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| Benjamin R. Barber | |
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Benjamin R. Barber in 2010 |
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| Born | August 2, 1939 New York City |
| Occupation | Academic |
| Nationality | American |
| Genres | Political theory |
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www.benjaminrbarber.com |
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Benjamin R. Barber (born August 2, 1939) is an American political theorist and author perhaps best known for his 1996 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld.
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Barber held the positions of Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Policy, and he is Walt Whitman Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University; he is currently president and director of the Interdependence Movement and the NGO "CivWorld" at Demos, and its annual Interdependence Day event on September 12. He is a [1] distinguished senior fellow at Demos.[2] As a political theorist, Barber argues for a renewed focus on civil society and engaged citizenship as tools for building effective democracy, particularly in the post-Cold War world. His current work focuses on global democratic governance and the relationship between the arts and democracy. Benjamin Barber has been a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy since 2005. He was an outside adviser to President Bill Clinton, a foreign policy adviser to Howard Dean's 2004 Presidential campaign and continues to counsel political leaders in America and abroad.
Barber was educated at Grinnell College (B.A., 1960) and Harvard University (M.A., 1963; Ph.D., 1966), after earning certificates at Albert Schweitzer College (1959) and the London School of Economics (1957).
According to Foreign Policy Barber "was among a small group of democracy advocates and public intellectuals... working under contract with the Monitor Group consulting firm to interact with Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi on issues of democracy and civil society".[3] Barber says, "we thought -- and I think Monitor thought -- it was an opportunity to work at internal reform."[4]
The son of theater people, he has also been active as a playwright, lyricist (libretto for George Quincy's opera Home and the River) and film-maker (The Struggle for Democracy, with Patrick Watson; Music Inn, with Ben Barenholtz).
Barber's honors include a knighthood from the French Government (Palmes Academiques/Chevalier) (2001), the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin (2001) and the John Dewey Award (2003). He has also been awarded Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Social Science Research Fellowships, honorary doctorates from Grinnell College, Monmouth University and Connecticut College, and has held the chair of American Civilization at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris.
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