F. William Engdahl
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Frederick William Engdahl (born August 9, 1944) is an American writer based in
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. He identifies himself as an "economic researcher, historian and freelance journalist." He is known for his views that the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, the
Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...
and the theory of
global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
are all conspiracies.
Tsering Shakya Tsering Wangdu Shakya () (born 1959) is a historian and scholar on Tibetan literature and modern Tibet and its relationship with China. He is currently Canadian Research Chair in Religion and Contemporary Society in Asia at the Institute of Asian ...

The Gulf Between Tibet and Its Exiles
''
Far Eastern Economic Review The ''Far Eastern Economic Review'' (FEER or The ''Review'') was an Asian business magazine published from 1946 to 2009. The English-language news magazine was based in Hong Kong and published weekly until it converted to a monthly publication ...
'', volume 171, number 4, May 2008
He has written extensively for the
LaRouche movement The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals. ...
,
Russia Today RT, formerly Russia Today (), is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television and free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as pro ...
and GlobalResearch.


Early life and education

Born in
Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
,
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
,
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, Engdahl is the son of F. William Engdahl Sr., and Ruth Aalund (b. Rishoff). Engdahl grew up in
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
and earned a degree in politics from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
in 1966 ( BA) followed by graduate study in comparative economics at the
Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...
from 1969 to 1970. He then worked as an economist and freelance journalist in New York and in Europe.


Career

Engdahl began writing about
oil politics Petroleum politics have been an increasingly important aspect of diplomacy since the rise of the petroleum industry in the Middle East in the early 20th century. As competition continues for a vital resource, the strategic calculations of major ...
with the first oil shock in the early 1970s. He has also been a long-time associate of the
LaRouche movement The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals. ...
and served as an economics editor for LaRouche's ''
Executive Intelligence Review ''Executive Intelligence Review'' (''EIR'') is a weekly newsmagazine founded in 1974 by the American political activist Lyndon LaRouche. Based in Leesburg, Virginia, it maintains offices in a number of countries, according to its masthead, inc ...
''. His first book, entitled ''A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order'', discusses the alleged roles of
Zbigniew Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński (, ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), known as Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter's National Securi ...
and George Ball and of the USA in the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran, which was meant to manipulate oil prices and to stop Soviet expansion. Engdahl says that Brzezinski and Ball used the Islamic
Balkanization Balkanization or Balkanisation is the process involving the fragmentation of an area, country, or region into multiple smaller and hostile units. It is usually caused by differences in ethnicity, culture, religion, and geopolitical interests. ...
model proposed by
Bernard Lewis Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British-American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near ...
. In 2007, he completed '' Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation'', in which he criticized
Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best-known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed ...
's strategy with GMO seeds, such as
Roundup A roundup is a systematic gathering together of people or things. Roundup, Round Up or Round-up may also refer to: Agriculture * A muster (livestock) (AU/NZ) or a roundup (US/CA) is the process of gathering livestock. * Roundup (herbicide), a M ...
Ready soybeans. He has also written for newsmagazines such as the ''
Asia Times ''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kongbased English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business, and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English and ...
''. Engdahl is a contributor to the Global Research website of the conspiracist Centre for Research on Globalization, the Russian website '' New Eastern Outlook'', and ''
Veterans Today ''Veterans Today'' is an American antisemitic and conspiracy theory website. It describes itself as a "military veterans and foreign affairs journal", while multiple sources describe it as a pro-Kremlin propaganda outlet. History ''Veterans T ...
'' (on whose advisory board he sits). He is a regular contributor to RT (formerly Russia Today) and
Voice of Russia Voice of Russia (), commonly abbreviated VOR, was the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service from 1993 until 2014, when it was reorganised as Radio Sputnik. Its interval signal was a chime version of 'Majestic' chorus from ...
. He is on the scientific committee of the far right journals ''Geopolitica'', alongside
Michel Chossudovsky Michel Chossudovsky (born 1946) is a Canadian economist and author. He is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa and the president and director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), which runs the website globalr ...
and others, and ''Eurasia'', alongside
Aleksandr Dugin Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin (; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian far-right political philosopher. He is the leading theorist of Russian neo-Eurasianism. Born into a military intelligence family, Dugin was an anti-communist dissident during the ...
and others. He was a keynote speaker at the conference "Geopolitics of Multipolarity", held at
Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
in 2011, alongside Dugin.


Personal life

William Engdahl has been married since 1987 and has been living for more than two decades near
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
, Germany.


