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Ian Buruma
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Ian Buruma
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Ian Buruma (born 28 December 1951) is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States. In 2017, he became editor of The New York Review of Books, but left the position in September 2018.

Key Information

Much of his writing has focused on the culture of Asia, particularly that of China and 20th-century Japan. He was the Paul W. Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College from 2003 to 2017.[1]

Early life and education

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Buruma was born and raised in The Hague, Netherlands. His father, Sytze Leonard "Leo" Buruma, was a Dutch lawyer and son of a Mennonite minister; his mother, Gwendolyn Margaret "Wendy" Schlesinger, was a Briton of German-Jewish descent.[2][3][4] He went to study at Leiden University in 1971, and obtained a Candidate degree in Chinese literature and history in 1975. He subsequently pursued postgraduate studies in Japanese cinema from 1975 to 1977 at the College of Art (Nichidai Geijutsu Gakko) of the Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan.

Career

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Overview

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Buruma worked as a film reviewer, photographer, and documentary filmmaker in Japan between 1975 and 1981. During the 1980s, he edited the cultural section of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong. He later traveled throughout Asia working as a freelance writer. Buruma is a board member of Human Rights in China and a fellow of the European Council of Foreign Relations. Buruma has contributed numerous articles to The New York Review of Books since 1985[5] and has written for The Guardian.[6] He held fellowships at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin (1991) and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. (1999), and he was an Alistair Horne fellow of St Antony's College in Oxford, United Kingdom. In 2000, he delivered the Huizinga Lecture (on "Neoromanticism of writers in exile") in the Pieterskerk in Leiden, Netherlands.

From 2003 to 2017, Buruma was Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College in New York City, New York. In 2017, he became editor of The New York Review of Books (NYRB), succeeding founding editor Robert B. Silvers.[7][8]

He has been a regular contributor to Project Syndicate since 2001.[9]

New York Review of Books controversy

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In September 2018, Buruma left the NYRB position following a dispute about his publication of an essay by Canadian talk show host Jian Ghomeshi. Ghomeshi was acquitted in 2016 of one count of choking and four counts of sexual assault after over 20 women complained either to the police or in the media.[citation needed] The publication of the essay was controversial, in part, because Ghomeshi wrote that the allegations against him were "inaccurate".[10] In an interview with Slate magazine, Buruma defended his decision to publish the piece.[citation needed] He denied that the article was misleading because it had failed to mention that Ghomeshi had been required to issue an apology to one of the victims as part of the terms of a case against him, in which he was acquitted. He also denied that the title, "Reflections from a Hashtag", was dismissive of the #MeToo movement; stated that the movement has resulted in "undesirable consequences"; and said: "I'm no judge of the rights and wrongs of every allegation. ... The exact nature of [Ghomeshi's] behavior – how much consent was involved – I have no idea, nor is it really my concern."[11]

In response to outrage over his defense of the article,[12][13][14] the Review leadership later stated that it had departed from its "usual editorial practices" as the essay "was shown to only one male editor during the editing process", and that Buruma's statement to Slate about the staff of the Review "did not accurately represent their views".[15] More than 100 contributors to the Review, including Joyce Carol Oates and Ian McEwan, signed a letter of protest to express fears that Buruma's exit threatened intellectual culture and "the free exploration of ideas".[16][17][18][19][20]

Awards

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In 2004, Buruma was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Dr.h.c.) in Theology from the University of Groningen.

In 2008, Buruma was awarded the Erasmus Prize, which is awarded to an individual who has made "an especially important contribution to culture, society or social science in Europe".[21] He was included in Foreign Policy magazine's 2010 list of the "100 top global thinkers".[22]

Buruma has won several prizes for his books, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay for Theater of Cruelty.[8]

Personal life and views

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Buruma has been married twice. He and his first wife, Sumie Tani, had a daughter, as did he and his second wife, Eri Hotta.[23][24] Buruma is a nephew of the English film director John Schlesinger, with whom he published a series of interviews in book form.[25]

He argued in 2001 for wholehearted British participation in the European Union because they were the "strongest champions in Europe of a liberal approach to commerce and politics".[26]

Bibliography

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Notes

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References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Ian Buruma

