David Jochanan Rothkopf (born December 24, 1955) is an American foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator. He is the founder and CEO of TRG Media and The Rothkopf Group, a columnist for The Daily Beast and a former member of the USA Today Board of Contributors. He is the author of ten books including Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power, National Insecurity: American Leadership in an Age of Fear, and most recently, Traitor: A History of American Betrayal from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump. He is also the podcast host of Deep State Radio.

Early life and education

Rothkopf was born in Urbana, Illinois, to a Jewish family. His father escaped the Holocaust while three dozen of his relatives did not. He was also chairman of the National Strategic Investment Forum Dialogue, a forum convening leading institutional investors for discussions about critical issues of investment strategy. In addition, Rothkopf served as a member of the advisory boards of the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Johns Hopkins/Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Center for Global Development, and the Center for the Study of the Presidency.

Later, he co-founded and served as president and CEO of Garten Rothkopf, an international advisory firm specializing in transformational global trends, notably those associated with energy, security, and emerging Markets.

In 2012, he was named CEO of the FP Group and editor at large of its Foreign Policy magazine, ForeignPolicy.com, and FP Events. He subsequently became Editor-in-Chief of the company and served until May 2017.

Following his work at Foreign Policy, Rothkopf founded the Rothkopf Group and TRG Media, which produce a number of podcasts, including Deep State Radio, which is hosted by Rothkopf, as well as Words Matter, Next in Foreign Policy, the DSR Daily Brief and The Secret Life of Cookies. The company also provides podcast and event production services focused on foreign policy, politics, culture, technology, the environment, and women's rights including for companies and for foreign governments such as the United Arab Emirates.

Rothkopf is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has taught international affairs at Columbia University's Graduate School of International and Public Affairs, the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and he has lectured at leading universities including Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, the National Defense University and the Naval War College.

Bibliography

  • Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power (2006) (), which was described by David E. Sanger in The New York Times as "the definitive history of the National Security Council."
  • Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making, published in 2008, was described by Rana Foroohar in Time magazine as "perhaps the definitive chronicle of Davos man."
  • Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government-and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead (), published in 2012, was well received in the popular press.
  • National Insecurity: Making U.S. Foreign Policy in an Age of Fear, 2014.
  • The Great Questions of Tomorrow, 2017.
  • Traitor: A History of American Betrayal from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump, 2020.
  • American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation, 2022.

He is also the author, co-author, co-editor of and contributor to additional books including The Global Century: Globalization and National Security (National Defense University), Cuba: The Contours of Change (Lynne Rienner Publishers), The Price of Peace: Emergency Economic Intervention and U.S. Foreign Policy (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), The Common Market: Uniting the European Community (Franklin Watts) and The Big Emerging Markets (Bernan Press).

References

  • Rothkopf's current blog at ForeignPolicy.com
  • Rothkopf bio at ForeignPolicy.com
  • Stanford Technology Ventures Program Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Series: Concentrated Power in a Global Economy , Podcast Lecture at Stanford, April 16, 2008.
  • Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • "Look Who's Running the World Now", The Washington Post, March 12, 2006.
  • Radio interview on WFMU/The Speakeasy with Dorian about the economic crisis of 2009 and his book Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making, March 16, 2009.