Washington Post Columnist and Author Sebastian Mallaby Named Head of Geoeconomics Center and Deputy Director of Studies

Sebastian Mallaby has joined the Council as Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies (GEC), Deputy Director of the David Rockefeller Studies Program, and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics. Founded in 2000, the GEC works to promote a better understanding among policymakers, academic specialists, and the interested public of how economic and political forces interact to influence world affairs. Mallaby has been appointed both head of the GEC and deputy director of studies to better integrate the economic and political output of the Council and to raise the productivity and profile of the GEC.

An experienced journalist and acclaimed author, Mallaby comes to the Council from the Washington Post, where he was a columnist and editorial board member. From the Council’s Washington office, Mallaby will focus on how economics and politics interact to shape international relations. He will also write a book on hedge funds and a biweekly column for the Washington Post.

In 2003, Mallaby took temporary leave from the Washington Post to become a senior fellow at the Council, where he wrote a history of the World Bank under James D. Wolfensohn. The book, The World’s Banker (Penguin, 2004), was named an “Editor’s Choice” by the New York Times and became a Washington Post bestseller. “Sebastian is a first-rate political and economic analyst, a wonderful writer, and an experienced observer of U.S. domestic and foreign policy. We are thrilled to welcome him back to the Council in this capacity,” said Council President Richard N. Haass.

Before joining the Post in 1999, Mallaby spent thirteen years with the Economist. From 1997–99, Mallaby was the Economist’s Washington bureau chief and wrote a weekly column on American politics and foreign policy. Mallaby has also contributed to numerous other publications and is the author of After Apartheid: The Future of South Africa (Times, 1992), which was listed by the New York Times as one of the notable books of 1992. Mallaby received a degree in modern history from Oxford University.

The GEC is one of the premier venues for work on political economy. The center takes an entrepreneurial approach to its activities, working with the Council’s in-house expertise in economics and foreign policy as well as leading economic policymakers, scholars, and institutions beyond the Council, to produce informed analysis and relevant policy prescriptions. The GEC is a major initiative of the Council and continues to develop world-class programming and publications.