Foreign Policy In Focus

John Feffer

John Feffer is co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies.

He is the author of several books and numerous articles. He has been a Writing Fellow at Provisions Library in Washington, DC and a PanTech fellow in Korean Studies at Stanford University. He is a former associate editor of World Policy Journal. He has worked as an international affairs representative in Eastern Europe and East Asia for the American Friends Service Committee. He has studied in England and Russia, lived in Poland and Japan, and traveled widely throughout Europe and Asia. He has taught a graduate level course on international conflict at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul in July 2001 and delivered lectures at a variety of academic institutions including New York University, Hofstra, Union College, Cornell University, and Sofia University (Tokyo).

John has been widely interviewed in print and on radio. He serves on the advisory committees of the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea. He is a recipient of the Herbert W. Scoville fellowship and has been a writer in residence at Blue Mountain Center and the Wurlitzer Foundation. He currently lives with his partner Karin Lee in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Miriam Pemberton

Miriam Pemberton is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, writing and speaking on demilitarization issues for its Foreign Policy In Focus project. She has recently published a report, "Military vs. Climate Security: Mapping the Shift from the Bush Years to the Obama Era," a follow-up to her other publication, "The Budgets Compared: Military vs. Climate Security." Miriam also leads a group that produces the annual “Unified Security Budget for the United States.” Formerly she was editor, researcher and finally director of the National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

With William Hartung of the New America Foundation, she is co-editor of the book "Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War" (Paradigm Publishers, 2008).

Emira Woods

Emira Woods is co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, and an expert on U.S. foreign policy with a special emphasis on Africa and the developing world. She has written on a range of issues from debt, trade and development to US military policy. Emira serves on the Board of Directors of Africa Action, Just Associates, Global Justice and the Financial Policy Forum. She is also on the Network Council of Jubilee USA.

Emira completed her undergraduate studies at Columbia University and her graduate studies at Harvard. Prior to joining IPS, she was program manager for the Committee on Development Policy and Practice at InterAction, serving as a principal staff contact for advocacy at the UN, the international financial institutions, USAID and Treasury. Previous to that, she served as a program officer of Oxfam America's Africa program.

In 2007, Emira testified before Congress on international debt at hearings of the House Financial Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.

Emira is a regular commentator on NPR’s News and Notes. She is a frequent guest on broadcast media including BBC, CNN, VOA, CBC, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, the Diane Rehm Show, the Kojo Nnamdi Show and Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on issues related to U.S. foreign policy. She has hosted a WashingtonPost.com online chat and has published articles and op-eds in the NAACP’s Crisis magazine as well as the Miami Herald, the Christian Science Monitor, New York Newsday, The Nation, the Baltimore Sun, and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.