Helena Cobban | |
---|---|
Born | 1952 (age 64–65) Abingdon, England |
Occupation | Journalist, author |
Language | English |
Nationality | British |
Genre | Non-fiction, politics, journalism |
Spouse | William B. Quandt |
Relatives |
James Cobban (father) Lorna Mary Cobban (mother) |
Helena Cobban (born 1952) is a British writer and researcher on international relations, with special interests in the Middle East, the international system, and transitional justice. In March 2010, she founded a new book-publishing company, Just World Publishing, LLC. By September 2012 its principal imprint, Just World Books, had published twelve titles on current foreign-policy issues.
Born in Abingdon, England in 1952 to James Cobban and Lorna Mary Cobban, she was educated at Queen Anne's School, Caversham and St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she received her BA (Hons) in Philosophy and Economics in 1973. She was awarded an MA from Oxford in 1981.
From 1974 through 1981, she worked as a Beirut-based correspondent for news outlets including The Christian Science Monitor, The Sunday Times, ABC News, and the BBC.
In 1982 she moved to the United States to take up a research fellowship at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs, where she wrote her first book, The Palestinian Liberation Organisation. It was published in English in 1984, was translated into Arabic and several other languages, and remains in print.
Since then she has published six additional books: three others on questions of Middle East war and peace, and three on other international issues. Her seventh book, Re-engage! American and the World After Bush was published in 2008. Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, Co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, described it as, "An impassioned, thought-provoking, and accessible brief from a highly esteemed journalist on how all of us, as individuals, can act to help better our country and world." She has also contributed chapters to around 20 scholarly books edited by others.
In 1991–93 she was Co-Director of the Middle East project at Search for Common Ground, in Washington, DC.