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Ian Buruma (born December 28, 1951) is a Dutch-born , , and academic specializing in the cultural and historical intersections of , , and the , with a focus on themes of , tolerance, and .
Educated in at and Japanese cinema in , Buruma worked as a documentary filmmaker and photographer in before becoming a prominent commentator on East-West relations through books such as The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and (1994), Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (2006), and : A History of 1945 (2013).
Since 2003, he has held professorial positions at , currently as the Paul W. Williams Professor of and , and briefly served as editor of The New York Review of Books from 2017 to 2018, resigning after backlash over his decision to publish an essay by —a Canadian broadcaster accused of —allowing the perspective of the accused amid the , which Buruma defended as essential for balanced discourse despite prior coverage of accusers' accounts.
His contributions earned him the in 2008 for advancing and recognition as one of the world's top public intellectuals.

Early Life and Education

Early Years and Family Influences

Ian Buruma was born on December 28, 1951, in , , to a Dutch father and a British mother. His mother, of German-Jewish descent, came from a family that had emigrated from to Britain in the nineteenth century, embedding a heritage of assimilation and cultural displacement in his upbringing. Buruma grew up in in a bilingual household, speaking both Dutch and English, which exposed him early to cross-cultural dynamics between continental Europe and the Anglo world. This environment, shaped by his parents' respective nationalities, fostered an awareness of divided loyalties and hybrid identities that later informed his writings on and migration. Family influences extended to his maternal grandparents, whose lives as navigating love, war, and assimilation—detailed in Buruma's 2016 book Their Promised Land—provided a foundational lens on twentieth-century European upheavals, including the rise of and the allure of imperial Britain as a refuge. Their story, rooted in optimistic Anglophilia despite German origins, contrasted with the more secular Dutch context of his father's side, highlighting tensions between integration and heritage that Buruma reflected upon in his early intellectual development.

Academic Training

Buruma began his higher education at in the , where he studied and history, completing a candidate's degree—the Dutch equivalent of a bachelor's—in 1975. This program focused on during a period when direct access to was limited due to Mao Zedong's policies, prompting reliance on classical texts and indirect study. Following graduation, Buruma relocated to on a scholarship and enrolled as a graduate student at Nihon University's College of Art, specializing in Japanese cinema from 1975 to 1977. There, his coursework intersected with the cultural scene, including exposure to dance and underground theater, though he did not complete a formal degree and instead pursued practical involvement in and performance. This period marked a shift from structured academic study toward immersive cultural engagement in , influencing his later journalistic and scholarly work on the region.

Professional Career

Journalism and Reporting in Asia

Buruma began his journalistic career in during the late , initially working as a filmmaker and photographer based in from 1977 to 1980. This period involved producing content on Japanese culture and society, laying the groundwork for his later reporting on the region's cultural dynamics. From 1983 to 1986, he served as cultural editor for The Far Eastern Economic Review in , a prominent English-language magazine covering Asian politics, economics, and culture. In this role, Buruma contributed articles and oversight on cultural topics, including reviews and analyses of artistic and intellectual trends across East and . His position at the Review facilitated extensive travel throughout the region, where he reported on developments in countries such as , , and , often focusing on the interplay between tradition and modernity. Much of Buruma's early reporting emphasized Asia's cultural landscapes amid rapid economic and political changes, including the cultural impacts of Japan's recovery and emerging tensions in under British administration. These experiences honed his approach to on-the-ground , prioritizing firsthand observation over remote analysis, and contributed to his reputation for insightful commentary on non-Western perspectives. In recognition of his sustained contributions to Asian reporting, Buruma received the 2008 Shorenstein Prize from Harvard's Shorenstein Center, honoring excellence in on the region.

Academic and Editorial Positions

Buruma served as the Paul W. Williams Professor of and at , a position he held starting in 2003 and continuing through at least 2017, during which he taught courses on topics including literary and cinema. His tenure at Bard emphasized the intersection of , , and journalistic practice, drawing on his background in and global politics. In editorial roles, Buruma acted as Cultural Editor of The Far Eastern Economic Review in from 1983 to 1986, overseeing coverage of cultural developments in amid the periodical's focus on regional economics and politics. He later served as Foreign Editor of in from 1990 to 1991, managing international affairs content for the conservative weekly magazine. These positions complemented his freelance , allowing him to shape discourse on global cultural and foreign policy issues.

