James Phillip Rubin (born March 28, 1960) is an American former
diplomat and
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
who served as U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs
Assistant may refer to:
* Assistant (by Speaktoit), a virtual assistant app for smartphones
* Assistant (software), a software tool to assist in computer configuration
* Google Assistant
Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software applica ...
in the
Clinton Administration from 1997–2000. He wrote a regular column on foreign affairs for ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'' of London, and is currently Diplomatic Counselor to the newly elected Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Having served in the
State Department during the administration of President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
, Rubin became a
Sky News presenter with his own show called
World News Tonight. The show was short-lived and after it was cancelled he became a commentator for the channel. In 2013, he moved from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
to live permanently in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England, with his then-wife,
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
Chief International Correspondent and anchor
Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Maria Heideh AmanpourStated on '' Finding Your Roots'', 22 January 2019 (; fa, کریستیان امانپور, Kristiane Amānpur; born 12 January 1958) is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chie ...
, and their teenage son.
Early life
Rubin was born on March 28, 1960, into a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, and raised in the
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
of
Larchmont
Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Lar ...
, in
Westchester County
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...
,
New York. He is the son of Harvey Rubin, a publisher and President of Pindar Press, and his wife, Judith (''née'' Lowe), who trained students specializing in psychiatry. His sister
Elizabeth Rubin is a journalist,
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe f ...
press fellow at the
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and staff writer for ''
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
''.
Education
Rubin was educated at Phillips Exeter and Mamaroneck High School, from which he graduated in 1977, followed by
Columbia College at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, from which he graduated with a
BA in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
in 1982, and a
Master of International Affairs
The Master in International Affairs (MIA), or the Master in Global Affairs (MGA), also known as Master in International relations (MIR) is a master's degree awarded by schools of international affairs.
Subject matter
Details can vary between deg ...
(MIA) in 1984 from
Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. At Columbia, Rubin was a student of
Zalmay Khalilzad
Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad ( ps, ځلمی خلیل زاد, prs, زلمی خلیلزاد; born March 22, 1951) is an Afghan-American diplomat and foreign policy expert. Khalilzad was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to serve as U.S. Spec ...
, later U.S. Ambassador to
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
and the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
under President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
. Rubin also attended
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...
in
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
.
Career
Early in his career, Rubin was the Assistant Director of Research at the
Arms Control Association.
Clinton administration
Rubin served under President Clinton as
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs
Assistant may refer to:
* Assistant (by Speaktoit), a virtual assistant app for smartphones
* Assistant (software), a software tool to assist in computer configuration
* Google Assistant
Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software applica ...
and Chief Spokesman for the
State Department from 1997 to May 2000. In the Clinton administration, he was considered Secretary
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...
's right-hand man.
2000–2006: academia and media
After leaving government, Rubin and his family relocated to London. He took on a portfolio career, becoming: a Visiting Professor of International Relations at the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
; a partner at communications consultancy
Brunswick; and between 2002 and 2003, the host of
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
's ''Wide Angle'' series, a weekly international affairs program.
Returning to the United States, Rubin served as chief foreign policy spokesman for General
Wesley Clark
Wesley Kanne Clark (born December 23, 1944) is a retired United States Army officer. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree ...
's presidential campaign from the launch of Clark's campaign in 2003 until Clark withdrew during the Democratic Party's
2004 Presidential Primaries, and then worked for Democratic nominee
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...
during his
2004 Presidential Campaign, serving as a senior advisor for national security affairs.
Returning to London, from October 2005 to July 2006 Rubin became lead news anchor on ''
World News Tonight'' on
Sky News.
Support for Hillary Clinton 2008 candidacy
After returning to the United States in 2007 in the run-up to the
2008 presidential election, Rubin was a member of
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
's campaign team for the
2008 Democratic nomination. He caused some controversy when he described
Lord Trimble, the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...
-winner and former
First Minister of Northern Ireland
The First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland are the joint heads of government of the Northern Ireland Executive and have overall responsibility for the running of the Executive Office. Despite the different titles for the two ...
, as a "crankpot" for stating that Hillary Clinton's claim to have been "helpful" in the
Northern Ireland peace process
The Northern Ireland peace process includes the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and subsequent political developm ...
was "a wee bit silly". Rubin also stated that Trimble's opinion was not important as he was "a Protestant", and so "traditionally conservative".
During the 2008 campaign, Rubin was a guest on CNN's ''
Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer
''Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer'' is a Sunday talk show hosted by Wolf Blitzer on CNN and broadcast around the world by CNN International. The show's slogan was ''The last word in Sunday talk'' and comments made on the show were often featured ...
'' in a foreign policy discussion with
Susan Rice, who later became
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
's nominee for
Ambassador to the United Nations
A permanent representative to the United Nations (sometimes called a "UN ambassador")"History of Ambassadors", United States Mission to the United Nations, March 2011, webpagUSUN-a. is the head of a country's diplomatic mission to the United Nati ...
.
2009–present
Rubin joined
Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Tele ...
in December 2010 and oversees editorial issues of Bloomberg News in Central and South America, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
He also led Bloomberg View, a Bloomberg op-ed project, with David Shipley.
After only 10 months, he quit the position, appointed
adjunct professor at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. Gov.
Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cu ...
appointed Rubin commissioner of the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...
in 2011 as well as a counselor to the state's
Empire State Development Corporation
Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the New York Job Development Authority (JDA). T ...
.
Rubin resigned all of his US-based positions on May 29, 2013,
announcing that the family would return to London to work on several projects. Rubin was appointed
scholar in residence at
Oxford University's Rothermere American Institute. He also wrote a weekly foreign affairs column for ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'' and co-chaired a high-level panel on Extending American Power for the Center for a New American Security in Washington.
Rubin was chair of International Policy and Strategy at Ballard Partners, based in Washington DC until June 2020. He was also a contributing editor at Politico, writing on U.S. foreign policy and world affairs.
Rubin relocated to Paris on June 1, 2021 to serve as diplomatic counselor to the newly elected Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). At the OECD, his portfolio is focused on advising Secretary General Cormann on global affairs and diplomacy with key countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Rubin was appointed as Special Envoy and Coordinator of the GEC on November 16, 2022 by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Personal life
In 1998, Rubin, who at the time was spokesman for the
US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
, married
Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Maria Heideh AmanpourStated on '' Finding Your Roots'', 22 January 2019 (; fa, کریستیان امانپور, Kristiane Amānpur; born 12 January 1958) is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chie ...
, Chief International Correspondent for
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
. Having moved to London, England, they returned to New York City in 2010, where they rented an apartment in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
's
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
.
In 2013, he, his wife and son, Darius John Rubin (born 2000), moved back to London to live permanently.
[ It was announced in July 2018 that Rubin and Amanpour were getting a divorce.]
References
External links
Official PBS Wideangle website
* ttp://www.nbcnews.com/id/21134540 NBC News
NBC News
* http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/04/27/campaign.foreign.policy.cnn
* NYT, Jackie Calmes, Rubinomics Recalculated, November 23, 2008.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubin, James
1960 births
Academics of the London School of Economics
American expatriates in the United Kingdom
American male journalists
Boston University alumni
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Columbia University faculty
Jewish American journalists
Journalists from New York City
Living people
Mamaroneck High School alumni
People from the Upper West Side
Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni
United States Assistant Secretaries of State
United States Department of State spokespeople
21st-century American Jews