Reihan Salam at the 2008 Texas Book Festival.

Reihan Morshed Salam (born December 29, 1979 [1]) is a Bangladeshi American conservative political writer and journalist. He writes a weekly column for Forbes.com, and is a fellow at the New America Foundation. He has written for numerous publications, including the National Review, Foreign Policy, Slate, The Spectator, The Weekly Standard, and The New York Sun.^[1] He previously worked as a producer for NBC News, a junior editor at The New York Times, and a reporter for The New Republic. He co-authored Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream^[2] with Ross Douthat and blogs regularly at The American Scene. In June 2009 he began writing a personal blog at National Review Online, titled The Agenda.^[3]

[edit] Early life

Salam was born in Brooklyn. His parents were Bangladeshi immigrants who had arrived in New York in 1976; his father was an accountant. He attended Stuyvesant High School (where he was head of the debate team) and matriculated at Cornell University (where he was designated a Telluride Scholar by the Telluride Association) before transferring to Harvard. As an undergraduate Salam was a member of the Signet Society and interned at The New Republic.^[4]

[edit] Political views

Salam is a conservative, and often described as a neoconservative.^[5] He has stated that he believes in a 'Pax Americana' foreign policy with deference to people such as Aaron Friedberg, Peter Feaver, and Fred Kagan, although that "doesn't mean that I agree with PNAC on every issue". He believes that family structure drives social welfare in the United States and that entrepreneurial growth comes from a more free market-driven "open" economy.^[6]

He opposes what he deems as common conservative "shibboleths". His personal goal is to "pump ideas into the bloodstream" of American conservatism.^[6]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Articles by Reihan Salam". New American Foundation. http://www.newamerica.net/people/reihan_salam/recent_work. Retrieved 2008-07-07. 
2. ^ Douthat, Ross Gregory; Reihan Salam (2008). Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0385519435. 
3. ^ http://agenda.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmM4NjlhMWE4OTE3ZTVmNDU4MzQ5N2QxMjQ1YTJkYTc=
4. ^ "New Star Rising", Razib Khan profiles Reihan Salam at The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
5. ^ http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/12/08/the-antiwar-right-our-time-is-near/
6. ^ ^{a b} What's on your mind? BloggingHeads.tv {Reihan Salam and Eric Alterman}. Recorded March 13, 2009. Posted March 16, 2009.

[edit] External links

• Profile of Salam at TheAmericanScene.com
• Profile of Salam at The New America Foundation site
• Slate articles by Salam
• Video debates featuring Reihan Salam on Bloggingheads.tv