Editorship at the New York Review of Books

Ian Buruma was named editor of The New York Review of Books on May 18, 2017, succeeding Robert B. Silvers, who had led the publication since its founding in 1963 and died on March 20, 2017, at age 87. A longtime contributor to the magazine since 1985, Buruma brought extensive experience in journalism, academia, and cultural criticism, particularly on Asian affairs and . His appointment was viewed as a pragmatic choice to preserve the NYRB's intellectual rigor and eclectic scope, drawing on his prior essays for the outlet and books like Murder in (2006), which explored tolerance and multiculturalism in . Buruma officially began his tenure in September 2017, committing to uphold Silvers' legacy of commissioning probing, long-form reviews and essays from leading thinkers on , , , and . He emphasized maintaining the magazine's and contrarian voice, while adapting to digital shifts by bolstering online content with expanded archives, podcasts, and multimedia features to reach broader audiences without diluting print quality. Under his guidance, the NYRB continued publishing first-rate essays across diverse subjects, including critiques of , cultural histories, and global affairs, with contributors praising his editorial acumen for fostering nuanced debate. To modernize the print format, Buruma introduced subtle enhancements such as increased use of color reproductions and photography to complement textual analysis, aiming to visually enrich discussions of , , and current events without compromising the publication's textual primacy. His editorship spanned approximately 16 months, during which the magazine sustained its reputation for intellectual depth, soliciting pieces that challenged prevailing orthodoxies on topics like free speech, , and historical memory.

Intellectual Contributions

Works on Asian Culture and History

Buruma's early writings on Asia centered on , where he resided during the 1970s and immersed himself in its avant-garde theater and film scenes. In A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture (1984), he analyzes enduring archetypes in Japanese society—such as , , and —through lenses of , media, and historical narratives, arguing that these figures reflect tensions between tradition and modernity rather than mere stereotypes. The book draws on to illustrate how constructs its national identity, emphasizing empirical observations from , comics, and theater over idealized Western perceptions. Expanding on cultural undercurrents, Behind the Mask: On Sexual Demons, Sacred Mothers, Transvestites, Gangsters, and Other Japanese Cultural Heroes (1987) probes Japan's sexual and gender dynamics, positing that traditional reverence for maternal figures coexists with subversive elements like in and the romanticized outlaw in lore. Buruma uses case studies from postwar media and historical precedents to demonstrate how these motifs underpin social hierarchies, challenging simplistic views of Japanese by highlighting repressed desires and role reversals. His approach privileges firsthand encounters and archival analysis, avoiding unsubstantiated generalizations about "." Shifting to broader regional themes, God's Dust: A Modern Asian Journey (1989) chronicles Buruma's travels across and beyond, examining how rapid erodes village-based traditions in countries like , the , and . He documents specific instances—such as Singapore's authoritarian and Burma's isolationist stagnation—to argue that modernization often hybridizes indigenous beliefs with Western imports, leading to cultural fragmentation without wholesale loss of identity. This work underscores causal links between economic pressures and social change, based on interviews and on-site reporting from 1988. In later books, Buruma addressed political history and dissent. Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from to (2001) profiles dissidents across the Chinese diaspora and mainland, including figures like and Taiwanese politicians, to trace aspirations for democracy amid authoritarian resilience. Through over 100 interviews conducted from 1996 to 2000, he contends that fragmented opposition—spanning practitioners to exiled intellectuals—signals inevitable, if uneven, pressures for reform, though he cautions against over-optimism given state repression. Similarly, Inventing Japan: –1964 (2003) synthesizes the through postwar occupation, detailing how elites engineered national myths around and industrial feats to forge a unified state from feudal isolation. Buruma highlights pivotal events, like the arrival of Commodore Perry and the 1945 atomic bombings, as catalysts for reinvention, supported by primary sources and economic data showing Japan's GDP surge from agrarian base to global power by 1964. These analyses prioritize verifiable historical sequences over ideological narratives, critiquing both Japanese ultranationalism and Allied simplifications.

