Robert Wright

He is a contributing editor for The New Republic and a contributor to Time and Slate. He has also written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Foreign Policy, and the op-ed pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Financial Times, among other publications. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and his awards include the National Magazine Award for Essay and Criticism.

As a Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, Mr. Wright writes on a wide range of issues related to technology, religion, and foreign policy, particularly the war on terrorism. His 1994 cover story for The New Republic, “Be Very Afraid,” warned about the dangers of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists. In 2000, in Nonzero, he noted how the evolution of information technology could exacerbate this problem, facilitating the translation of intense hatred into massive lethality. Mr. Wright is now focusing on how to shape a foreign policy that reckons with such trends, paying particular attention to issues of global governance. He is also completing a book on the history of religion that touches on a number of contemporary issues, including how to foster interfaith tolerance amid globalization. Mr. Wright is also actively exploring the potential of web video; posting regularly at both bloggingheads.tv and meaningoflife.tv.