Expert on globalisation, business and
American politics –
Editor-in-chief, The Economist

Highlights

John Micklethwait is one of the world’s foremost authorities on globalization—how it works and where it’s headed—and a leading proponent of its positive impact and potential.

He is the coauthor/coeditor of two books on globalization: A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization and Globalisation: Making sense of an integrating world.

John's most recent book God is Back shows how and why religion is booming around the world and reveals its vast effects on the global economy, politics and culture.

He also is rereleasing a new updated edition of his 1996 book, The Witch Doctors, an entertaining yet serious guide to today's management theories and gurus.

His book, The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, was named one of the ten best books of 2003 by BusinessWeek.

Micklethwait is also an expert on American business and culture, and on American politics and American foreign and defense policy. He was head of the magazine’s U.S. section from 1999 to 2006.

He is the coauthor, with Adrian Wooldridge, of The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America.

Micklethwait is currently editor-in-chief of The Economist, the world’s leading business and current affairs weekly.

He is a winner of the Wincott Award, Britain’s leading prize for financial journalism.

He has appeared on television and radio throughout the world and written op-ed articles for the world’s premier print news journals.

Background

After studying history at Magdalen College, Oxford, John Micklethwait worked as a banker at Chase Manhattan. He joined The Economist in 1987 as a finance correspondent. He set up The Economist’s Los Angeles office, where he worked from 1990-1993 and served as its media correspondent. Since then, he’s edited the business section of the magazine, run the New York bureau, and, most recently, edited the United States section. He has covered business and politics from the United States, Latin America, Continental Europe, Southern Africa and most of Asia, and he’s written surveys for The Economist on California, business in Asia, Argentina, Silicon Valley, the United States, and the entertainment industry.

Books

With his writing partner Adrian Wooldridge, John Micklethwait has written four books on business and one book on American politics.

Globalisation

A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization is the first comprehensive examination of the most important revolution of our times. Gathering evidence from the shantytowns of São Paolo to the boardrooms of General Electric, from the troubled Russia-Estonia border to the booming San Fernando Valley sex industry, John Micklethwait and his coauthor deliver an illuminating tour of the global economy and an optimistic assessment of its real and potential impact. A Future Perfect was shortlisted for the 2000 Lionel Gelber Award.

John also co-edited the first edition of Globalisation: Making sense of an integrating world, a collection of surveys and articles on globalisation that have appeared in The Economist, covering the full range of conceptual and practical issues involved in this contentious subject

In his most recent book, God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World, John looks at the rise of religious sentiment around the world and how it is affecting politics, culture and economics both globally and in specific countries and regions around the world.

Business

In The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, Micklethwait charts the rise of one of history’s great catalysts for change, and argues that the company has become the basic unit and most powerful institution of modern society. The Company was named One of the Ten Best Books of 2003 by BusinessWeek.

Organized around the management problems that plague corporations, The Witch Doctors looks deeply into their social and corporate implications for managers and workers alike and analyzes the effectiveness of the solutions that management gurus have offered.

Politics

Micklethwait’s last book, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, is a portrait of America that combines the fresh perspective of an outsider with the knowledge and insight of a journalist who has been translating the American experience to the world for years and who traveled all over the country to research the book. The Right Nation profiles the radical conservative movement in America—the forces that have shaped it, the constituencies it represents, and the power that it wields in the world today.

In his most recent book, God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World, John looks at the rise of religious sentiment around the world and how it is affecting politics, culture and economics both globally and in specific countries and regions around the world.

Areas

Globalisation

American business

American politics and foreign and defense policy

International affairs & transatlantic relations

Silicon Valley and US West Coast business and politics

Credentials

• Editor-in-chief, The Economist
• Voted Young Financial Journalist of the Year (1990), Harold Wincott Foundation
• Frequent broadcaster, appearing on CNN, ABC news, BBC, Charlie Rose, Today, Start the Week and NPR
• Coauthor of four books; coeditor of a fifth