JAMES TRAUB


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James Traub

Outsiders can do little in Zimbabwe so long as Robert Mugabe remains in power, for Mugabe is prepared to wreck his country in order to preserve his rule over it. The best thing outsiders can do is pressure or bribe him and his immediate circle into leaving.
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James Traub

The colonial powers especially the more heedless ones ... dumped their former possessions on the threshold of independence with little if any preparation for statehood.
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James Traub

Some failed states have no one but themselves—or rather their corrupt or brutal political elites—to blame. Others never had a chance to start with…, trapped between a no-longer-usable past and a not-yet-accessible future.
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James Traub

In the United Nations, the United States can almost always get its way…. The United States has the ability to make the United Nations work or not work---if it cares enough.
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James Traub

Terrorism is only a problem in failed states with significant Muslim populations.
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While that tended to be so at that time, it has not always been so. For example, the civil war in Sri Lanka where suicide bombing vests were developed pitted Sinhalese Buddhists against Tamil Hindus. The 10 percent Muslim population were the only ones who were peaceful. And the PKK in Turkey—although a Muslim terrorist movement operated in a very strong and modern state.

James Traub

An ambassador also serves as an emblem of the country that appoints him.
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James Traub

Many nations want the United Nations Secretary General to be less general and more secretary.
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James Traub
© Larry D. Moore
James Traub
  • Born:
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Journalist
Biography

James Traub (born 1954) is an American journalist. He is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, where he has worked since 1998. From 1994 to 1997, he was a staff writer for The New Yorker. He has also written for The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic Monthly, National Review and Foreign Affairs. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.