RESUME
DAVID AIKMAN
(updated September 2009)

INTRODUCTION

David Aikman is a best-selling author who has written ten books, an award-winning journalist, a broadcaster, a college professor, a popular speaker and lecturer, and a foreign affairs commentator based in the Washington, DC-area. Over a 23-year career at TIME Magazine, he reported from five continents and more than 55 countries, focusing especially on Russia, China, and the Middle East. A graduate of Oxford University, Aikman holds a PhD from the University of Washington in Russian and Chinese history and speaks six languages, including Russian, Chinese, French, Spanish and German.

CURRENT EMPLOYMENT & AFFILIATIONS

Since 2005, Professor of History and Writer-in-Residence, Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, Va., teaching upper-level history courses, including the history of modern China, the Middle East, and Russia, World War I, world revolutions, and Islam.

Since 2002, Commentator on the Editorial Board of Salem Communications, one of the nation's largest radio networks.

Since 2001, Regular on-air commentator for breaking world news events for TV news shows on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, C-span, the BBC, CBN. Guest appearances include ABC's "Nightline," NBC's "Today Show," and Voice of America's "On the Line," for which he has also been an occasional moderator, as well as many local television and radio shows.

Since 1998, Founder and Chairman of Gegrapha, a global fellowship of Christians in journalism.

Since 1998, Extensive speaking engagements to business and professional associations, universities, churches and ministries, and on the Cunard Line cruise ships.

Since 1995, Contributing Editor to The American Spectator.

Since 1991, Senior Fellow, The Trinity Forum, Washington, D.C.; also one of the Trinity Forum's longest-serving moderators and previously a regular contributor to its online magazine "Provocations."

Since 1986, Frequently on VOA's weekly foreign affairs program "Issues in the News."

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT

2006-2007, "Global Prognosis," regular column on world affairs for Christianity Today magazine.

1996-2005, "The Global Picture," regular column on world affairs for Charisma magazine.

1998-2002, Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington D.C.
Also Editor-at-Large of Newsroom, an Internet-based news organization reporting on the religious dimension of news from around the world.

1994-1998, Author and Freelance Writer

1972-1994, Senior Correspondent and Foreign Correspondent, TIME Magazine

Career highlights: Reported three consecutive TIME "Man of the Year" cover stories on Deng Xiaoping (1985), Corazon Aquino (1986) and Mikhail Gorbachev (1987). Interviews with major world figures ranging from Mother Teresa to Manuel Noriega and Umberto Ortega, from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to Pham Van Dong and Khieu Samphan, and from Boris Yeltsin to Billy Graham.

  • 1990-1994: Senior Correspondent & State Department Correspondent, Washington Bureau, covering foreign affairs. Cover stories on Russia, the former the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, Communism in general, the Middle East. Reporting from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, North Africa, Soviet Central Asia (the only Western reporter to cover the 1990 Tajikistan revolt), China and Moscow.
  • 1985-1990: State Department Correspondent, Washington Bureau. In May 1989, had the first American news organization interview with Alexander Solzhenitsyn in more than ten years, in June was an eyewitness to Tiananmen crackdown in China, and in November to the Czechoslovak "Velvet Revolution" in November. Also responsible for reporting and interpreting U.S. foreign policy and developments around the world. Traveled with U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz to the Soviet Union, Australia and East Asia, Africa, and Europe.
  • 1986: Acting Bureau Chief, Moscow, during Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
  • 1982-1985: Bureau Chief, Beijing, China. Covered all aspects of Deng Xiaoping's reform program, President Reagan's 1984 visit, and China's fast-growing Christian community.
  • 1980-1982: Bureau Chief, Jerusalem. Responsible for 11 TIME cover stories in 15 weeks, a record for any TIME bureau; conceived and carried through 1981 TIME cover story on Jerusalem.
  • 1978-1980: Staff Writer, New York.
  • 1977-1978: Bureau Chief, Eastern Europe (based in West Berlin). Also reported from Mongolia.
  • 1972-1976: Correspondent, Hong Kong Bureau. Covered China, Taiwan, all of Southeast Asia. Frequent reporting trips to China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, India, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore. Was last TIME correspondent to leave Phnom Penh, Cambodia, ten days before arrival of Khmer Rouge. Witnessed the takeover of Laos by Pathet Lao forces in August 1975.
  • 1971-1972: Correspondent, New York and Washington. Covered Nixon's Western and Southern White Houses, entry of People's Republic of China into U.N. and the 1972 "ping-pong diplomacy" visit of the first Chinese group to the U.S.

BOOKS

Also co-author of:

OTHER WORKS

  • "Vanishing Peace: The Aftermath of Oslo," two-hour documentary in 1999 on the Middle East peace process, shown worldwide on the BBC.
  • "Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century," six-part TV documentary, based on book of the same name, broadcast on PBS.

EDUCATION

  • Stowe School, Bucks, England (1957-1962), scholarship winner;
  • Worcester College, Oxford (1962-1965), B.A. Hons., Russian and French, 1965;
  • University of Washington, Seattle (1966-1971),
    • M.A. Far Eastern and Russian Institute (Central Asian Languages), 1968,
    • Ph.D. Russian and Chinese History. Thesis: "The Role of Atheism in the Marxist Tradition," 1979.

PERSONAL

Married, two grown daughters, naturalized US citizen.