Beliefs


George Soros conspiracies and color revolutions

Engdahl has written of the alleged secret power of Jewish financiers such as
George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...
and the
Rothschilds The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt. The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, ...
. Author Michael Wohlraich identifies Engdahl as the first US populariser of Soros conspiracy theories, noting that he wrote in the ''Executive Intelligence Review'' in 1996 that "The most important of such 'Jews who are not Jews,' are the Rothschilds, who launched Soros’s career. Soros is American only in his passport." This has been described by the anti-fascist group
Unicorn Riot Unicorn Riot is a decentralized, nonprofit, left-wing media collective that originated online in 2015. The group is known for reporting on far-right organizations and sources of racial and economic injustice in the US. The non-hierarchical media ...
as "an example of the anti-Semitic "
rootless cosmopolitan "Rootless cosmopolitan" ( ) was a pejorative epithet that was mostly applied to intellectuals and Jews with ties to the West during the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. It became especially prevalent during the country's anti-cosmopolitan c ...
" trope. Similarly, historian
Ivan Kalmar Ivan Kalmar (born February 13, 1948) is a Czechoslovakian-born Canadian professor. Early life Soon after Kalmar was born in Prague, his family moved to Komárno, and later to Bratislava. When he was seventeen, he left what was then Czechoslo ...
writes that it is "not clear where the Soros Myth began... A likely candidate for the dubious honour of originating it is the ''Executive Intelligence Review'' (EIR)... An article ritten by Engdahlin the 1 November 1996 edition accuses the financier of manipulating the world’s finances in partnership with the Rothschilds, who ‘launched Soros’s career’". In 2008, Engdahl alleged in GlobalResearch that the 2008 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule was engineered by the Soros family and US government - "the American government, specifically the US State Department, the
National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization in the United States founded in 1983 with the stated aim of advancing democracy worldwide and counter communism, communist influence abroad, by prom ...
(NED), the ‘
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
's
Freedom House Freedom House is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, Freedom (political), political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wi ...
’ and the Trace Foundation, run by Andrea Soros Colombel, daughter of the financier George Soros, orchestrated an ‘ultra-high risk geopolitical game with Beijing by fanning the flames of violence in Tibet’ through Tibetan NGOs in exile" - an analysis taken up by Chinese media but derided as "‘insinuations’ and ‘simplistic arguments based on “guilt by association”'" by Tibet expert
Tsering Shakya Tsering Wangdu Shakya () (born 1959) is a historian and scholar on Tibetan literature and modern Tibet and its relationship with China. He is currently Canadian Research Chair in Religion and Contemporary Society in Asia at the Institute of Asian ...
. More recently, the geography lecturer
Alexander Reid Ross Alexander Reid Ross is an American author and adjunct geography lecturer at Portland State University with fellowships at the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR) in the UK and at Political Research Associates. He is author of ''A ...
wrote that Engdahl had posited a conspiracy theory that Soros' “oily hands” were involved in the Serbian political group
Otpor Otpor ( sr-Cyrl, Отпор!, , stylized as Otpor!) was a political organization in Serbia (then part of FR Yugoslavia) from 1998 until 2004. In its initial period from 1998 to 2000, Otpor began as a civic protest group, eventually turning into ...
. Engdahl also alleged that the
Euromaidan Euromaidan ( ; , , ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv. The p ...
uprising in
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
was the well-orchestrated work of a US-funded organization with its origins in Belgrade.


Abiogenic petroleum

Engdahl stated in 2007 that he had come to believe that
petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...
is of geological origin, a view contrary to the scientific understanding that it is of biological origin. He believes oil to be produced from carbon, by forces of heat and pressure deep underground. Engdahl calls himself an "ex
peak oil Peak oil is the point when global oil production reaches its maximum rate, after which it will begin to decline irreversibly. The main concern is that global transportation relies heavily on gasoline and diesel. Adoption of electric vehicles ...
believer", stating that peak oil is actually a political phenomenon known as petrodollar warfare.


Skepticism of global warming

Engdahl argued in 2009 that the problem of global warming is much exaggerated. He claims that
global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
is merely a "scare" and a "thinly veiled attempt to misuse climate to argue for a new
Malthusian Malthusianism is a theory that population growth is potentially exponential, according to the Malthusian growth model, while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of trig ...
reduction of living standards for the majority of the world while a tiny elite gains more power."


