Jonathan Tepperman

Jonathan Tepperman is an author, journalist, and expert on international affairs. He is currently the Editor in Chief of The Octavian Report. From 2017 to 2020, he was Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy. Before that, he served as the Managing Editor of Foreign Affairs, and before that, as Deputy Editor of Newsweek International. His first book, The Fix, published in 2017, tells the stories of how countries worldwide have solved some of the most difficult challenges. Born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, he lives in Brooklyn with his family. Tepperman is Jewish.

After studying law and starting his career freelancing in the Middle East, Tepperman first joined Foreign Affairs, the magazine published by the Council on Foreign Relations, in 1998 under Fareed Zakaria. He spent several years at the magazine as a junior editor before moving on to Newsweek in 2006. He was Deputy Editor for the international edition, ran (at various times) Asia, Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Latin America sections, and wrote multiple cover stories, opinion pieces, and a style column.

In 2011, Tepperman returned to Foreign Affairs as its Managing Editor, a position he held until 2017 when he was named Foreign Policy's Editor in Chief. He has also worked in political-risk consulting and as a speechwriter for Morris B. Abram, a former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council.

Tepperman frequently writes for a range of publications. In 2013, he was a guest columnist for the International New York Times. He has also published analytic essays, profiles, Op-Eds, interviews, and book reviews in The New York Times and New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and many other newspapers and magazines. In addition, he is the co-editor of three books: The U.S. vs. Al Qaeda: A History of the War on Terror, The Clash of Ideas: The Ideological Battles That Made the Modern World and Will Shape the Future, and Iran and the Bomb: Solving the Persian Puzzle.

He is a frequent media commentator on international affairs, appearing on CNN, MSNBC, the BBC, Fox News, NPR, Globo, and other networks, as well as radio, including The Brian Lehrer Show and The Diane Rehm Show.

Tepperman regularly interviews global leaders for Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and the Halifax International Security Forum. Recent interviewees include Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Turkish President Abdullah Gül, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and US Senator John McCain. In 2016, Tepperman delivered a TED Talk on the risky politics of progress. It has been viewed more than a million times.

In 2021, Tepperman delivered a seminar with the International Republican Institute (IRI) titled China and the Global Fight for Democracy. It featured many speakers, including Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Congressmen Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, IRI officials (Senior Advisor David Shullman and President Daniel Twining), and academic experts Emmanuel Matambo, a Senior Researcher at the University of Johannesburg Centre for African-China Studies and Nadège Rolland, a Senior Fellow of Political and Security Affairs at the National Bureau of Asian Research.