Oliver Kamm
Encyclopedia
Oliver Kamm is a British writer and journalist. He wrote Anti-Totalitarianism: The Left-wing Case for a Neoconservative Foreign Policy (2005), an advocacy of interventionism
in foreign policy.
He is a leader writer and columnist for The Times
.
, Kamm was educated at New College
, Oxford and Birkbeck College
, University of London
. He went on to a career in the Bank of England
and the securities industry, including as the Head of Strategic Research at Commerzbank Global Equities in London. He helped start a pan-European investment bank
in 1997.
He is a former investment banker.
. Kamm's early activities in Labour included canvassing
in Leicester South
in the 1979
general election, which saw Margaret Thatcher
become Prime Minister. While he continued to vote Labour into the 1980s,
he eventually became dissatisfied with the party's leadership and policies, particularly its stance on nuclear disarmament
, and left the party altogether in 1988.
He worked for the 1997 election
campaign of Martin Bell
, who is his uncle,
against incumbent Neil Hamilton
, drafting a manifesto "so right-wing that Hamilton was incapable of outflanking it."
That year saw the election of the 'New Labour' government of Tony Blair
, which Kamm strongly supported, particularly its foreign policy and 'liberal interventionism'. Although generally supportive of the Labour Party in the 2005 general election
, Kamm stated that he could not support Celia Barlow
, the Labour candidate in his local constituency, Hove
, because of her opposition to Blair's foreign policies. Instead, he stated that he would vote for the Conservative
candidate, Nicholas Boles
, who supported the Iraq war.
A founding member of the Henry Jackson Society
, Kamm supported the 2003 Invasion of Iraq
. In 2004, he outlined a case for supporting the re-election
of George W. Bush
. In 2006, he was a signatory to the Euston Manifesto
, arguing for a reorientation of the left around what its creators termed 'anti-totalitarian' principles. He favourably commented on Peter Beinart
's The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again, which has similar themes to Kamm's own book, arguing that the left should look to the policies of Clement Attlee
and Harry S. Truman
in the early days of the Cold War
as a model for response to Islamism
and totalitarianism.
On 27 January 2010, Kamm announced on BBC Radio 5 live that he believed Tony Blair had been the greatest peacetime Prime Minister of the 20th century.
Because of his position on war and terrorism, critics such as Peter Wilby
have stated that he is not actually left-wing at all. Kamm rejects this criticism, saying that he "claim[s] to be left-wing, for the straightforward reason that it's true". He elaborates on his support for left-wing policies such as economic redistribution, progressive taxation and a welfare state. He also supports legal abortion and gay marriage.
Regarding socialism
, Kamm wrote that former Prime Minister James Callaghan
's "greatest single achievement" was to "destroy socialism as a serious proposition in British politics." He has also supported the rendition of suspected terrorists.
Kamm has written in Index on Censorship
in response to the 2009 visit of Geert Wilders
argued that "No one has a right in a free society to be protected from anguish".
Regarding the bombing of Dresden
, he has asserted that the bombing of the city "was not a crime. It was a terrible act in a just and necessary war."
In September 2011, Kamm wrote in the New Statesman
that he supports the Euro
and admonishes Labour's recent criticisms of it: "Monetary union is not the cause of the crisis. Done properly, it may help insulate member states from disruptive volatility in the international capital markets".
, with his work appearing in David Horowitz
's FrontPage Magazine. His thoughts on Chomsky are summarised in an article
for Prospect
magazine opposing a readers' poll choice of Chomsky in the top position for its 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll.
Chomsky in turn accused Kamm of "transparent falsification" and claimed that Kamm's article demonstrated "the lengths to which some will go to prevent exposure of state crimes and their own complicity in them". Kamm replied by accusing Chomsky of "polemical distortions" including quoting himself selectively.
Kamm continued to comment about Chomsky’s political writings on his blog.
In 2005 Kamm maintained that the “leitmotif of [Chomsky's] entire political output, to which he returns again and again, is that the US is morally inferior to Nazi Germany.” In At War With Asia Chomsky wrote that “Nazi Germany was sui generis, of that there is no doubt. But we should have the courage and honesty to face the question whether the principles applied to Nazi Germany and fascist Japan do not, as well, apply to the American war in Vietnam.”
Interventionism (politics)
Interventionism is a term for a policy of non-defensive activity undertaken by a nation-state, or other geo-political jurisdiction of a lesser or greater nature, to manipulate an economy or society...
in foreign policy.
He is a leader writer and columnist for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
.
Background
The son of translator Anthea BellAnthea Bell
Anthea Bell OBE is a British translator who has translated numerous literary works, especially children's literature, from French, German, Danish and Polish to English...
, Kamm was educated at New College
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
, Oxford and Birkbeck College
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
, University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. He went on to a career in the Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
and the securities industry, including as the Head of Strategic Research at Commerzbank Global Equities in London. He helped start a pan-European investment bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
in 1997.
He is a former investment banker.
Politics
Kamm describes his politics as left-wingLeft-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
. Kamm's early activities in Labour included canvassing
Canvassing
Canvassing is the systematic initiation of direct contact with a target group of individuals commonly used during political campaigns. A campaign team will knock on doors of private residences within a particular geographic area, engaging in face-to-face personal interaction with voters...
in Leicester South
Leicester South (UK Parliament constituency)
Leicester South is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament , by the first past the post voting system...
in the 1979
United Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...
general election, which saw Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
become Prime Minister. While he continued to vote Labour into the 1980s,
he eventually became dissatisfied with the party's leadership and policies, particularly its stance on nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated....
, and left the party altogether in 1988.
He worked for the 1997 election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
campaign of Martin Bell
Martin Bell
Martin Bell, OBE, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician...
