Thomas Friedman

Thomas L. Friedman (born July 20, 1953) is an American columnist. He is known for being an advocate of globalization, and formulated McDonald's peace theory, which stated that no two nations with McDonalds have gone to war with one another. This theory was subsequently invalidated when the United States bombed Serbia in 1999.

He was also known for being a strong liberal supporter of the U.S. war in Iraq, on the neoconservative premise that a democratic and stable Iraq would promote peace and stability in the Middle East. As of March 2004, he remains a supporter of the goals of the war in Iraq, although he has expressed some dismay over the Bush administration efforts to implement those goals.

Friedman is a graduate of Brandeis University and is currently a columnist at the New York Times.

He won the Pulitzer Prize three times:

• 1983: Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, together with Loren Jenkins of the Washington Post, for their individual reporting of the Israeli invasion of Beirut and its tragic aftermath.
• 1985: Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, for balanced and informed coverage of Israel.
• 2002: Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, for his clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.

Partial bibliography

• World Is Flat: A Brief History Of The Twenty-first Century (2005) ISBN 0374292884
• Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11 (2002) ISBN 0374190666
• The Lexus and the Olive Tree (2000) ISBN 0374185522
• From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989) ISBN 0374158940, (updated 1990) ISBN 0385413726

Quotes

• "The Golden Straitjacket [Friedman's term for recommended fiscal and monetary policies] is the defining political-economic garment of globalization.The tighter you wear it, the more gold it produces."
• "The historical debate is over. The answer is free-market capitalism."
• In "Small and Smaller", he wrote: "...we've entered Globalization 3.0, and it is shrinking the world from size small to a size tiny."
• Reading Europe's press, it is really reassuring to see how warmly Europeans have embraced President Bush's formulation that an "axis of evil" threatens world peace. There's only one small problem. President Bush thinks the axis of evil is Iran, Iraq and North Korea, and the Europeans think it's Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Condi Rice.
• "Sooner or later, Mr. Bush argued, sanctions would force Mr. Hussein's generals to bring him down, and then Washington would have the best of all worlds: an iron-fisted Iraqi junta without Saddam Hussein." - New York Times, July 7, 1991