Helena Cobban

Helena Cobban is a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Middle East Policy Council.

"Born in England in 1952, Ms. Cobban received her B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University. From 1974 through 1981, she worked as a journalist in the Middle East, including five years as a Beirut-based regional correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, and The Sunday Times of London.  Since 1982, she has lived primarily in the United States, though her work has taken her back to the Middle East (many times), and to many parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia.  She has held research fellowships at Harvard University, Georgetown University, the Brookings Institution, and elsewhere. She served on the U.S. Institute of Peace Working Group on Regional Arms Control in the Middle East (1991-92), and has testified on Middle East issues before a number of committees of the U.S. Congress." 

"Since 2003 she has published “Just World News”, a lively blog on global issues that has gained a broad international readership. The weekly news analysis on Middle East developments that she contributes to Inter-Press Service is archived here.  She contributes periodically to the ForeignPolicy.com and to The Christian Science Monitor.

"In 2008, Ms. Cobban published her seventh book, Re-engage! America and the World After Bush. Congressman Lee Hamilton, Co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, described it as, “An impassioned, thought-provoking, and accessible brief from a highly esteemed journalist on how all of us – as individuals – can act to help better our country and world.”  More information about the book is available at www.re-engage.net...

"Ms. Cobban has also published widely in other print media on three continents. From 1993 through 2006 she contributed a regular column on diplomatic and strategic affairs to Al-Hayat (London). She has served as a Visiting Senior Fellow at Harvard University, Georgetown University, the Brookings Institution, and elsewhere.  She currently sits on the Middle East Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch and is one of two Quakers who are members of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.  She speaks French and Arabic, and divides her time between Washington DC and Charlottesville, Virginia."


 * Contibuting Editor, Boston Review

Books

 * Amnesty after Atrocity?: Healing Nations after Genocide and War Crimes (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2006.)
 * The Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks: 1991-96 and Beyond (U.S. Institute of Peace, 2000.) - published by the Foundation for Middle East Peace
 * The Moral Architecture of World Peace: Nobel Laureates Discuss our Global Future (University Press of Virginia, 2000.)
 * The Superpowers and the Syrian-Israeli Conflict, (New York: Praeger, 1991)
 * The Making of Modern Lebanon (London: Hutchinsons, and Boulder, Co.: Westview, 1985)
 * The Palestinian Liberation Organisation: People, Power, and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 1984)