Roger Cohen

Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen (2015)
Born	(1955-08-02) 2 August 1955 (age 61) London, England
Education	Westminster School in London and Balliol College, Oxford (Modern History and Languages)
Occupation	Journalist, columnist, author
Notable credit(s)	International New York Times, The New York Times
Spouse(s)	Frida Baranek
Children	4

Roger Cohen (born 2 August 1955) is a journalist and author. He is a columnist for The New York Times and International New York Times. He has worked as a foreign correspondent in fifteen different countries.

Cohen was born in London to a Jewish family. His father, Sydney Cohen, a doctor, emigrated from South Africa to England in the 1950s. In the late 1960s, Roger studied at Westminster School, one of Britain's top private schools. He won a scholarship and would have entered College, the scholars' House, but was told that a Jew could not attend College or hold his particular scholarship. (The scholarship initially offered to him was intended for persons who professed the Christian faith, as he later learned while researching the affair). Instead, he was awarded a different scholarship.

In 1973, Cohen travelled with friends throughout the Middle East, including Iran and Afghanistan. He drove a Volkswagen Kombi named 'Pigpen' after the late keyboard playing frontman of the Grateful Dead. (In the article cited, Cohen misidentifies Pigpen as a drummer.) He attended Balliol College, Oxford University and graduated with Master of Arts degrees in History and in French in 1977. (Oxford University's Master of Arts degrees are honorary and awarded to all eligible graduates of undergraduate degrees five years after graduation.) He left that year for Paris to teach English and to write for Paris Metro. He started working for Reuters and the agency transferred him to Brussels.

Cohen's mother, also from South Africa (b. 1929), attempted suicide in London in 1978. She died there in 1999 and was buried in Johannesburg.

In 1983, Cohen joined The Wall Street Journal in Rome to cover the Italian economy. The Journal later transferred him to Beirut. He joined The New York Times in January 1990. In the summer of 1991, he co-authored with Claudio Gatti In the Eye of the Storm: The Life of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. The authors wrote the books based on information from Norman Schwarzkopf's sister Sally, without Schwarzkopf's help.