Explorations of Liberalism and Free Speech

Buruma has extensively examined the tensions within liberal democracies between free expression and societal cohesion, particularly in multicultural contexts. In his 2006 book Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance, he analyzes the 2004 assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a radical Islamist, , as a clash between Enlightenment values of free speech and the demands of immigrant integration. Buruma argues that Dutch society's post-war emphasis on tolerance inadvertently enabled parallel communities resistant to liberal norms, such as , leading to violence when van Gogh's Submission provoked Bouyeri. He contends that requires not boundless tolerance but active defense of secular speech against ideologies that reject it, warning that unchecked erodes the conditions for free debate. In Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents (2010), Buruma explores how liberal democracies must reconcile religious faith with free expression, drawing on historical examples from the , , and . He posits that successful democracies "tame" by subordinating it to secular laws and open , citing the U.S. of separating church and state as a model where Protestant pluralism fostered tolerance without . Buruma critiques absolutist interpretations of faith—whether or —that demand conformity over inquiry, advocating instead for a that permits belief but insists on and exit rights. This work underscores his view that free speech thrives when religion is privatized and subjected to public reason, preventing it from becoming a tool for authoritarian control. Buruma's articles further delineate the boundaries of free speech, rejecting both absolutism and . In a 2009 Guardian piece, he asserts that while liberal principles demand enduring offensive views, speech inciting imminent harm—such as calls to —warrants limits to preserve the . He applied this in 2022 commentary on Salman Rushdie's stabbing, arguing that leaders stoking hatred, like Iran's Khomeini via the 1989 , bear responsibility for consequences, as free speech does not license murder. More recently, in his 2024 biography Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah, Buruma praises the 17th-century philosopher as a foundational liberal thinker whose for heretical views exemplified the cost of prioritizing reason and free thought over . Spinoza's and , Buruma notes, prefigured modern defenses of expression against religious or state suppression, urging contemporary liberals to emulate this intellectual courage amid rising and . Buruma has also critiqued erosions of free speech in non-Western contexts and digital ages. His 2021 Project Syndicate article "Banning Opinion" questions whether social media's amplification of outrage necessitates new curbs, concluding that traditional liberal safeguards—against libel and —suffice if enforced neutrally, rather than through unpopular views. On , he decried the 2021 closure of under Beijing's national security law as the "death of free speech," where pro-democracy journalism was criminalized as , illustrating authoritarian co-optation of liberalism's rhetoric. These explorations consistently frame free speech as essential yet fragile, demanding vigilance against both external threats like and internal ones like panics that prioritize harm avoidance over open contestation.

Recent Historical and Philosophical Writings

In : A History of (2013), Buruma chronicles the global turbulence immediately following , drawing on eyewitness accounts from and to depict widespread vengeance, , black markets, and desperate efforts at societal reconstruction under Allied occupations. The book emphasizes how the war's end unleashed chaotic transitions, including mass displacements of millions—such as 12 million Germans expelled from —and the psychological scars of survivors navigating , , and ideological clashes that foreshadowed the divide. Buruma argues that 1945 marked not a clean victory but a precarious "" of , where liberators sometimes mirrored the atrocities they opposed, supported by archival from trials, diaries, and declassified reports. Shifting to philosophical inquiries, Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents (2010) examines the tensions between faith and secular governance, asserting that unchecked religious passions historically undermine democratic stability unless subordinated to political pluralism. Buruma analyzes cases from (e.g., Islam's integration challenges), America (Puritan legacies in ), and (Japan's Shinto-state fusion and China's Confucian ), using historical precedents like the and Ottoman millet system to contend that democracy thrives when religion is privatized rather than politicized. He draws on primary sources including theological texts and political manifestos to illustrate how figures like and modern Islamists reveal recurring conflicts, cautioning against both theocratic overreach and aggressive secularism that alienates believers. Buruma's latest philosophical contribution, Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah (2024), offers a biographical lens on (1632–1677), portraying the Dutch-Jewish philosopher's excommunication from Amsterdam's Sephardic community in 1656 as a pivotal stand against religious orthodoxy in favor of rational inquiry and expressive liberty. Grounded in Spinoza's Ethics and correspondence, the book traces his pantheistic worldview—equating God with nature—and rejection of miracles or divine favoritism, which Buruma links to enduring principles of intellectual autonomy amid 17th-century upheavals like the Dutch Revolt. Buruma underscores Spinoza's prescience for modern , noting his influence on Enlightenment thinkers and relevance to debates over , as evidenced by parallels to contemporary restrictions on in pluralistic societies.

