9/11 he has reported from Afghanistan and Iraq as well as on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict

Current position/role: columnist, roving foreign correspondent


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles/Main role: author

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight: Forty years ago, as a Yale graduate student Jonathan Steele headed for Mississippi to join the Freedom Summer of protests, three of his co-activists were murdered by racist rednecks. He recalls his involvement in one of the most infamous events of the civil rights struggle: Summer of Hate The Guardian, 18th June 2004

Broadcast media:

Video: frequent broadcaster

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours:
 * International Reporter of the Year in the British Press Awards, 1981 and 1991
 * London Press Club's Scoop of the Year Award for being the only British or American reporter to get to Gorbachev's prison villa in the Crimea during the 1991 coup
 * James Cameron award, 1998 - for 'work as a journalist that combined moral vision and professional integrity'
 * Martha Gellhorn special award, 2006 - for 'consistently high-quality journalism'

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:

 * The South African connection: Western investment in apartheid (1972) OCLC 578444
 * Eastern Europe since Stalin (1974) OCLC 993929
 * Socialism with a German face: the state that came in from the cold (1977) OCLC 3375606
 * A critical phase-East-West relations in the 1980s (1981) OCLC 16563787
 * Superpowers in collision the cold war now (1982) OCLC 9075997
 * Soviet power: the Kremlin's foreign policy - Brezhnev to Andropov (1983) OCLC 9784055
 * Andropov in power: from Komsomol to Kremlin (1983) OCLC 10229921
 * The limits of Soviet power : the Kremlin's foreign policy - Brezhnev to Chernenko (1984) OCLC 59151860
 * Eternal Russia: Yeltsin, Gorbachev, and the mirage of democracy (1994) OCLC 30155490
 * Inside East Germany: the state that came in from the cold (1997) OCLC 3264167
 * Defeat: why they lost Iraq OCLC 170039475 (2007)

Latest work: Ghosts of Afghanistan OCLC 751744723, October 2011, Portobello

Speaking/Appearances:
 * Humanitarian Intervention: Who Does It Help? - also with Clare Short, Geoffrey Robertson, David Chandler, at the ICA, London, 24th January 2008
 * LSE, Crisis States Research Centre public lecture: Jonathan Steele 'Iraq: the way out', 31st January 2008
 * Frontline Club: Insight with Jonathan Steele - Why they lost Iraq, 7th February 2008
 * London Jewish Cultural Centre, The Great Debates: Has Glasnost Failed: Is the Cold War Back?, 28th February 2008

Current debate: 

The Guardian:
Column name:

Remit/Info: International affairs

Section: Comment

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:j.steele@guardian.co.uk j.steele@guardian.co.uk]

