
Dr. Jeffrey Gedmin is co-founder and editor-in-chief of American Purpose, the magazine and media venture. He is former President/CEO of the London-based Legatum Institute. Gedmin served for four years as President/CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, headquartered in Prague, prior to which he served as President/CEO of the Aspen Institute in Berlin. Previously, he was Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and Executive Director of the New Atlantic Initiative.
Gedmin is the author/editor of several books on Germany and European security. He also served as co-executive producer for two major PBS documentaries: “The Germans, Portrait of a New Nation” (1995) and “Spain’s 9/11 and the Challenge of Radical Islam in Europe” (2007). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on several advisory boards, including the Institute for State Effectiveness, the Justice for Journalists Foundation, the Tocqueville Conversations, and the Institute for Current World Affairs. Together with former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic Norm Eisen, Gedmin is co-chair of the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group, hosted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Billy the Kid and Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland’s life and work have something to tell us about American history, culture, and identity.

Frontline Fighting and Flourishing
In Eastern Europe, cultural memory is attached to responsibility, and nowhere more so than Vilnius.

A Note from Jeffrey Gedmin
Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Gedmin shares some news about American Purpose this summer and fall.

What's an American?
New Orleans-born Louis Moreau Gottschalk crafted a sound that was surprising, eclectic, and American.

Crisis, Conflict, Turmoil
The Thirty Years' War impacted every aspect of society–including the arts. Jeffrey Gedmin on how the raging conflict influenced Bach, Handel, and other artists of the Baroque.

The Ukraine War Has Transformed Europe—for Good
The notion of a Zeitenwende—a major turning point—is not just German anymore. Putin’s war has become a Zeitenwende for all Europe.