James Ron

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About James Ron

James Ron, PhD, is a writer and retired academic. Over a 40-year career, he has been a soldier, journalist, human rights researcher, and academic. He taught at leading universities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and is best known for his work on international human rights, foreign aid, international civil society, and political violence. James has published widely in both scholarly journals and global media outlets, and has consulted for major international agencies and governments. He is now writing about this four-decade journey, focusing on the transition from soldiering to human rights work, and on experiences of shame, exile, and belonging.

Early Career

Born in the United States and raised in Israel, James began his professional career in Jerusalem as a journalist for the Associated Press, covering Middle East politics and the first Palestinian uprising. During this time, he completed his BA in political science at Stanford University, with earlier studies in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

In the 1990s, James joined Human Rights Watch as a consultant, where he led field research and authored in-depth reports on international humanitarian law violations in the West Bank, Gaza, and Turkey. He later conducted further war crimes investigations in Chechnya, Kosovo, and Nigeria.

In 1999, James earned his PhD in sociology from UC Berkeley, writing his dissertation on political violence in the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East. This became his first book, Frontiers and Ghettos: State Violence in Serbia and Israel (University of California Press), a comparative analysis of sovereignty, nationalism, and state repression.

Academic Career

James held research fellowships at the Brookings Institution and Brown University’s Watson Institute before joining Johns Hopkins University as a tenure-track professor. While there, he secured funding from the United States Institute of Peace to study natural resources and civil war.

In 2001, James was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Conflict and Human Rights at McGill University, where he pioneered a statistical analysis of international human rights reporting, using data from Amnesty International, Newsweek, and The Economist.

He later taught at Carleton University’s graduate school for international affairs, consulting for the Canadian government on the links between human rights abuses, conflict onset, transitional justice, and public health in war zones.

In 2011, James became the Stassen Chair of International Affairs at the University of Minnesota, where he co-led a series of public opinion surveys on human rights attitudes in Colombia, India, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, and the United States. This work led to his second book, Taking Root: Human Rights and Public Opinion in the Global South(Oxford University Press).

James has now retired from institutional academia.

Publications

James’s academic research has appeared in a wide variety of leading journals, including International Organization, International Security, Human Rights Quarterly, World Development, Comparative Politics, Journal of Peace Research, and others.

As a public commentator, James has published op-eds and essays in The New York Times, Le Monde, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Toronto Star, and many other outlets. In 2013, he co-founded Open Global Rights, a multilingual platform for global human rights commentary.

To browse James’s academic research and citations, visit:

Consulting

In parallel to his academic and Human Rights Watch work, James consulted for organizations such as CARE, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Canadian and Swiss governments, conducting program evaluations in DR Congo, Mexico, the Balkans, and Israel/Palestine.

He also volunteered with Life for a Child, a Type 1 diabetes charity affiliated with the International Diabetes Federation, after his son’s diagnosis at age two.

James is no longer actively pursuing consulting work.

Current Writing

James is now focused on personal writing projects reflecting on his military past, transition to investigating war crimes and human rights violations, and his experience of belonging, exile, masculinity, and moral accountability. His book project explores the human dimensions of conflict, loyalty, and personal transformation.