, who is his uncle,
against incumbent Neil Hamilton
Neil Hamilton (politician)
Mostyn Neil Hamilton is a former British barrister, teacher and Conservative MP. Since losing his seat in 1997 and leaving politics, Hamilton and his wife Christine have become media celebrities...
, drafting a manifesto "so right-wing that Hamilton was incapable of outflanking it."
That year saw the election of the 'New Labour' government of Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, which Kamm strongly supported, particularly its foreign policy and 'liberal interventionism'. Although generally supportive of the Labour Party in the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
, Kamm stated that he could not support Celia Barlow
Celia Barlow
Celia Anne Barlow is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Hove from 2005 to 2010.-Early life:Barlow was born in Cardiff, Wales, and attended King Edward High School for Girls in Birmingham...
, the Labour candidate in his local constituency, Hove
Hove (UK Parliament constituency)
Hove is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
, because of her opposition to Blair's foreign policies. Instead, he stated that he would vote for the Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
candidate, Nicholas Boles
Nicholas Boles
Nicholas Edward Coleridge "Nick" Boles is a British Conservative Party politician who is the Member of Parliament for the Grantham and Stamford constituency in Lincolnshire...
, who supported the Iraq war.
A founding member of the Henry Jackson Society
Henry Jackson Society
The Henry Jackson Society is a non-partisan association. The society's goals include the promotion of "democratic geopolitics". The society is named after after Henry M. Jackson, the late Democratic Senator from Washington State...
, Kamm supported the 2003 Invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
. In 2004, he outlined a case for supporting the re-election
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
of George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. In 2006, he was a signatory to the Euston Manifesto
Euston Manifesto
The Euston Manifesto is a 2006 declaration of principles by a group of academics, journalists, and activists based in the United Kingdom. The statement is a reaction to what are asserted to be widespread violations of leftist principles by others who are commonly associated with the political Left...
, arguing for a reorientation of the left around what its creators termed 'anti-totalitarian' principles. He favourably commented on Peter Beinart
Peter Beinart
-Early life and education:Beinart was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of South African immigrants. His mother, Doreen, works at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his father, Julian Beinart, is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His stepfather is theatre...
's The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again, which has similar themes to Kamm's own book, arguing that the left should look to the policies of Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
and Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
in the early days of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
as a model for response to Islamism
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
and totalitarianism.
On 27 January 2010, Kamm announced on BBC Radio 5 live that he believed Tony Blair had been the greatest peacetime Prime Minister of the 20th century.
Because of his position on war and terrorism, critics such as Peter Wilby
Peter Wilby (UK journalist)
Peter John Wilby is a British journalist.Wilby was educated at Kibworth Beauchamp grammar school in Leicestershire before graduating with a degree in History from the University of Sussex, where he helped found a short-lived university paper called Sussex Outlook. In 1968 he started writing for...
have stated that he is not actually left-wing at all. Kamm rejects this criticism, saying that he "claim[s] to be left-wing, for the straightforward reason that it's true". He elaborates on his support for left-wing policies such as economic redistribution, progressive taxation and a welfare state. He also supports legal abortion and gay marriage.
Regarding socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, Kamm wrote that former Prime Minister James Callaghan
James Callaghan
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC , was a British Labour politician, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980...
's "greatest single achievement" was to "destroy socialism as a serious proposition in British politics." He has also supported the rendition of suspected terrorists.
Kamm has written in Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship is a campaigning publishing organisation for freedom of expression, which produces an award-winning quarterly magazine of the same name from London. The present chief executive of Index on Censorship, since 2008, is the author, broadcaster and commentator John Kampfner, former...
in response to the 2009 visit of Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders is a Dutch right-wing politician and leader of the Party for Freedom , the third-largest political party in the Netherlands. He is the Parliamentary group leader of his party in the Dutch House of Representatives...
argued that "No one has a right in a free society to be protected from anguish".
Regarding the bombing of Dresden
Bombing of Dresden in World War II
The Bombing of Dresden was a military bombing by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force and as part of the Allied forces between 13 February and 15 February 1945 in the Second World War...
, he has asserted that the bombing of the city "was not a crime. It was a terrible act in a just and necessary war."
In September 2011, Kamm wrote in the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
that he supports the Euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
and admonishes Labour's recent criticisms of it: "Monetary union is not the cause of the crisis. Done properly, it may help insulate member states from disruptive volatility in the international capital markets".
Criticism of Noam Chomsky
Kamm has criticised the linguist and political writer Noam ChomskyNoam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, with his work appearing in David Horowitz
David Horowitz
David Joel Horowitz is an American conservative writer and policy advocate. Horowitz was raised by parents who were both members of the American Communist Party. Between 1956 and 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left before rejecting Marxism completely...
's FrontPage Magazine. His thoughts on Chomsky are summarised in an article
for Prospect
Prospect (magazine)
Prospect is a monthly British general interest magazine, specialising in politics and current affairs. Frequent topics include British, European, and US politics, social issues, art, literature, cinema, science, the media, history, philosophy, and psychology...
magazine opposing a readers' poll choice of Chomsky in the top position for its 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll.
Chomsky in turn accused Kamm of "transparent falsification" and claimed that Kamm's article demonstrated "the lengths to which some will go to prevent exposure of state crimes and their own complicity in them". Kamm replied by accusing Chomsky of "polemical distortions" including quoting himself selectively.
Kamm continued to comment about Chomsky’s political writings on his blog.
In 2005 Kamm maintained that the “leitmotif of [Chomsky's] entire political output, to which he returns again and again, is that the US is morally inferior to Nazi Germany.” In At War With Asia Chomsky wrote that “Nazi Germany was sui generis, of that there is no doubt. But we should have the courage and honesty to face the question whether the principles applied to Nazi Germany and fascist Japan do not, as well, apply to the American war in Vietnam.”