Bill Gates/vaccine conspiracy theories

A 2010 article by Engdahl, published by websites including Prison Planet and
Voltaire Network The Voltaire Network (, ) is an international non-profit advocacy and alternative media organisation founded and led by French journalist Thierry Meyssan. It specialices in international relations and has become known for advocating conspiracy ...
and later cited by
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. (born January 17, 1954), also known by his initials RFK Jr., is an American politician, environmental lawyer, author, conspiracy theorist, and anti-vaccine activist serving as the 26th United States secretary of heal ...
and
Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American Far-right politics, far-right radio host, radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas. ''The Alex Jones Show'' is the lo ...
, was key to the spread of conspiracy theories about
Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...
promoting vaccines as part of a secret programme to control population: "it avers that Gates, Buffett, and
Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...
are driving a ‘Global
Eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...
agenda,’ while Gates himself ‘expects vaccines to be used to reduce population growth.’"


Greater Middle East Project theories

According to Engdahl in 2014, the ultimate goal of the US is to take the resources of
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
and Middle East under military control to block economic growth in China and Russia.


Turkey and the CIA role in global politics

Engdahl believes that the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
is behind several historical revolutions, including the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979 and the
2011 Egyptian revolution The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January Revolution (;), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police holiday" as a statement against ...
. In 2016 an article by Engdahl circulated widely in
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
which alleged that the
2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt In the evening of 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted ...
was engineered by
Zbigniew Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński (, ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), known as Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter's National Securi ...
, based on an article in by Brzezinki supposedly published in ''
The National Interest ''The National Interest'' (''TNI'') is an American bimonthly international relations magazine edited by American journalist Jacob Heilbrunn and published by the Center for the National Interest, a public policy think tank based in Washington, ...
'' but in fact fabricated by Engdahl. ''
Al-Monitor ''Al-Monitor'' is a news website launched in 2012 by the Arab-American entrepreneur Jamal Daniel. Based in Washington, D.C., ''Al-Monitor'' provides reporting and analysis from and about the Middle East. ''Al-Monitor'' is the recipient of the I ...
'' described how in August 2016 Engdahl told a right-wing Russian think tank that "Former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council of the CIA, Graham E. Fuller, was on
Princes' Islands The Princes' Islands (; the word "princes" is plural, because the name means "Islands of the Princes", , ''Pringiponisia''), officially just Adalar (); alternatively the Princes' Archipelago; is an archipelago off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, ...
, 20 minutes from
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, the entire night of the coup, monitoring developments until the coup collapsed" - when in fact Fuller was in Washington. ''Al-Monitor'' describe Engdahl's intervention as part of a collaborative Russian-Turkish disinformation campaign.


Selected publications

* ''A Classical KGB Disinformation Campaign: Who Killed Olof Palme?'', with Goran Haglund, William Jones, and Paolo Serri.
EIR In Norse mythology, Eir (Old Norse: , "protection, help, mercy"Orchard (1997:36).) is a goddess or valkyrie associated with medical skill. Eir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the ...
Special Report (1986).
''A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order''.
London:
Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...
(2004), revised ed. ; Progressive Press (2012). . * '' Seeds of Destruction. The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation''. Centre for Research on Globalization (2007). .
''Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order''.
Boxboro, Mass.: Third Millennium Press (2009). ; Progressive Press (2011). .
''Gods of Money: Wall Street and the Death of the American Century.''
Wiesbaden: edition.engdahl (2010). ; Progressive Press (2011). .
''Myths, Lies and Oil Wars''.
Wiesbaden: edition.engdahl (2012). . * ''Target: China -- How Washington and Wall Street Plan to Cage the Asian Dragon''. San Diego, Calif.: Progressive Press (2014). German and Chinese editions (2013). * ''The Lost Hegemon: Whom the Gods Would Destroy''. Wiesbaden: mine.books (2016). * ''Manifest Destiny: Democracy as Cognitive Dissonance''. Wiesbaden: mine.books (2018). .


References


External links


Official site

William Engdahl
at
IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

Video interviews with Engdahl
on
The Real News The Real News Network (TRNN) is a news organization based in Baltimore, Maryland, that covers both national and international news. It includes both for-profit arm and non-profit organizations. History TRNN was founded by documentary producer ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engdahl, F. William 1944 births American economics writers American emigrants to Germany American male non-fiction writers American political writers LaRouche movement Living people Princeton University alumni Stockholm University alumni American conspiracy theorists