KARL MEYER
Editor Emeritus, World Policy Journal
Expertise
The imperial and post-imperial
age in South Asia and the former Soviet Union; Russia; Western
policy toward Central Asia, Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, and
Pakistan; Middle East.
Karl Meyer
who has edited
World Policy Journal since the year 2000, is an experienced
writer and commentator on international affairs, a former editorial
writer for both the New York Times and the Washington
Post, the author of a dozen books, and a visiting professor at
Yale, Princeton, Tufts, and most recently Bard College.
Born in
Wisconsin, he earned his BA at the state university and his
masters degree in public affairs and PhD at Princeton University,
and he has been a visiting fellow at Oxford University and
Berlin's Institute for Advanced Study. His recent writings have
focused on the imperial and post-imperial age in South Asia and
the former Soviet Union, and he has written--with his wife,
Shareen Brysac--Tournament
of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia.
The Dust of Empire: The Race for Mastery in the Asian Heartland,
reissued in paperback in 2004 by Public Affairs, examines the
present and past of Russia and the West's involvement with Central
Asia, Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Honors & Affiliations
Member of the
Toynbee Prize Foundation, among other honors.
Education
B.A. Wisconsin State University
PhD, Princeton
Contact
karl(at)worldpolicy.org
BOOKS

Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East
(with Shareen Blair
Brysac)
W.W. Norton, 2008

Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in
Central Asia
(with Shareen Blair
Brysac)
Perseus, 2006
The
Dust of Empire: The Race for Mastery in the Asian Heartland
By World Policy Journal Editor Karl Meyer
Public Affairs, 2004
Reviewed:
The New York Times, June 21, 2003.
SELECTED ARTICLES
"Forty Years in the Sand: What Happened
Last Time Freedom Marched on Iraq," Harpers, June 1, 2005.
"Riding
the Cairo Carousel," World Policy Journal, Vol. 24, No. 4,
2007/08.
"Ghosts Along the Bosphorus," World
Policy Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2007.
"Brown's
Britannia, Warts and All," World Policy Journal, Vol. 24,
No. 2, 2007.
"The
Mother of All Nightmares," World Policy Journal, Vol. 23,
No. 4, 2006/07/
"Praise, Puzzles, and Poppycock," World
Policy Journal, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2006.
"The
Black Book of Religion: III," World Policy Journal, Vol.
23, No. 2, 2006.
"Who
(Really) Owns the Past?," World Policy Journal, Vol. 23,
No. 1, 2006.
"Syriana,
or The Godfather, Part IV," World Policy Journal, Vol. 22,
No. 4, 2005/06.
"The
Black Book of Religion: II," World Policy Journal, Vol. 22,
No. 3, 2005.
"There
is No Closure," World Policy Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2005.
"The
Black Book of Religion," World Policy Journal, Vol. 22, No.
1, 2005.
"For
Democracy, Warts and All," World Policy Journal, Vol. 22,
No. 1, 2005. Book reviews: The
Case for Democracy by Natan Sharansky with Robert Dermer; The
Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria.
"The
Sack of Mesopotamia," World Policy Journal, Vol. 21, No. 4,
2004/05.
"A
Perfect Debacle," World Policy Journal, Vol. 21, No. 3,
2004.
"Six
Degrees of Contrition," World Policy Journal, Vol. 21, No.
2, 2004.
"America
Unlimited: The Radical Sources of the Bush Doctrine," World
Policy Journal, Vol. 21, No. 1, 2004.
"'Let
Me Hear My Brother!'" World Policy Journal, Vol. 20, No. 4,
2002/03.
"Macho
America, Diffident Canada," World Policy Journal, Vol. 20,
No. 2, 2003.
"The
Invention of Pakistan: How the British Raj Sundered," World
Policy Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1, 2003.
"Postcards
from Planet Jupiter," World Policy Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1,
2003.
"Slouching
Down Xenophobe Alley," World Policy Journal, Vol. 19, No.
4, 2002/03.
"'Regime
Change' and Other Enigmas," World Policy Journal, Vol. 19,
No. 3, 2002.
"Criminal
Thinking in Washington," World Policy Journal, Vol. 19, No.
2, 2002.
"On Showing "A Decent
Respect", World Policy Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1,
2002.
"Coda:
Asymmetry Is Not Destiny," World Policy Journal, Vol. 18,
No. 4, 2001/02.
"150th
Anniversary: 1851-2001; Department of Conscience: The Editorial 'We,'"
The New York Times, November 14, 2001.
"A
New Board Game," World Policy Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3,
2001.
"The
Quicksands of Realism," World Policy Journal, Vol. 18, No.
3, 2001.
"Icebergs
in the Caucasus," World Policy Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2,
2001.
"One Hell of a Gamble," World Policy Journal, Vol. 18, No.
1, 2001.
"If
Not Perfect, at Least Excellent," World Policy Journal,
Vol. 17, No. 4, 2000/01.
"An
Edwardian Warning: The Unraveling of a Colossus," World Policy
Journal, Vol. 17, No. 4, 2000/01.
"As
Much as I Dare," World Policy Journal, Vol. 17, No. 3,
2000.
Book review:
Foreign Policy 101: Six Nightmares, by Anthony Lake,
World Policy Journal, Vol. 17, No. 3, 2000.
"Close
Encounters of an American Kind: William Woodville Rockhill in Tibet,"
World Policy Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4, 1998/99.
Archived book
reviews from The New York Review of Books are
here.
LECTURES & APPEARANCES
Voice of America interviewed Karl Meyer on February 22 and
28, 2008 on Central Asian economic and political issues. Audio and
articles -
one,
two.
Bio
Summary
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