Controversies

New York Review of Books Resignation

In September 2018, Ian Buruma resigned as editor of the New York Review of Books (NYRB) after 16 months in the position, amid backlash over the publication of an essay by , a former Canadian broadcaster acquitted of charges in 2016 following allegations from multiple women in 2014. The essay, titled "Reflections from a Hashtag," appeared online on September 14, 2018, and presented Ghomeshi's perspective on his professional downfall, which he attributed partly to media frenzy and unproven claims rather than outright guilt. Buruma defended the decision to publish in interviews, arguing that even those accused in high-profile cases deserve a platform to respond, particularly after , and emphasizing the importance of over presumptions of guilt in the #MeToo era. He stated in a New York Times interview that some accusers had aimed to "destroy" Ghomeshi and that the NYRB should not exclude voices based solely on allegations without conviction, drawing parallels to broader free speech principles. Critics, including NYRB contributors and external commentators, condemned the piece as insensitive to victims of , accusing it of platforming a figure emblematic of unchecked male privilege and undermining #MeToo accountability; several writers, such as and , publicly withdrew future submissions. The controversy escalated with threats of advertiser boycotts and , leading Buruma to step down on September 19, 2018; he later cited these economic risks as a key factor, while maintaining he stood by the editorial choice. The NYRB issued a statement acknowledging "institutional failures" in and context for such pieces, without specifying if Buruma resigned voluntarily or was dismissed. A letter signed by over 100 contributors, including and , protested what they viewed as a "forced ," lamenting the stifling of debate on complex issues like accusation and redemption. This episode highlighted tensions between journalistic openness to dissenting narratives and demands for alignment with prevailing cultural sensitivities on .

Debates Over Due Process and #MeToo

In September 2018, as editor of The New York Review of Books, Ian Buruma commissioned and published the essay "Reflections from a Hashtag" by Jian Ghomeshi, a former Canadian broadcaster acquitted in March 2016 of five counts of sexual assault following a trial in which the judge cited inconsistencies in accusers' testimonies, including deliberate falsehoods to police. Buruma defended the decision in interviews, arguing that intellectual publications should include perspectives from those accused in the #MeToo era, particularly after legal exoneration, to avoid presuming guilt based solely on public allegations and to uphold principles of due process. He emphasized that Ghomeshi's personal conduct was not the publication's concern, but rather the value of airing reflections on reputational destruction without trial, stating the piece had internal support despite not being vetted by all staff. The publication sparked immediate backlash from contributors, staff, and public figures, who viewed it as dismissive of #MeToo victims' experiences and insensitive to power imbalances in sexual misconduct cases, with some accusing Buruma of prioritizing the accused over survivors. NYRB staff reported feeling uninformed about the essay's approval process, leading to internal discord, while external pressure mounted from university presses threatening to withdraw advertising support. Buruma resigned on September 19, , citing the controversy's impact on the magazine's operations and describing his ouster as a "capitulation to social media" pressures, though NYRB later acknowledged "editorial failures" in handling without clarifying if the departure was forced. A letter signed by over 100 writers, including and , protested the resignation as an erosion of editorial independence. In subsequent reflections, Buruma maintained his stance on the essay's merit, arguing in a March 2019 Financial Times piece that editors must navigate outrage culture without yielding to demands for ideological conformity, even amid #MeToo's valid exposures of abuse, as excluding acquitted voices risks substituting for legal . He critiqued the movement's occasional drift toward absent evidence, linking it to broader threats against open debate, while acknowledging his underestimation of institutional sensitivities post-#MeToo. This episode positioned Buruma as a proponent of procedural fairness in allegations, contrasting with critics who prioritized narrative solidarity over evidentiary standards, and highlighted tensions between #MeToo's accountability push and liberal commitments to .

