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Gideon Rachman became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included spells as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington and Bangkok. He also edited The Economist’s business and Asia sections. His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation
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Obama may just be an interlude
The personality and beliefs of the commander-in-chief still matter in foreign policy – as the world may re-discover, if Obama loses power to a Republican in 2012, writes Gideon Rachman
Lunch with the FT: Bill Gates
Over cheeseburger in a Seattle café, the Microsoft founder turned philanthropist talks with Gideon Rachman about China, foreign aid and the miracle of vaccination
China can no longer plead poverty
In important ways, China is now a rich nation. But its insistence that it is still a ‘developing country’ has become a shield to protect itself against vital political and economic changes that matter profoundly to the rest of the world, writes Gideon Rachman
‘Zero-Sum World’
Between the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Gideon Rachman chronicled a golden age in which countries shared a belief in globalisation and democracy. But the financial crash has heralded a less predictable era
Defiant France ignores the abyss
Politicians and bureaucrats are attempting to define new continent-wide rules to ensure Europe does not slip back into a new and debilitating debt crisis. But the future of the European economy and its single currency is more likely to be decided on the streets, writes Gideon Rachman
Mad as hell but not Mad Hatters
To many foreigners and American liberals, the Tea Party movement seems like a crazy mix of wild conspiracy theories and impractical nostalgia for an era of distant and minimal government. The truth is that, while it has its wilder side, it is not as ‘mad’ as its opponents sometimes claim. Still, it does not look set to take over America just yet, writes Gideon Rachman
An undeclared war in cyberspace
For advanced industrial nations, cyber-warfare is simultaneously a huge opportunity and a huge threat. Targeted cyber attacks, such as those aimed at Iran, offer the chance to disrupt an enemy’s industrial and military capacities. But western officials are also having nightmares about the vulnerabilities of their own societies, writes Gideon Rachman
The realities behind the cult of Lula
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, known simply as Lula, has not quite achieved the global renown and secular sainthood of Nelson Mandela. But the Lula and Mandela myths have something in common, writes Gideon Rachman
Hysteria will not help the Roma
The only acceptable long-term solution to the problems of the Roma in Europe, as a whole, has to be employment, education and training. But nobody should kid themselves that improving the lot of the Roma is going to be quick or cheap, writes Gideon Rachman
Why 9/15 changed more than 9/11
The attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, horrifying as they were, did not shake US dominance of the global political and economic system. It was Lehman’s collapse that truly marked the end of the “unipolar moment”, writes Gideon Rachman
