Geoffrey Cain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Geoffrey Cain | |
|---|---|
| Education | School of Oriental and African Studies |
| Occupations | Journalist and author |
| Years active | 2008-present |
| Known for | His books - Samsung Rising and The Perfect Police State |
Geoffrey Cain is an American journalist and author. He writes about geopolitics, national security, technology and multinational companies.[1] His reporting has been published in The Economist, Time, Wired (magazine), Foreign Policy, The New Republic and The Wall Street Journal. He is a regular commentator on Bloomberg TV, BBC, CNN, and NPR.
Cain is the author of the books, Samsung Rising[2] and The Perfect Police State. He received the citation for the Cornelius Ryan Award for The Perfect Police State.[3]
He has been accused of spying by news media aligned with the Cambodian People's Party. This was part of a political crackdown leading up to the arrest of Kem Sokha, the former leader of the now-disbanded opposition party, on treason charges.
Cain attended The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he received his BA. His studies continued in London, where he received an MA with distinction from the School of Oriental and African Studies. He was also a Fulbright scholar in Vietnam.[4]
Career
Cain began his career as a journalist in Asia, working mainly in Vietnam and Cambodia. From 2008 onwards, he worked for The Economist.[5][6]
In 2009, Cain settled in South Korea as a writer for Time, covering politics, business and culture in North and South Korea. In 2015, he took a train across North Korea, visiting Pyongyang and remote places in the north of the country.[7] His train journey received coverage in a number of newspapers in the west, including The Telegraph.[8]
In 2012, he joined GlobalPost as the Senior Correspondent for Japan and Korea.[9]
In 2014, Cain published a series of reports on labor crackdowns in Cambodia which resulted in a dispute with the Cambodian government.[10] His work on the subject led Cain to be a finalist for the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award.[11]
In August 2017, he was accused of spying on Cambodia by news media aligned with Prime Minister Hun Sen and collaborating with the opposition party, Cambodia National Rescue Party.[12] Cain flatly denied the claims, stating he knew Samathida Kem, the opposition leader's daughter, from a university in the United States.[13] In November 2017, he wrote an article for The Nation, speaking about Kem Sokha's arrest in September of that year.[14] By this point, the opposition leader had been charged with treason by the ruling party of Cambodia.[15]
During the same period, Cain reported on the alleged growing backlash in South Korea against the power of a number of large family-owned businesses, known as the chaebol. These included corporations such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG. He regularly commented in the media and wrote a number of articles on the subject of Samsung's involvement in the 2016 South Korean political scandal.[16] After Lee Jae-yong was arrested as part of a bribery scandal linked to a controversial 2015 merger,[17] and then was released from prison in February 2018 when a court reduced but upheld his bribery conviction, Cain frequently spoke about South Korea's alleged leniency on white collar crime.[18]
In 2022, Cain interviewed Ukrainian president Zelensky discussing how technology such as drones, volunteer hackers in Ukraine’s IT Army and tools like Starlink have transformed Ukraine’s war against Russia.[19] He wrote the legislation that governs US technology supply chains and testified before Congress on the national-security threats of TikTok and other apps.[20][21][22]
Cain served as an advisor to the United States House Foreign Affairs Committee, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, was a former senior fellow for advanced critical emerging technologies at Foundation for American Innovation and was a visiting senior fellow at the GeoTech Center at the Atlantic Council.[23][24][25]
Cain is also the Managing Partner of Alembic Partners[26] and Advisory Council Member of Tech Diplomacy.[27]