Website: Guardian.co / Jonathan Steele

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Varies, often on Friday

Regularity: Frequent

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * Syria's deadlock can be broken only by an arms embargo - Russia and the west must use their leverage to bring about a ceasefire and halt Syria's descent into full-scale civil war - 10th July 2012
 * The Soviets showed the way to leave Afghanistan - Talks with the Taliban and a ceasefire are vital prerequisites to any dignified withdrawal - 22nd May 2012
 * To fight al-Qaida, Yemen needs aid not more military action - The US should counter al-Qaida gains by tackling poverty, not increasing drone attacks - 30th April 2012
 * Syria might need its own Mandela to end this war - With uprisings, defections and sanctions leaving Assad unscathed, the country's best chance of democracy lies at the negotiating table - 20th March 2012
 * For Russia, this is the end of an era - The protests against Vladimir Putin's party show the people have finally run out of patience with rigid, lawless elites - 5th March 2012
 * Most Syrians back President Assad, but you'd never know from western media - Assad's popularity, Arab League observers, US military involvement: all distorted in the west's propaganda war - 18th January 2012
 * Syria's story does not have to follow the Libyan script - International media and western governments have created a one-sided narrative, yet there is another way – dialogue - 26th December 2011
 * For Russia, this is the end of an era - The protests against Vladimir Putin's party show the people have finally run out of patience with rigid, lawless elites - 12th December 2011
 * Nato must rectify its errors in Afghanistan - Talks in Bonn today need to address Pashtun marginalisation and not support an indefinite stay of American troops - 5th December 2011
 * Syria needs mediation, not a push into all-out civil war - By suspending a country in crisis, the Arab League is giving Assad's regime fewer peaceful ways out of a dangerous corner - 18th November 2011
 * Tunisia's clean election leads the way - The country's big challenge is to draw up a constitution that safeguards the political freedoms the uprising demanded - 26th October 2011
 * The Iraq war is finally over. And it marks a complete neocon defeat - Thanks to the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Iran's greatest enemy, Tehran's influence in Iraq is stronger than America's - 24th October 2011
 * is crucial to rebuilding Libya'' - The rebels have so far shown restraint with Gaddafi's allies – good news for a Nato fearful of a repeat of Afghanistan - 23rd August 2011
 * stalemate shows it is time to tempt Gaddafi out, not blast him out'' - As the appetite for war in Nato countries wanes, a ceasefire becomes the logical first step to peace - 27th July 2011
 * no mention of a ceasefire for Libya, Obama?'' - The best way to protect desperate Libyan civilians is for Nato to reverse its mistake of taking sides - 28th May 2011
 * Sakharov's birthday celebrations are also a Soviet history lesson'' - Celebrations for the late dissident's 90th birthday serve as a reminder to young Russians of their country's repressive history - 22nd May 2011
 * Bin Laden: the legacy for Afghanistan'' - Afghanistan suffered more than most from Osama bin Laden's campaigns and the reaction to them. Can it now turn a corner? - 2nd May 2011
 * own Arab spring'' - A renewed sense of nationalism is uniting protesters over delays to US troop withdrawal - 26th April 2011
 * talks could be closer'' - US leaders including Hillary Clinton at last see the need to negotiate with their Afghan enemy. They just have to convince the Pentagon - 28th March 2011
 * know Ben Ali was not democracy's only block'' - As the revolution gathers strength, an old Islamist party looks likely to win any election – if the west respects its legitimacy - 28th February 2011
 * Afghan agenda'' - Gorbachev has valuable advice for the US on the war in Afghanistan that Putin would rather he keep to himself - 28th October 2010
 * Arab opinion like this, Obama needs media advice'' - The rhetoric of his Cairo speech has soured: the president can only move the debate on with a sea-change in US attitudes - 11th August 2010
 * must make the case for talks with the Taliban'' - Obama's mantra is that there is a political fix for Afghanistan. The PM's job in the US next week is to help him realise it - 13th July 2010
 * kind of democracy does Thailand want to be?'' - When Bankok has a peace deal with the redshirts the taboo of monarchy must be tested, without the risk of lèse majesté charges - 18th May 2010
 * tourists return to Burma?'' - Ruled by the world's last military junta, Burma is shunned by both governments and tourists. Yet its people are crying out for contact. So what's the ethical traveller to do? - 15th February 2010
 * inquiry repeats Blair's mistake'' - The Chilcot inquiry has failed to take into account the resistance of ordinary Iraqis to an invasion – exactly like Tony Blair did - 28th January 2010
 * 2010 could be an own goal for the Rainbow Nation'' - The ANC is failing poor black South Africans, and next year's World Cup will only intensify scrutiny of Zuma's regime - 31st December 2009
 * crime of hubris'' - Blair's boast about WMD points to a fertile new field of inquiry that Chilcot must not duck - 14th December 2009
 * inquiry team pulls its punches'' - David Manning, Blair's foreign policy adviser in the run-up to war, was given the safest of rides at the Chilcot inquiry - 1st December
 * healing in Mozambique'' - In a country where brutal civil war raged just two decades ago, surprisingly little anger remains today - 20th November 2009
 * is much too important to be left to politicians'' - The EU must not give succour to self-interested revisionists who equate Stalinism and Nazism in an effort to smear the left - 20th August 2009
 * sideshow'' - The war with Russia was a disaster for Georgia, but its president has still not had to pay a serious price - 4th August 2009
 * looms in Kurdistan'' - Whether growing tensions between Iraq's Kurds and Baghdad turn bloody depends on Barack Obama's negotiation skills - 15th July 2009
 * and the US need more than a deal on a doomed war'' - Obama's Kremlin visit produced agreement on Afghanistan. But what really matters is Europe, where divisions are stark - 7th July 2009
 * new beginning for Iraq?'' - As US troops withdraw from Iraq's urban areas, the hope is that political and religious communities will come together - 1st July 2009
 * mission'' - Prime minister Tsvangirai's message of reconciliation with Mugabe may not be popular, but it is what Zimbabwe needs - 25th June 2009
 * and in secret, this Iraq inquiry is a scandal'' - We badly need to learn from the most important foreign policy decision of the last decade. This tissue won't help us - 16th June 2009
 * Obama must include Iran in an axis of respect'' - If he can break with decades of divide and rule in the Middle East, the president will make a real contribution to peace - 10th June 2009
