Author: Peter Maass

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.

Fuel Fixers

The New York Times Magazine
How the scarcity of oil may be making our antibribery laws obsolete.
December 22, 2007
James Giffen likes to share the wealth. His generosity to friends is said to have included $180,000 for jewelry, $30,000 for fur coats, a luxury speedboat, two snowmobiles ... (Read more)

Berkeley Lectures

In November I will be a Regents Lecturer at UC Berkeley, which means, among other things, that I will give several talks. Come one, come all!

Oct. 29: “The Amazon v. Big Oil: In Ecuador, Chevron Faces Judgment Day.” 4-5:15 pm. 101 Morgan Hall.

Nov. 1: “From Saddam to Muqtada: A Writer’s ... (Read more)

“Bosnia’s Ground Zero” in Vanity Fair

Back in 1996, Vanity Fair published a lengthy excerpt from my book, “Love Thy Neighbor.” I never received an electronic copy of the excerpt, so it wasn’t posted on this site (or anywhere on the web). In the past few months I received a number of enquiries about the excerpt, because ... (Read more)

Ecuador’s 18-Billion-Gallon Valdez

In a ramshackle courthouse in Lago Agrio, an oil town in Ecuador, a precedent-setting lawsuit is nearing its end after more than a decade. Who is to blame for the environmental mess that was triggered by the discovery of oil in the 1960s? The plaintiffs, who live in the region, are seeking billions ... (Read more)

Slick

Outside Magazine
Alan Dershowitz, meet Steven Donziger. On behalf of 30,000 inhabitants of Ecuador’s remote Oriente region, this New York lawyer is putting it to Big Oil. But will his multi-billion-dollar lawsuit establish a global precedent—or is he just looking for a scapegoat ... (Read more)

Radioactive Nationalism in Korea

My latest essay, about the connection between North Korea’s nuclear weapons and nationalism on the Korean peninsula, is in this weekend’s issue of The New York Times Magazine. Click here or here.

Radioactive Nationalism

The New York Times Magazine
The risky maneuverings on the Korean peninsula
October 22, 2006
In a classic Mexican standoff, two men point guns at each other’s heads. Neither wants to shoot, but each knows the downside of not pulling the trigger first. It is an inherently gripping ... (Read more)

Another Day in Baghdad

The Los Angeles Times publishes a sad and evocative story (registration required) by one of its Iraqi reporters, who writes about day-to-day life in his neighborhood. Now, not only ... (Read more)

Stuff Still Happens

Donald Rumsfeld, when asked about the looting that followed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, memorably replied that “stuff happens.” Three years later, stuff is still happening. Salam Pax, in his resuscitated but occasional blog (he posts only slightly more frequently than I do), has ... (Read more)

Samarra, a Year Later

Last year, I was embedded with the U.S. military in Samarra and wrote a cover story about the rather dismal situation there, with Iraqi and American forces fighting what seemed to be a dirty war. In a riveting ... (Read more)