Drones, torture, and the new nationalism—the distinguished journalist reflects on two decades of the War on Terror.
Award-winning journalist and celebrated author Mark Danner delivers this year’s annual Robert B. Silvers Lecture, “The Death of Human Rights: Drones, Torture and the New Nationalism.” Danner has written about political conflict and human rights for three decades, covering, among other stories, Central America, Haiti, the Balkans, and the Middle East. He has also written regularly about American politics, reporting on every presidential election since 2000. A frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, and a staff writer for many years at The New Yorker, Danner has worked on the editorial staffs of the New York Review, Harper’s Magazine, and The New York Times. He has published a half dozen books, the most recent of which is Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War (2016). Named a MacArthur Fellow in 1999, he currently teaches at the University of California Berkeley, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Robert B. Silvers Lecture is an annual series created by Max Palevsky in recognition of the work of Robert B. Silvers, who was a co-founding editor of The New York Review of Books.