Political and Intellectual Views

Advocacy for Free Expression

Buruma has long defended the principle of free expression as essential to , arguing that restrictions on speech, even offensive speech, often lead to broader erosions of liberty. In a 2009 Guardian article, he examined variations in free speech laws across democracies, noting that while countries like and criminalize , such measures risk normalizing state intervention in discourse, potentially stifling legitimate debate. He contended that true free speech tolerates discomfort but draws lines at direct incitement to violence, a view rooted in historical precedents like the Enlightenment's emphasis on open inquiry over enforced consensus. His advocacy intensified in critiques of European hate speech regulations, as in his 2015 Project Syndicate piece "Muzzled in the Name of Freedom," where he warned that expanding bans on insults—already in place in and other nations—serves as a pretext for suppressing rather than protecting minorities. Buruma highlighted the irony in cases like the prosecution of Dutch politician , who faced charges for anti-Islamic rhetoric while advocating bans on the , arguing that selective enforcement undermines the universality of free speech protections. This stance reflects his broader skepticism of "" laws, which he sees as subjective tools prone to abuse by authorities, echoing John Stuart Mill's that speech should only be curtailed for imminent harm, not mere offense. Buruma extended his defense to authoritarian contexts, decrying the 2021 closure of Hong Kong's newspaper under China's national security law as a blatant assault on press freedom, where pro-democracy voices were silenced through asset freezes and arrests of executives like . He argued that such actions exemplify how regimes exploit "security" pretexts to eliminate , contrasting this with Western tendencies toward via social norms. In "Banning Opinion" (2021), he questioned whether traditional free speech absolutism holds amid social media's amplification of , yet maintained that platform deplatforming and government mandates—like proposed digital regulations—risk privatized more insidious than state control. A pivotal moment came during his 2018 editorship at the New York Review of Books, where Buruma defended publishing Jian Liu's essay on his #MeToo accusation, insisting that excluding accused men's perspectives due to public backlash equates to ideological censorship, not editorial judgment. Despite resigning amid staff and subscriber uproar, he later reaffirmed in interviews that journals must publish unpopular views to fulfill their role in intellectual discourse, critiquing the episode as symptomatic of a on dissent. Buruma's position aligns with his writings on Spinoza, whom he portrays as an early victim of communal for heretical ideas, underscoring that suppressing inquiry in the name of historically hampers progress.

Critiques of Cancel Culture and Historical Reckoning

Buruma's resignation from the editorship of The New York Review of Books in September 2018, following the publication of Jian Ghomeshi's essay "Reflections from the Pit of #MeToo," highlighted his opposition to practices resembling . Ghomeshi, a Canadian broadcaster acquitted in criminal trials on charges but facing social after accusations from multiple women, presented his perspective on losing professional standing without judicial conviction. Buruma defended the decision to publish, stating it aimed to explore social sanctions rather than endorse Ghomeshi's conduct, emphasizing the need for diverse viewpoints to foster debate rather than conformity. He argued that excluding the accused's voice risked a one-sided narrative, particularly in cases where legal processes had not resulted in convictions. In subsequent interviews, Buruma characterized as fostering "timidity and fear and caution" among editors and writers, inhibiting provocative ideas essential for intellectual progress. He predicted its impermanence, asserting "nothing lasts, and there will be a against this," potentially from unexpected political quarters if it persists. Buruma linked such dynamics to broader threats against free speech, including generational tensions in #MeToo, which he viewed as a valid push for equality but also a " rebellion" prone to puritanical of nuance. He noted that post-resignation, certain outlets ceased inviting his contributions to avoid controversy, illustrating self-censorship's . Buruma extended these concerns to historical reckoning in works like his 1994 book The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan, where he analyzed national confrontations with World War II atrocities. He critiqued extremes in Germany's emphasis on collective guilt, which sometimes bordered on obsessive self-reproach and harassment of skeptics, and Japan's tendencies toward denial or minimization, evading accountability through victim narratives. Buruma advocated a measured approach, warning that unbalanced reckoning—whether through perpetual atonement or historical erasure—distorts public discourse and hinders pragmatic engagement with the past. In his 2024 biography Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah, he drew parallels between 17th-century excommunications, such as Baruch Spinoza's 1656 banishment from the Jewish community for heretical views, and modern cancellations, noting that "when people are banished from their community, or 'canceled' as people might now say, they can react in various ways." This framing positioned historical shunning as a precursor to contemporary practices that prioritize communal purity over rational inquiry.

