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Author

Martin Sieff

Book author and former foreign editor

Martin Sieff is the author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East” (Regnery, 2008), “Shifting Superpowers: The U.S.-China-India Relationship in the 21st Century” (Cato, 2009) and the upcoming “Cycles of Change: The Eras of U.S. Political History” and “War and Peace in the 21st Century.”

Previously, Mr. Sieff was chief news analyst for United Press International and its former Managing Editor for International Affairs. He has received three Pulitzer Prize nominations for international reporting.

Mr. Sieff has covered conflicts in his native Northern Ireland, Israel and the West Bank, Indonesia, Bosnia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Baltic states. He has also reported from China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey and more than 40 other nations.

Mr. Sieff led UPI’s political coverage of the 2000, 2004 and 2008 presidential election campaigns. From May 2005 to July 2007 he was UPI’s National Security Correspondent, and from October 2003 to May 2005 he was its Chief Political Correspondent.

Mr. Sieff was Chief Foreign Correspondent for The Washington Times from 1994 to 1999. He was the paper’s Soviet and East European correspondent covering the collapse of communism for six years from 1986 to 1992 and from 1992 to 1994 its State Department correspondent.

Mr. Sieff was a columnist for The Globalist between 2002 and 2014 and has appeared as an expert on Asian security affairs and the Middle East on National Public Radio, the Fox News Channel and C-SPAN. His work has been published in The American Conservative, the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, National Review and National Review Online and many other publications.

A native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Mr. Sieff was a journalist for the Belfast Telegraph and the Belfast News-Letter in the early 1980s.

Mr. Sieff received his B.A. and M.A in modern history from Oxford University. He later did graduate work in Middle East studies at the London School of Economics.

Articles by Martin Sieff

1814 or 1914? The Fateful Choice in 2014

The surprising way in which historical choices present themselves in cycles that are 100 years apart.

July 4, 2014

America’s False Middle East Prophet

Venerated Fouad Ajami built his true legacy on falsehoods and foolishness.

June 30, 2014

Who Lost Iraq? Inside an American Battle

Why are the U.S. media not holding U.S. officials responsible for Iraq's destruction?

June 25, 2014

The British Empire’s Lesson for Modern America

Why the U.S. strategy to remake Afghanistan after 9/11 was bound to fail.

May 28, 2014

Three Myths About the Middle East

No, the region isn’t the source of all evil.

April 8, 2014

Obama’s Whitewashed History

Putin is no saint, but he simply revived Russia's own version of the U.S. Monroe Doctrine.

April 3, 2014

Russia: Pushing Back at the United States

Looking at Russia's recent actions in a historical context.

April 3, 2014

Churchill: Architect of Catastrophe, 1914

How a legendary politician needlessly took Britain into a continental war in 1914.

February 22, 2014

Moltke: Architect of Catastrophe, 1914

How one general accidentally plunged Germany into a ruinous war in 1914.

February 22, 2014

Alternate History: Had King Lived

Imagining the America and the World that Martin Luther King could have built.

January 25, 2014

Japan Must Own Up to Past Actions

Diaoyu Islands: China's posture reflects Japan's failure to show contrition for the past.

January 10, 2014

Israel’s Rommel and Vietnam’s Napoleon

What can the lives and victories of top generals of Israel and Vietnam teach the U.S. Army?

October 13, 2013

Why the UN Security Council Still Matters

Putin's Russia now takes the United Nations Security Council far more seriously than the U.S. government does.

September 25, 2013

The U.S.-Russian Tug of War

Lessons from Serbia 1913 for Syria 2013.

September 16, 2013

Germerica: The German Love Affair with America

What tied Germany and the United States together for over two centuries?

August 29, 2013

Thatcher Lives! In Putin’s Moscow

Can you track the many ways in which Russia's President and the UK's late Prime Minister were alike?

April 19, 2013

State of Dis-Union: American Clanistan

Can the trend toward more factionalism, tribalism and fragmentation in American political life be reversed?

February 12, 2013

America’s Bismarck: How Lincoln Created Industrial America

Do Americans — who have a conflicted attitude toward government — realize the economic power that Abraham Lincoln wielded?

January 17, 2013

Elections of Destiny: Reagan in 1980 and Gladstone in 1880

How did the U.S. election of 1980 and the British election a century prior lay the groundwork for each country's decline?

November 6, 2012

Europe’s Nobel and the Sine Wave of War

The European Union's Nobel Peace Prize doen't ensure peace in the future.

October 17, 2012

The Unfashionably Successful Mr. Putin

Why might Vladimir Putin prove to be a prescient and well-prepared guide for his nation?

