Josef Joffe

Josef Joffe: Renowned Scholar and Foreign Policy Expert

Formerly editor-in-chief of the German weekly Die Zeit, Josef Joffe has returned to academia. He has taught international politics, American foreign policy and political thought at Johns Hopkins/SAIS in DC and Bologna, Stanford and Harvard. He is a Distinguished Fellow at Stanford.

In 2005, he co-founded the foreign policy journal The American Interest with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Elliott Cohen and Francis Fukuyama. He is also co-founder of its successor American Purpose.

His most recent book is Der gute Deutsche: Die Karriere einer moralischen Supermacht. In the U.S., he published The Myth of America’s Decline, preceded by Überpower: America’s Imperial Temptation (translated into German, French and Chinese). His scholarly articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, International Security, The American Interest, American Purpose and Foreign Policy.

His essays and columns have appeared in: New York Review of Books, New York Times Magazine, Times Literary Supplement, Commentary, New Republic, Slate, Weekly Standard, Prospect (London), Commentaire (Paris). His op-ed pieces range from the New York to the London and Financial Times, and from the Guardian to the Wall Street Journal.

He writes and lectures on international politics and security, transatlantic relations, Europe, comparative economic performance Europe (stagnating) and the U.S. (rising), Mideast wars, New International Disorder, culture and society.

Boards: Founding Member of the American Academy in Berlin, Ben Gurion University, the Hamburg Symphony and the Leo Baeck Institute, New York, Bard College Berlin. Editorial Boards: International Security (MIT), The National Interest (Washington, 1995-2005).  Honors: Honorary Degree, Swarthmore College (2002), Lewis and Clark College, 2005; Federal Order of Merit, Germany 1996.