Ian Buruma
Ian Buruma is an Anglo-Dutch scholar and essayist born in 1951. A specialist in Chinese literature and contemporary Japan, he is professor of democracy, human rights and journalism at Bard College in New York. His numerous articles on key social issues and current affairs in Europe earned him the Erasmus prize in 2008. Considered one of the 100 most influential intellectuals in the world, he contributes regularly to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books.
In the wake of the British royal wedding, perhaps the most successful PR achieved by a monarchy in two decades, essayist Ian Buruma argues that monarchies keep countries together, put a lid on ethnic conflicts and dampen down populism.