James Rubin
James Phillip Rubin (born March 28, 1960) is an American former diplomat and journalist who served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs in the Clinton Administration from 1997–2000. He wrote a regular column on foreign affairs for The Sunday Times of London, and is currently Diplomatic Counselor to the newly elected Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
This article is about the political commentator. For the art historian, see James H. Rubin.
James Rubin
Having served in the State Department during the administration of President Bill Clinton, Rubin became a Sky News presenter with his own show called World News Tonight. The show was short-lived and after it was cancelled he became a commentator for the channel. In 2013, he moved from New York City to live permanently in London, England, with his then-wife, CNN Chief International Correspondent and anchor Christiane Amanpour, and their teenage son.[1]
In December 2022, Rubin was appointed Special Envoy and Coordinator of the State Department's Global Engagement Center.[2]
Early life[edit]
Rubin was born on March 28, 1960, into a Jewish family in New York City,[3][4] and raised in the village of Larchmont, in Westchester County, New York.[5] He is the son of Harvey Rubin, a publisher and President of Pindar Press, and his wife, Judith (née Lowe), who trained students specializing in psychiatry.[6][7] His sister Elizabeth Rubin is a journalist, Edward R. Murrow press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and staff writer for The New York Times Magazine.
Education[edit]
Rubin was educated at Phillips Exeter and Mamaroneck High School, from which he graduated in 1977,[8] followed by Columbia College at Columbia University, from which he graduated with a BA in political science in 1982, and a Master of International Affairs (MIA) in 1984 from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. At Columbia, Rubin was a student of Zalmay Khalilzad, later U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations under President George W. Bush. Rubin also attended Boston University in Massachusetts.
Personal life[edit]
In 1998, Rubin, who at the time was spokesman for the US State Department, married Christiane Amanpour, Chief International Correspondent for CNN. Having moved to London, England, they returned to New York City in 2010, where they rented an apartment in Manhattan's Upper West Side.[17] In 2013, he, his wife and son, Darius John Rubin (born 2000), moved back to London to live permanently.[1] It was announced in July 2018 that Rubin and Amanpour were getting a divorce.[18]