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.
The Calamitous Fall of Afghanistan
A light is going out now. There’s still no easy exit.
The Wall Recalled
Sixty years after the East German Communists started building the Berlin Wall, it’s worth remembering that the physical barrier was only part of the problem.
Defending Journalists against Gangsters
A tip for the Biden-Putin summit: Dictatorships and democracies have hard wirings. It’s only when we understand theirs, and recognize ours, that we have a chance to stand up to today’s authoritarian challenge.
“We Had No Idea The Government Would Open Fire”
On the anniversary of Tiananmen, Sophia Vahanvaty and Jeffrey Gedmin interview pro-democracy advocate, scholar, and former political prisoner Jianli Yang on China’s long and bloody road to democracy.
Weimar and Weltschmerz for the Beach
Instead of Jackie Collins, consider these five German novels from the early 20th century, which might lead one to believe our problems are not so terrible. Not yet.
What Putin and Xi Really Want
Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves speaks with American Purpose about Europe caught between America and its rivals.
The Man Who Follows the Money
Former Mossad official Udi Levy talks with American Purpose about the global growth industry of tracking bad guys and bad money.
Surveilling Germany’s Right-Wing Populists
Conservatives fret about a snooping deep state, the Left sees Weimar. But it’s the history of the Baader-Meinhof Gang—a case study in modern extremism—that’s worth revisiting.