 * Mississippi and its place in America's racial history'' - When I arrived in Mississippi on 21 June 1964 as a civil rights activist, I was like most other outsiders in having no idea a town there bore the name of the place in Pennsylvania where the US founding fathers wrote the constitution. Twenty-four hours later the name was branded on my brain - 25th May 2009
 * the Tigers' defeat, the abuse of Tamils must stop'' - If Sri Lanka's president treats the civil war's losers as a conquered enemy he will sow the seeds of a new militancy - 19th May 2009
 * Obama must tell Bibi'' - Only a dramatic break from previous US policy on Israel can end the Middle East deadlock - 5th May 2009
 * Lanka must end its civilians' ordeal'' - Sri Lanka's government must look after its own people caught up in the bloody conflict, or face a new generation of Tamil militants - 25th April 2009
 * sour grapes to blame the election for Moldovan anger'' - The violence that greeted the communists' latest victory had more to do with financial collapse than fraud - 13th April 2009
 * reset on Moscow is worth a little Nato anxiety'' - Obama's willingness to allow greater Russian influence, despite allies' fears, shows he is serious on his foreign policy goals - 7th April 2009
 * is deeper in its Afghan mire than Russia ever was'' - Two decades after the Soviet withdrawal, ever more resources are being poured into a war with scant chance of success - 14th February 2009
 * months after the war, Georgia looks very different'' - People are questioning the official version of the South Ossetian conflict, and asking if their president can be trusted - 26th January 2009
 * had Butler and Hutton. Now for an Iraq inquiry that really sheds light'' - British forces are on their way home, so there can be no excuses for failing to mount a review of the politics behind the war - 1st January 2009
 * softly oust Mugabe'' - If he's offered a quiet exit with judicial immunity Zimbabwe's leader might just be tempted to go - 15th December 2008
 * is no sop. It is a vote to end the occupation of Iraq'' - The total defeat of the US plan to install a supine ally in the Middle East is likely to be confirmed today in Baghdad - 27th November 2008
 * end to the Russian chill'' - Despite recent US policy, Europe's security is best served by finding shared ground with Moscow - 12th November 2008
 * he must declare that the war on terror is over'' - Obama's preference for diplomacy can help to forge new, individual relationships with Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan - 6th November 2008
 * come a long, long way'' - With Barack Obama's election, no longer is a black candidate the champion of a minority. He has triumphed as the choice of a majority - 5th November 2008
 * prophets of Iranian regime split won't find it in the fury of the bazaar'' - 3rd November 2008
 * over, and Putin won'' - Chechnya is being rebuilt with Russian oil cash and its leader obeys Moscow. Separatist ideas are on ice - 30th September 2008
 * or villains?'' - There have already been 30 suicide bombings by women and girls in Iraq this year - almost four times as many as in the whole of 2007. The increase has been put down to their ability to evade security checks. But the reasons go much deeper - 11th September 2008
 * drops the mask'' - With his tough stance on US withdrawal, Sunni militias and the Kurds Iraq's leader risks doom - 5th September 2008
 * of lies and hysteria'' - The principal lesson of the Russian-Georgian conflict is that Nato must not be expanded further - 25th August 2008
 * is no pipeline war but an assault on Russian influence'' - the South Ossetia war - 11th August 2008
 * Europe's Obama cheers ring hollow in the Middle East - Here the US leader has much less power. Israel calls the shots, and the reality on the ground is gloomy and anti-peace - 25th July 2008
 * At last, a true moderniser in Moscow. Why punish him? - Despite western howls of suspicion, Medvedev is Russia's first post-Soviet leader. It would be lunacy to kick him into the cold - 14th July 2008
 * The Milosevic medicine - Zimbabweans must now be pragmatic and learn from the Serbian model of deposing a strongman - 28th June 2008
 * In the Jerusalem of the North, the Jewish story is forgotten - Three times as many people died in Lithuania under the Nazis than the Soviets, but the state is myopic about the past - 20th June 2008
 * The road to peace in Iraq runs directly through Tehran - 30th May 2008
 * A new cold war? We're yet to adjust to the old one ending - Bad-tempered relations between Russia and the EU cannot be allowed to stymie a new partnership deal: both sides need it - 23rd May 2008
 * Obama says he'll reshape US foreign policy. But can he? - 14th May 2008
 * War-torn Sri Lanka is the last sick man of the region - 2nd May 2008
 * In backing the Basra assault, the US has only helped Sadr - 4th April 2008
 * For real excitement, the 1976 Ford takes some beating - The Obama-Clinton duel is certainly gripping, but it has yet to match the even tighter Republican race of 32 years ago - 14th March 2008
 * Expect change only in name as 'Putvedev' takes the reins - The new president is a Putin protege. Russia, like China, will continue on a path of modernising under authoritarian rule - 3rd March 2008
 * Kofi Annan and the art of intelligent intervention - His mediation in Kenya - impartial and low key - shows up Washington's disastrous meddling in neighbouring Somalia - 15th February 2008
 * Germany's search for home truths continues, 75 years on - The exploration of a Nazi past unveils stories of pride - such as that of my grandfather - and of shame. But it must go on - 7th February 2008
 * Only a full inquiry can avert another disaster like Iraq - The government must open up to find out why it could not foresee - and barely considered - the outcomes of occupation - 24th January 2008
 * Welcome, Mr President, to the misery you've created - In eight years Palestinians have seen the bald eagle of enlightened US power degenerate into a phoney, biased, cynical lame duck - 11th January 2008
 * The surge is a sideshow. Only total US pullout can succeed - When resistance leaders are given an assurance that the Iraq occupation will end completely, real negotiations can begin - 7th December 2007
 * The Palestinian path to peace does not go via Annapolis - World opinion is still on the side of the people of the occupied territories. But as long as they are divided, talks are futile - 16th November 2007
 * The French Berlusconi - Nicolas Sarkozy may fast make a name for himself on the world stage. Just not the one he wants - 9th November 2007



News & updates:

 * Russia votes, What are Russia’s voters looking for in the upcoming presidential election? CrossTalk with Dmitry Babich, Jonathan Steele and Eric Kraus. 2nd March 2012



References:


Links:

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Steele
 * London Review of Books articles