March 1, 2012

David Cameron: Embracing Europe in Churchill’s Footsteps

Is David Cameron following in the footsteps of Churchill and Thatcher by balancing anti-Europe sentiment against pro-Europe cooperation?

February 21, 2012

Seven Billion Humans: The World Fritz Haber Made

How did the German-Jewish chemist Fritz Haber revolutionize the entire course of world history?

November 2, 2011

A Transatlantic Reversal of Fortune

Is America's optimistic spirit of renewal more likely to reassert itself in Brussels than in Washington?

October 25, 2011

Lessons for Libya from 1911

What is the key to the success of democracy in 21st century Libya?

September 6, 2011

Britain’s Tabloid Cancer

How have the British paid a steep price for their appetite for gossip and the unnecessary details of grizzly crimes?

August 10, 2011

How Qaddafi Mastered the Globalization Game

What has enabled Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to weather North Africa's tsunami of popular revolutions?

April 18, 2011

2011: Where’s the Space Odyssey?

Why is the U.S. space program shying away from its ambitious missions of the past?

April 14, 2011

The Hard Realities of the Need for More Oil

Why are oil prices going to stay high — and climb higher?

March 30, 2011

Will Central Asia Follow Egypt’s Example?

Will the chain reaction of protests crossing the Middle East now reach Central Asia?

February 16, 2011

Will Egypt Today Share the Fate of Turkey in 1911?

Why are the parallels between Cairo today and Constantinople a century ago all too obvious and disturbing?

February 2, 2011

Haiti: Aid in a Time of Cholera

Why has outsourcing disaster relief work to NGOs failed in the case of Haiti's cholera outbreak?

December 16, 2010

FIFA Scores Two Goals for Globalism

Are the British just being sore losers in protesting their loss of the 2018 World Cup to Russia?

December 14, 2010

The U.S., Kazakhstan and Stresses of Empire

How has the Obama Administration bungled U.S. relations with Kazakhstan?

July 29, 2010

CNOOC-ering BP

Could BP soon fall into the hands of CNOOC, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation?

June 18, 2010

Georgia: An Insecure Foothold for the United States

Do the lessons of history suggest the United States should rethink its Georgia policy?

June 2, 2010

Billionaires for U.S. Financial Reform

What can President Obama learn from FDR's success in reforming Wall Street 75 years ago?

February 4, 2010

The Myth of Permanent U.S. Global Dominance

What mistakes have U.S. policymakers made when dealing with China and India?

January 22, 2010

Anglicans: A Hostile Takeover From the Continent?

Why do the Vatican's policymakers believe the Church of England is in Chapter 11?

November 4, 2009

News of the Future: Running Hillary

How can Barack Obama win his 2012 re-election campaign?

November 2, 2009

Goldman Sachs and "War Profiteering"

How has Goldman Sachs discredited capitalism in ways that Marx and Lenin would gleefully applaud?

October 22, 2009

Ireland Says "Thank You" to Europe (Part II)

In what ways has Ireland's EU membership proved crucial to the achievement of peace on the island?

October 9, 2009

Ireland Says “Thank You” to Europe (Part I)

How has membership in the European Union benefited Ireland over the past few decades?

October 8, 2009

Stalingrad Revisited

How is Russia finding patriotic strength from past wars?

May 9, 2005

Dublin Swings

After several remarkable years of economic growth, is Dublin the same old city it used to be?

March 7, 2005

Learning From Saudi Arabia

Is Saudi Arabia doing more than it is getting credit for?

January 6, 2005

Wal-Mart Country vs. Starbucks Nation

Where does America's true fault line run?

December 2, 2004

North Korea: The Bee Comes Stinging

Have the Pentagon's warnings about North Korea been ignored for years?

September 8, 2003

What Tony Blair Never Told George W. Bush

Should the Bush Administration have studied Iraqi history before attempting to democratize it?

September 4, 2003

The British Colossus

Has the nature of London changed — or stayed the same over the last 100 years?

August 18, 2003

Bush As Churchill?

Are comparisons between George W. Bush and Winston Churchill justified?

March 3, 2003

2003 and Still No Space Odyssey

Is the U.S. space program shying away from its ambitious missions of the 1960s and 1970s?

February 8, 2003

Columbia and Historic Omens

Can great tragedies serve as omens for dramatic changes in world affairs?

February 4, 2003

The Pentagon's House Philosopher

Just who is influencing the Pentagon's office politics?

November 27, 2002

Is Washington Becoming Versailles?

What does 21st-century Washington have in common with 17th-century France?

October 17, 2002

Divvying Up the Spoils of Iraq — The Pentagon's Vision

What might Washington have in store for a post-Saddam Iraq?

September 12, 2002