Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

See the Conversations with History Blog See also the 2007 interview with John Pomfret, "The Emergence of the New China "
Photo by L. Carper

This interview is part of the Institute's "Conversations with History" series, and uses Internet technology to share with the public Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas.

Welcome to a Conversation with History. I'm Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest today is John Pomfret, foreign correspondent for the Washington Post. He's been a journalist for ten years and has covered the Congo, Bosnia, and China.

1. Background ... family ... education ... first trip to China ... first reporting job ... foreign correspondent
2. The Foreign Beat ... compared with domestic reporting ... audience ... responsibilities of the journalist who works abroad
3. Covering China ... reporting on Tiananmen ... reassessing the student movement
4. Foreign Correspondent in the Post - Cold War World ... eyewitness to the unraveling of civilizations ... maintaining objectivity
5. Tales from the Abyss ... a Dutch solider in Bosnia ... a Hutu in Zaire ... the response of moral individuals ... social norms and civil society ... the influence of the church in Africa
6. Lessons Learned ... attributes of the foreign correspondent ... the failure of nongovernmental organizations ... preparing to be a foreign correspondent.

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