Timothy Garton Ash

Professor Timothy Garton Ash is a prolific political writer and historian who has charted the transformation of Europe over the last thirty years. He is Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His essays appear regularly in the New York Review of Books and he writes a weekly column in the Guardian, which is widely syndicated in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

One of Britain’s most influential and admired commentators, Timothy offers audiences his expert views on exactly why the United States can never rule the world on its own, why the new, enlarged Europe can only realise its aspirations in a larger, transatlantic community and why the conflicts in the Middle East and the rise of Asia can only be addressed by a wider community of democracies. Sweeping historical insight related in his own conversational style, help his incisive commentary on world affairs stand apart from its competitors.

A compelling and enlightening speaker, few historians match Timothy Garton Ash for his combination of clarity and reportorial brilliance. His superlative presentations defy conventional wisdom and challenge contemporary thinking.

Prof. Garton Ash’s honours include the David Watt Memorial Prize, Commentator of the Year in the ‘What the Papers Say’ annual awards for 1989, the Premio Napoli, the Imre Nagy Memorial Plaque, the Hoffmann von Fallersleben Prize for political writing, the Order of Merit from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, and the British CMG. In 2005, he featured in a list of 100 top global public intellectuals chosen by the journals Prospect and Foreign Policy, and in Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people.

His books include: “The Uses of Adversity: Essays on the Fate of Central Europe” (1989), for which he was awarded the Prix Européen de l’Essai; “We the People: The Revolution of ’89 witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague” (1990), which was translated into fifteen languages; “In Europe’s Name: Germany and the Divided Continent” (1993), named Political Book of the Year in Germany; “The File: A Personal History” (1997), which has so far appeared in sixteen languages; “History of the Present: Essays, Sketches and Despatches from Europe in the 1990s” (2000); “Free World” (2004); and, most recently, “Facts are Subversive: Political Writing from a Decade without a Name” (2010).

Teemat: War In Ukraine | The Future of the Triangle (G3) – EU, USA and China | Freedom of Speech in the Age of the Internet- Lessons learned from Wikileaks | Is Multiculturalism Dead? | History of the Present