Perspectives on Global Politics and Authoritarianism

Buruma has critiqued authoritarian regimes in Asia, particularly China's under , arguing that the system's centralized control exacerbated crises like the policy, leading to public unrest on a scale unseen since the 1989 protests. In a January 2023 analysis, he attributed China's economic and social distress not primarily to the virus but to the regime's intolerance for dissent and flexibility, contrasting this with more adaptive democratic responses elsewhere. He has long profiled Chinese dissidents in works like Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from to (2001), portraying them as resilient figures enduring imprisonment, exile, or surveillance for advocating political reform, which highlights the regime's suppression of individual agency. On , Buruma has drawn parallels to China's "authoritarian ," describing in a essay how both nations prioritize state-directed economic power over ideological export, enabling them to compete globally without adopting liberal norms. He views this model as eroding the post-Cold War liberal order, where autocrats exploit economic interdependence to blunt Western sanctions or criticisms. Buruma advocates bolstering defenses against such expansion, as in his support for U.S. commitment to in 2023, warning that allowing to absorb the island would legitimize authoritarian coercion and discourage democratic resistance worldwide. In Western contexts, Buruma expresses alarm over authoritarian drifts via , stating in a February 2025 interview that Donald Trump's second U.S. presidency from 2025 onward would inevitably damage democratic institutions through executive overreach and norm erosion, though he cautions against hyperbolic fears that alienate moderates. He links this to resurgent "fascist rhetoric" in events like and Trump's 2016 rise, noting in 2018 how demagogues exploit liberal freedoms—such as free speech—to undermine them, yet insists liberals must preserve those freedoms without descending into illiberal countermeasures. Buruma urges restraint against "ideological posturing" in response to authoritarian threats, arguing in late 2024 that overreactions risk fracturing liberal coalitions more than they strengthen them. Buruma's broader framework pits against not as an inevitable but as a contest where autocrats test liberal resilience through hybrid tactics—economic leverage, , and internal —requiring democracies to reaffirm and non-intervention principles without mimicking controls. He draws from historical precedents, like Singapore's "soft " critiqued in 1995 for prioritizing stability over , to warn that partial freedoms can mask deeper erosions of pluralism.

Recognition

Awards and Honors

Ian Buruma received the in 2006 for Murder in Amsterdam, recognized in the Current Interest category for its examination of the assassination of Theo van Gogh and its implications for in . In 2008, he was awarded the by the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation for his significant contributions to European culture, society, and social sciences through insightful writings on , , and identity. That same year, Buruma earned the Shorenstein Journalism Award from Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, honoring his distinguished body of work in reporting on . In 2015, his essay collection Theater of Cruelty: Art, Film, and the Shadows of War won the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, which included a $10,000 cash prize for preserving the essay form's literary dignity. Buruma was presented with the Gouden Ganzenveer (Golden Quill) in 2019 by the Royal Dutch Book Trade Association for his role in fostering international political discourse and promoting Dutch cultural influence abroad.

Personal Life

Family and Personal Relationships

Ian Buruma was born on 28 December 1951 in , , to a Dutch father and an English mother of German-Jewish descent named . His maternal grandparents, and Winifred Schlesinger, were a British-Jewish couple of German origin who married in the early and remained together for over 60 years until their deaths in the ; they endured separations during both World Wars while maintaining daily correspondence, which Buruma drew upon for his 2016 family memoir Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War. Buruma has described a close childhood bond with these grandparents, who influenced his cultural outlook through their assimilated Jewish identity and Anglophilia, including family Christmases that blended traditions despite their heritage. Buruma has at least one sister, with whom he shared formative holiday experiences at the grandparents' home. In his , Buruma spent his early twenties in , where he formed romantic relationships that shaped his later writings on culture, as recounted in his 2018 memoir A Tokyo Romance. He married Japanese Eri Hotta around 2008 after meeting her at , where she was pursuing a ; Hotta, born in 1971, is known for works on Japanese such as Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy. The couple collaborates intellectually, with overlapping interests in wartime , though Buruma has visited regularly post-marriage without relocating permanently.

