Rupert Cornwell

Known for his commentary on international relations and US politics, Rupert Cornwell also contributes obituaries and occasionally even a column for the sports pages.

With The Independent since its launch in 1986, he was the paper's first Moscow correspondent - covering the collapse of the Soviet Union – during which time he won two British Press Awards. Previously a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times and Reuters, he has also been a diplomatic correspondent, leader writer and columnist, and has served as Washington bureau editor. In 1983 he published God's Banker, about Roberto Calvi, the Italian banker found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge.

Rupert Cornwell: Out of America

If Barack Obama becomes President, it will be thanks to the struggles of the civil rights generation. But he can't expect gratitude from all of them

Recently by Rupert Cornwell

Rupert Cornwell: Out of America

Sunday, 29 June 2008

George W Bush and Ronald Reagan used 'values' issues - 'God, guns and gays' - to persuade conservatives to vote against their own economic interests. This time, though, the pocketbook is more likely to prevail

Rupert Cornwell: America loves both the law and the gun

Saturday, 28 June 2008

How can the thoughts of the 18th century be applied to gun control in the 21st?

Rupert Cornwell: A triumph of realism and pragmatism over neo-conservatism

Friday, 27 June 2008

If the declaration by North Korea is indeed a breakthrough in more than a decade of US efforts to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons, it has been achieved by two things George Bush once derided – patience and multilateral diplomacy.

Rupert Cornwell: Out of America

Sunday, 22 June 2008

Michelle Obama can seem prickly and resentful. Now a media makeover is under way to turn her into First Lady material

Rupert Cornwell: Out of America

Sunday, 15 June 2008

For a country where the car is king, the soaring price of oil means some long-cherished assumptions are being challenged as never before

Rupert Cornwell: Cuban leader must learn from Gorbachev's mistakes

Friday, 13 June 2008

Raul Castro's decision to abolish the sacrosanct principle of equal pay for all is another small step along that trickiest and most treacherous of paths for a communist regime – how to liberalise and streamline a centrally planned system without losing control and destroying it. That Fidel's younger brother is determined to change Cuba is beyond doubt. The move to pay higher salaries and bonuses for better workers and managers follows several other reforms. Whether they work – or merely hasten the demise of one of the world's very few remaining communist states – is another matter.

Rupert Cornwell: Barack Obama has inspired a generation, but his toughest battles are yet to come

Thursday, 5 June 2008

One hates to be a curmudgeon this brave June dawn, when everything seems possible, and the most dazzling new political talent America had seen in a generation has pulled off a quite astonishing triumph, against all the odds. Few of us present that glacial morning just 16 months ago in Springfield, Illinois, when Barack Obama formally tossed his hat into the presidential ring, seriously believed he would be where he is today.