Education
He studied at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University where he obtained a first class honours degree in History in 1984.
He studied at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University where he obtained a first class honours degree in History in 1984.
He started his career with the British Broadcasting Corporation World Service in 1984. From 1988 to 1990, he became a reporter for The Sunday Correspondent, stationed in Washington District of Columbia. He spent 15 years at The Economist. First as its deputy American editor, then as its South-east Asia correspondent, stationed in Bangkok.
He then served as The Economist"s Asia editor before taking on the post of Britain editor from 1997 to 2000, following which he was stationed in Brussels where he penned the Charlemagne European-affairs column.
At The Financial Times, Rachman writes on international politics, with a particular stress on American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation. Gideon Rachman maintains a blog on the FT.com site.
In December 2008, Rachman published a controversial column in the Financial Times online entitled, "And now for a world government" which radio show host Alex Jones among others have cited as proof of an elitist plot to establish global governance.
Rachman was named foreign commentator of the year in Britain"s comment awards in 2010. He has been short-listed twice for the Orwell Prize for Political Journalism. The Observer has also listed him as one of Britain"s 300 leading intellectuals. He has been a visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University (1988-1989) and at the Nobel Institute in Oslo (2013).
Rachman is noted for advocating a looser, non-federal European Union. In 2002, he staged a debate in Prospect Magazine with Nick Clegg, who was later to become Britain"s Deputy Prime Minister. Clegg argued strongly that Britain should join the European single currency.
Rachman disagreed, writing, "I believe the political changes involved in joining the Euro carry enormous risks. I do not believe it is "progressive" or "self-confident" to take those risks." More recently, Rachman has argued in the FT that the European Union must take a flexible and open approach to the political demands of their member states or face failure. Rachman’s calls for flexibility extend beyond Europe.
He has a strong interest in East Asia and the rise of China, and has repeatedly warned that inflexibility on the part of both China and the United States of America may lead to conflict.
Rachman has twice endorsed Barack Obama for the presidency, although he has also argued that the president is vastly over-rated as a public speaker. He has also been sceptical of the case for intervention in Syria.
His brother is Tom Rachman, the author of the novel The Imperfectionists.
