Author & Social Scientist
James Ron is an author and social scientist whose work has taken him to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
He taught international affairs, political science, and sociology at US universities - Johns Hopkins and the University of Minnesota, where he held an endowed research chair; at Canadian universities, including McGill (where he held a Canada Research Chair) and the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs Carleton University; and in Mexico, at CIDE, a government research and teaching institute.
Consulting
Before and during his academic career, James reported for the Associated Press in Jerusalem and worked as a program evaluator for CARE, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and agencies of the Canadian and Swiss governments. He also published major reports for Human Rights Watch on violations of international law in the Palestinian Territories and Turkey, and documented war crimes and human rights abuses in Chechnya, Kosovo, and Nigeria.
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Scholarship
James has authored two academic books - Frontiers and Ghettos: State Violence in Serbia and Israel, published by the University of California Press in 2003, and Taking Root: Human Rights and Public Opinion in the Global South, published by Oxford University Press in 2017.
He also published scholarly articles in journals such as Comparative Politics, Human Rights Quarterly, International Organization, International Security, Journal of Peace Research, Political Science Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy, World Development, World Politics, and many more.
Commentary
James Ron's political commentary has appeared in European venues, such as the UK-based E-International Relations and Open Democracy, or the Paris-based Le Monde and International Herald Tribune; Canadian papers, such as the Global and Mail, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, and Toronto Star; and US publications, including the Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many others.
In 2013, James co-created a multilingual website for human rights commentary, Open Global Rights.
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Volunteering
James worked for many years as a pro-bono evaluator for Life for a Child, an Australian charity providing insulin and other life-saving supplies to children with Type 1 diabetes in low-income countries. The organization's mission is close to his heart, as his son was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition at a very young age.
Memoir writing
James has stepped away from academia and consulting to focus on personal writing, including a memoir, Azimuth, about his transition from soldiering in Israel's military to investigating its human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories.
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Recent commentary by James Ron
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International Recognition of Palestine and the Risk of a West Bank "Frontier" - An analysis published in the UK-based journal, E-International Relations, of what might happen if parts of the West Bank escaped Israeli control without a robust international security force.
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Ending your Official Relationship with Israel Isn't So Easy, an essay on the link between citizenship, belonging, and accountability, published on Medium.
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A Sad Prediction Born Out by Events - Reflections on events in Gaza, published on the University of California Press Blog.
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Faith Tradition, and Support for Deportation in the U.S. - An analysis of US opinion data for the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California.
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Scholarly Databases
For more on James Ron's scholarship, please visit his Academia.edu, Google Scholar, PhilPeople, ORCID, ResearchGate, Semantic Scholar, and Social Science Research Network profiles.
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medium.com/@james-ron | www.jamesron.com | www.jamesron.org | www.jamesron.net | @james_ron01
