James O. Goldsborough is an award-winning writer with a 40-year career in journalism, specializing in foreign affairs. "The Misfortunes of Wealth: A Family Memoir," dealing with the disadvantages of inherited money, was published in September, 2008. James Goldsborough spent 15 years in Europe as a foreign correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, International Herald Tribune, Toronto Star and Newsweek Magazine before returning to America to resume his newspaper career as an editor and columnist for the San Jose Mercury-News and San Diego Union-Tribune. Currently, he writes a column for the Voice of San Diego, a new on-line daily newspaper in San Diego that has attracted national attention for news innovations.

James Goldsborough was named the Edward R. Murrow fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations for the year 1973-1974, and served as senior associate and director of European projects at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 1979-1983. While at Carnegie, he wrote “Rebel Europe: How America Can Live with a Changing Continent” (Macmillan, 1982). The book was acclaimed by Sen. J.W. Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as “the most perceptive and profound analysis of the reasons why the influence and prestige of the United States have suffered such a decline during the last twenty years.” Goldsborough has written on foreign affairs for many leading magazines (see links) including Foreign Affairs, the New York Times Magazine, Foreign Policy, Fortune and the Columbia Journalism Review. In addition, he has written monographs for the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the Henry L. Stimson Center. His monograph for the Stimson Center – “CNN Effect? The Media’s Role in Foreign Policy” – is a thorough examination of the interaction among media, public opinion and policy makers in the shaping of foreign policy.

He is a 1958 graduate of UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in economics and attended law school at the University of California’s Boalt Hall. He has also attended Mexico City College and the Goethe Institut in Berlin. He is fluent in French, German and Spanish. In 1958-1960 he served in the U.S. Army, attached to Special Services.

Goldsborough was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, 1974-1991; officer of the San Diego World Affairs Council, 1995-2001; member of the World Affairs Council of San Francisco, 1984-1986; co-founder of the World Forum of Silicon Valley, 1986; member of the Edward R. Murrow Selection Committee at the Council on Foreign Relations, 1981-1984, and board member of the American School in Paris, 1976-1979. He resides in San Diego. The Paris Herald is his first novel.