Jim Lobe
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James R. Lobe (born January 4, 1949 in Seattle, Washington) is an American journalist and the Washington Bureau Chief of the international news agency Inter Press Service. He has also written for Foreign Policy In Focus, Oneworld.net, Alternet, TomPaine.com, Asia Times, and other internet news publications. Lobe is best known for his stiff criticism of U.S. foreign policy, American militarism and particularly the neo-conservatives, their worldview, their relationship to other political tendencies, and their influence in the Bush administration.
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[edit] Career
In 1970, Lobe graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in Williamstown (Massachusetts), with highest honors in History. He received his Juris Doctor from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley in 1974.
[edit] Journalist
Jim Lobe has served as Washington D.C. correspondent and Bureau Chief of Inter Press Service (IPS) from 1980 to 1985, and again from 1989 to the present. IPS is an international news and feature agency that specializes in the coverage of events and issues of interest to or affecting developing countries. Since 2001, Lobe has served on the Foreign Policy in Focus Board of Advisors.
[edit] Lecturer
Lobe has lectured occasionally on U.S. Foreign Policy, Neo-conservative ideology, the Bush administration, and Foreign Policy and the U.S. Media at various colleges and universities around the United States, including: Jackson School of International Studies and School of Communications at the University of Washington, Seattle; Union College in Schenectady, New York; Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut; American University in Washington D.C.; University of San Francisco (USF); and New York University. He also lectured at the Institute of American Affairs, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China; the Institute of International Relations in Hanoi, Vietnam; and the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland (April, 2005). In 2004, he acted as defense attorney for the Project of the New American Century at the BRussells Tribunal in Brussels.
[edit] Coverage
Jim Lobe was the first journalist to cover the ties between the post-9/11 agenda pursued by the Bush administration and the recommendations of the neo-conservative-led Project for the New American Century (see, for example, Administration Factions Battle Over Bush’s War, September 21, 2001; and Cold War Intellectual Re-Enlist for War on Iraq, Arabs, November 7, 2001). He was also the first to relate that agenda to the controversial Defense Policy Guidance (DPG) draft paper that was overseen by then-Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and leaked to the New York Times in March, 1992 (‘Pax Americana’ All Over Again December 27, 2001; and Bush’s Foreign Policy Blueprint: A Grand Global Plan, March 26, 2002). Lobe was among the first to cover the split within the Bush administration between the coalition of hawks – neo-conservatives, aggressive nationalists, and the Christian Right – on the one hand and the “realists” centered in the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on the other. Since 2001, many of his stories have dealt with the internal balance of power and its evolution over the six years in which Bush has been president (The Iraqi Temptation, October 16, 2001; Iraq Veers Into Washington’s Crosshairs, December 2, 2001; Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq Split on Familiar Lines, December 18, 2002; The Realists Rally, November 25, 2003; Neo-Con Collapse in Washington and Baghdad, June 1, 2004; The Bush Team Reloaded, Middle East Report, Number 234, Spring, 2005; and Bush’s War Hawks Edged Out of the Next, April 3, 2006).
Jim Lobe has written at some length on the general worldview of neo-conservatives, including What is a Neo-Conservative Anyway?, August 12, 2003; and From Holocaust to Hyperpower, January 25, 2005; as well as of their policy agendas as they have evolved over time. See, for example, U.S. Contra Backers Now Target China, March 28, 2001; The Axis of Incitement, March 7, 2002; Key Officials Used 9/11 as Pretext for Iraq War, July 15, 2003; Sidelined Neo-Cons Stoke Future Fires, October 7, 2004; So Little Time, So Many Regimes to Change, December 9, 2004; Neo-Conservatives at Sea, January 14, 2005; and Energised Neo-Cons Say Israel’s Fight Is Washington’s, July 17, 2006.
[edit] Interviews
Lobe has been recognized by major international media for his expertise on the neo-conservative movement and foreign policy. He appeared on the BBC’s public-affairs program Panorama: “The War Party”, broadcast May 18, 2003 (transcript of interview); and was interviewed for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Four Corners public affairs program: “American Dreamers”, broadcast March 10, 2003 (transcript of interview).
[edit] Publications
- Lobe, Jim and Oliveri, Adele; eds. (2003) I Nuovi Rivoluzionari: Il Pensiero dei Neoconservatori Americani. Milan: Feltrinelli. (Co-editor)
- Feffer, John; ed. (2003) Power Trip: U.S. Unilateralism and Global Strategy After September 11. New York: Seven Stories Press. (Contributor)
- Ackerman, S., Arkin, W., Marthoz, J., Wery, M.; eds., (2004) Les Etats-Unis a Contre-Courant: Critiques Americaines a L’Egard d’une Politique Etrangere Unilateraliste. Brussels: GRIP. (Contributor)
[edit] External links
- Lobe’s stories on the neo-conservatives published by IPS Inter Press Service
- Interview by Jonathan Holmes for the ABC public affairs program Four Corners on 17 February, 2003
- Lobe on “What is neo-conservative anyway?”, Asia Times (August 13, 2003)
