Alexander Cockburn

Columnist

Alexander Cockburn, The Nation's "Beat the Devil" columnist and one of America's best-known radical journalists, was born in Scotland and grew up in Ireland. He graduated from Oxford in 1963 with a degree in English literature and language.

After two years as an editor at the Times Literary Supplement, he worked at the New Left Review and The New Statesman, and co-edited two Penguin volumes, on trade unions and on the student movement.

A permanent resident of the United States since 1973, Cockburn wrote for many years for The Village Voice about the press and politics. Since then he has contributed to many publications including The New York Review of Books, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly and the Wall Street Journal (where he had a regular column from 1980 to 1990), as well as alternative publications such as In These Times and the Anderson Valley Advertiser.

He has written "Beat the Devil" since 1984.

He is co-editor, with Jeffrey St Clair, of the newsletter and radical website CounterPunch (http://www.counterpunch.org) which have a substantial world audience. In 1987 he published a best-selling collection of essays, Corruptions of Empire, and two years later co-wrote, with Susanna Hecht, The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers, and Defenders of the Amazon (both Verso). In 1995 Verso also published his diary of the late 80s, early 90s and the fall of Communism, The Golden Age Is In Us. With Ken Silverstein he wrote Washington Babylon; with Jeffrey St. Clair he has written or coedited several books including: Whiteout, The CIA, Drugs and the Press; The Politics of Anti-Semitism; Imperial Crusades; Al Gore, A User's Manual; Five Days That Shook the World; and A Dime's Worth of Difference, about the two-party system in America.

Currently

2007

2006

  • Letters

    December 19, 2006 Subscribe

  • War: Voters Said No, Congress Said Yes

    December 14, 2006 Subscribe

    In Congress and the popular press, fantasy rules when the subject is Iraq.

  • Gaza and Darfur

    November 30, 2006 Subscribe

    There's no political risk for US media to sound off over genocide in Darfur, but challenging Israel's shameful seige of Gaza is quite a different story.

  • Now What?

    November 16, 2006 Subscribe

    The party of permanent war--which includes lawmakers like Biden, Emanuel and Lantos--is regrouping for a counterattack, their numbers refreshed by a phalanx of incoming Blue Dogs.

  • The Message of Campaign 2006

    November 2, 2006 Subscribe

    As things stand in organized politics today, a purely formal protest against what the GOP has done to America is the most we can hope for.

  • The Myth of Microloans

    October 19, 2006 Subscribe

    Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has helped a lot of poor women, but the basic problem in developing countries is landlessness. A $130 microloan won't solve that problem.

  • Orgasms and Wargasms

    October 5, 2006 Subscribe

    America can't talk about the legalization of torture or about Iraq, where soldiers are raping girls and shooting families at close range. It stands to reason they are now obsessed by a Congressional sex scandal.

  • From Flying Saucers to 9/11

    September 21, 2006 Subscribe

    The world is in tumult, but in the heart of Empire, the level of creative political energy runs flat along the bottom of the graph.

  • The 9/11 Conspiracy Nuts

    September 7, 2006 Subscribe

    August Bebel once called anti-Semitism the socialism of fools. These days, the 9/11 conspiracy fever is fast becoming the "socialism" of the left.

  • Israel on the Slide: Who's to Blame?

    August 24, 2006 Subscribe

    The Israeli press has criticized the Lebanon disaster from all political angles. The American press chooses to cheerlead instead, while liberal Jewry remains silent.

  • The Triumph of Crackpot Realism

    July 27, 2006 Subscribe

    The American government has lost its grasp on reality in Iraq and Lebanon. They seek out the bright, clear problems of war, leaving rubble and corpses in their wake.

  • Temple of Mammon, Planet of Doom

    June 28, 2006 Subscribe

    As we head into Summer 2006, the world capitalist system is out of control.

  • The Hot Air Factory

    June 14, 2006 Subscribe

    Under Karl Rove's deft hand, Bush has been maneuvered from one catastrophe to another. Why is the left obsessed with him?

  • Palestine: It's All Over

    June 1, 2006 Subscribe

    Israel's strategy in 1948 continues today: Make life so awful for Palestinians that most will depart, leaving a few bankrupt ghettos as memorials to the hopes for a Palestinian state.

  • The Red Flag, From Berlin to West Bengal

    May 18, 2006 Subscribe

    The left may be a dusty relic in Germany, but in the Indian state of Kerala, it has made formidable gains on a platform of reform and smart economic policies.

  • J.K. Galbraith and the Forks in the Road

    May 4, 2006 Subscribe

    While John Kenneth Galbraith was good at pointing out the failures of the free enterprise system, he could never overcome the play-to-win mentality of American capitalism.

  • Obama: As He Rises, He Falls

    April 20, 2006 Subscribe

    Bent on proving to the politico-corporate establishment that he is safe, Barack Obama is backing away from all claims to be a popular champion.

  • They Should Have Hissed Barack Obama

    April 6, 2006 Subscribe

    The war is coming home, in the form of people dreadfully wounded in body and spirit. Yet Democratic candidates aren't too worried about their hawkish stance, because the peace movement has no fire in its belly.

  • Why There's No Strategy to End This War

    March 23, 2006 Subscribe

    When Democrats ignored Russ Feingold's motion to censure the President, they provided more evidence that there is no visible national strategy to end the war and bring the troops home.

  • Democrats: When the War Was Lost

    March 9, 2006 Subscribe

    It's no surprise to learn that oil companies are underpaying royalties for drilling on public land, or projecting profits in the billions. The battle for energy regulation was lost a long time ago.

  • Quail in War and Peace

    February 23, 2006 Subscribe

    Bobwhite quail have little to cheer about these days, their numbers depleted and habitats ravaged by hunters like the Vice President and his pals.

  • How Not to Spot a Terrorist

    February 9, 2006 Subscribe

    The NSA's use of artificial intelligence for "data-mining" surveillance is not only constitutionally illegal, but a technological fantasy. Why aren't the Democrats challenging it?

  • Nick Kristof's Brothel Problem

    January 26, 2006 Subscribe

    Nicholas Kristof produces a steady stream of titillating reports on child prostitution in the Third World. Better to focus on draconian economic reforms driven by the World Bank that create the conditions for prostitution.

  • The FBI and Edward Said

    January 12, 2006 Subscribe

    The FBI was probably tapping Edward Said's phone right up until the day he died. Details are emerging of a surveillance effort that extended for nearly thirty years.

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Podcast

RadioNation with Laura Flanders, 11/10/08
This week, what it all meant. Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel on Barack Obama's victory and the coming battle for progressive change we can believe in. (13mb mp3)

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