Current Roles and Activities

As of 2025, Ian Buruma serves as the Paul W. Williams Professor of and at , where he teaches in programs including , , and Written Arts. In this role, he has engaged in academic discussions, such as a July 2025 podcast interview with Bard's Center on themes of decency in indecent societies, tied to his forthcoming contribution in Liberties journal. Buruma remains active as a freelance and commentator, contributing essays to outlets like , where he published pieces in January and September 2025 on Yukio Mishima's legacy and the concept of , respectively. He also writes for , addressing global issues such as in (July 2025) and in democratic alliances (March 2025). His scholarly output includes a forthcoming , Stay Alive: Berlin 1939-1945, scheduled for publication in March 2026 by .

Selected Publications

Major Books

Buruma's major books focus on historical memory, cultural clashes, and political transformations, drawing from his experiences in and . Among his most influential works is The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in and (1994), which compares the divergent approaches of postwar and to confronting their roles in atrocities, emphasizing 's emphasis on public acknowledgment and 's more selective remembrance. The book argues that societal accountability for collective actions shapes national psyches, with Buruma visiting sites of massacres, trials, and political discourse to illustrate these differences. Another key work, Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (2006), investigates the 2004 assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Moroccan-Dutch Islamist, using the event to probe the tensions arising from Muslim in the and the erosion of liberal tolerance. Buruma contextualizes the murder against the backdrop of prior killings, such as that of politician in 2002, highlighting debates over , integration, and free speech in a society strained by rapid demographic changes. Year Zero: A History of 1945 (2009) chronicles the chaotic transition from across and , detailing revenge killings, black markets, displaced populations, and early reconstruction efforts amid widespread hunger and moral disarray. The narrative underscores how the end of hostilities unleashed personal and societal reckonings, from in occupied territories to the seeds of new ideological conflicts, portraying 1945 as a pivotal rupture rather than a clean victory. Co-authored with , Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies (2004) dissects anti-Western ideologies as a mirror image of , tracing dehumanizing stereotypes of the West—portrayed as materialistic, godless, and domineering—from 19th-century European romantics to modern jihadists and fascists. Buruma and Margalit argue that these prejudices, fueled by resentment toward , justify violence by reducing Western societies to caricatures of urban decadence and devoid of spiritual depth. The book draws historical parallels across , the , and to explain enduring hostility toward liberal democracies.

Key Essays and Articles

Buruma's essays often explore intersections of culture, politics, and history, with a focus on Asia's legacies, , and Western intellectual trends, appearing in prominent periodicals like The New York Review of Books and . In "Why They Hate ," published in The New York Review of Books on September 21, 2006, Buruma analyzes persistent anti-Japanese animosity in and Korea, linking it to unaddressed atrocities from and , such as the , while noting how exacerbates these tensions despite economic interdependence. "Enter the Dragon," an essay in The Guardian dated December 9, 2005, critiques China's rapid economic ascent under rule, portraying it as a seductive alternative to that prioritizes stability and growth over individual freedoms, potentially influencing global norms. Buruma's 2015 piece "Asian Values RIP," published April 4 following Lee Kuan Yew's death on March 23, reevaluates the Singaporean leader's advocacy for culturally rooted as superior to Western democracy, arguing that such "values" justified suppression but faltered amid modernization and scandals like Singapore's 2015 election setbacks. In a July 2023 Harper's Magazine essay titled "Doing the Work: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Wokeness," Buruma posits that "woke" ideology mirrors Puritanism's moral absolutism, functioning as a class-signaling creed where adherents self-identify as elect, enforcing orthodoxy through public shaming rather than empirical debate, drawing parallels to historical religious fervor in America. "V.S. Naipaul, Poet of the Displaced," from The New York Review of Books on August 13, 2018—shortly after Naipaul's death on August 11—praises the Nobel laureate's for capturing rootless migrants' alienation but critiques his essentialist views on civilizations' hierarchies, attributing Naipaul's pessimism to personal from Trinidad and .

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