Michael Soussan is a New York-based writer, journalist and advisor on international relations.
Soussan has contributed articles and op-eds to The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, The New Republic, Commentary Magazine, Prospect Magazine, CNN.com/opinion, Salon.com and the Huffington Post among others. He has also contributed live interviews to the BBC, Fox News, CNN, Skynews and a range of PBS radio programs.
Soussan’s expertise in international affairs stems in part from the geographic locations from which he reported, including the Congo (2005), Iraq (2007) and Afghanistan (2011), as well as from his prior experience working for The United Nations’ Iraq Program (1997-2000), where he serviced the needs of the UN Security Council under Kofi Annan, coordinating the information flows between the UN Secretariat, the Security Council, the weapons inspectors and eight UN agencies. He also worked at CNN, and had early experience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Preston Gates (a D.C. K Street law firm). Soussan has taught international affairs and writing at New York University for over four semesters and consulted on a number of TV and film projects. He has also provided writing services for hire, including through the Gotham Ghostwriters agency. He has a BA from Brown University, a Masters from Sciences-Po in Paris, and a certificate in film directing and producing from NYU.
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Top-listed on the Wall Street Journal’s “Best Books of the Year”
“A dark and surprisingly funny insider's account” – Foreign Policy Magazine
“A Great Book and a fun read.” CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS Book of the Week
"An insightful exposé, spiked with outraged wit." – Kirkus Reviews
“Soussan landed the job of his dreams, working for the United Nations on the biggest aid programme it had ever attempted. However, anyone familiar with the tales of Soussan's fellow countryman Hans Christian Andersen will expect dark truths to emerge from the most apparently innocent exteriors. Even to the cynics […] this book will come as a revelation.” – The Sunday Times
“A fascinating and appalling story of […] the most corrupt enterprise ever overseen by an international agency.” – Morning Star (UK)
"In his amusing ant's-eye memoir … told by a young do-gooder who thought he could change the world by enlisting with the UN, Soussan discovered that he had fallen into a mire of endless jealousies and hatreds, labyrinthine turf battles and a determined effort never to confront reality." – New York Post
“[An] absorbing memoir…. Soussan brings provocative wit, a keen eye for detail and a knack for revealing anecdotes to this important account of the rampant greed, hypocrisy and cynicism festering behind the United Nations’ humanitarian credo.” – Publishers Weekly
Steven Pool’s non-fiction choice – The Guardian
“Soussan writes with a crisp sense of the absurd,” – Forbes Magazine
“an astute observer of diplomatic psychoses,” – The Irish Times
“Although it reads like a novel, Backstabbing for Beginners could never be one: the characters and situations described are simply too ludicrous and implausible to be anything but the truth. An extraordinary book...” – Scott Anderson, author of “The Man Who Tried To Save The World” and contributor to VANITY FAIR
"There are echoes of Catch 22 in Soussan’s narrative […] a compelling, fascinating … humorous and eminently readable book." – Ian Williams, Chief of UN’s Correspondent Club
“If you ever wondered about questioning authority, Backstabbing for Beginners will confirm your worst fears; books like this make conspiracy theorists of us all."– Mike Sager, author of Revenge of the Donut Boys” and Writer-at-Large for Esquire Magazine
You will get so caught up in this book you won’t be able to put it down [… ] after which you will be calling your friends to tell them they must read it, too." – Nicholas von Hoffman, author of The Devil’s Dictionary of Business and columnist for The New York Observer
"Hilarious and tragic at the same time. Soussan gives us a fascinating insider’s view of the UN’s bureaucratic underbelly. If this were a film (and it could be a great one), it would be ‘The Office’ meets ‘Syriana’."– John Hanshaw, Director of the Washington Film Institute
Only a great observer could write these words…. [Soussan] was able to turn observation into […] a great universal truth about freedom. If you want a real life play-by-play of how a bureaucracy can get out of control, this book is must reading"– The Economic Policy Journal
"Soussan’s adventures (and misadventures!) in the world of international diplomacy can inform international decisions today"– Joy Cardin, NPR
