Allow me to introduce you to the most exciting new media experiment. It began with a pledge to chronicle every national election everywhere in the world ... and that continues ... but now the mandate has expanded to include a weekly examination of how the world views America and how other nations themselves view the world...all through the medium of
SubStack.
It's called
Andelman Unleashed
Each week, I look at the world through the prism of media in every conceivable language, hopscotching across continents for our unique TWTW: The Week That Was.
And as a coda, there's a cartoon of the week, from the world's most original--and daring--artists, many drawn from the extraordinary ranks of our longtime partner
Cartooning for Peace.
Along the way there's been the addition of
Unleashed Voices and links to Chats. Banished from Twitter, I've found even more eloquent expression through
Notes, also from the inventive geniuses at
SubStack and open to every subscriber--free or paid!
Especially, you will always get the unfettered views and observations of an award-winning journalist who, for five decades, has traveled the world reporting from 86 countries (and counting!) for
The New York Times, CBS News, and elsewhere ... and today for
CNN Opinion!
But the beauty: It's all
free...and comes with a pledge:
It always will be
free !
So here is
A FREE LINK to SUBSCRIBE ... PLEASE DO... Make my efforts worthwhile ... that I'm not screaming into a void all alone!!
And if you've already subscribed, please don't hesitate to spread the word!
Now, Unleashed
is on the cusp of its next big leap....
At the appropriate level of
Free subscribers (already on five continents!), a lightly-paid tier will debut with the following exciting add-ons:
-
Unleashed Books.....reviews of extraordinary new works in French or in advance of publication at home or abroad.
- Weekly excerpts from my memoirs, still in gestation:
Don't Shoot, I'm an American Reporter, which chronicles my life and times as journalist, broadcaster and adventurer through 86 countries.
- A private email address for subscribers from
Proton for an open dialogue with yours truly.
- A monthly zoom coffee-hour free-for-all, open to all paid subscribers.
- Satisfaction that you'll be sponsoring all my future reportage and adventures.
When President Emmanuel Macron bestowed on me the rank of chevalier in the Légion d'Honneur, France's highest civilian decoration....
....Laeticia Garriott de Cayeux was generous enough to describe me in these words:
- By the time I first came to know David some twenty years ago, David was already among a very small group of widely recognized scholars on French-American relations. He had co-authored a book with a long-time head of French intelligence. One of his students briefly at Science Po, was even Francois Delattre, the youngest French ambassador appointed to the United States.....When he arrived in Paris as CBS News correspondent just as François Mitterrand was arriving for his first term as president, he was amply prepared to translate French society into terms an American audience could embrace. These were complex times. Bombs were exploding across Paris, there were conflicts in the last parts of French-speaking Africa and the Middle East. And when Mitterrand named four French communist party members to his cabinet, panicking President Ronald Reagan who sent his vice president George H. W. Bush racing to Paris to make sure France wasn't shipping NATO secrets to Moscow, David was in the Elysée courtyard to report Mitterrand's assurances…hold your friends close and your enemies closer.
Laetitia concluded by reading a letter from Patrice de Beer, longtime
Le Monde bureau chief in Washington and London, which said in part:
-
Tout d’abord je tiens à te féliciter, en tant qu’ami et ancien collègue journaliste, pour la Légion d’honneur qui t’est décernée aujourd’hui.
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Elle ne pourrait être mieux méritée. Et là, ce n’est plus l’ami, mais le journaliste, qui le dit. Excellent connaisseur de la France, celle d’aujourd’hui comme celle à la longue histoire, celle que négligent trop souvent les «spécialistes» trop focalisés sur l’écume et les modes du jour sans en rechercher les grands courants qui ont traversé son histoire. Pour le meilleur et pour le pire.
-
De la France, tu es un excellent connaisseur. Un ami, mais pas un ami intéressé. Pas un « ami » superficiel, comme les modes qui nous ont fait passer outre-Atlantique, d’une année sur l’autre. Tu n’as rien de ce qu’on appelle en anglais un «fair weather friend». Un ami intéressé par une quelconque breloque ou des apparences médiatisées.
-
Ta connaissance de la diplomatie dans le temps long, tes recherches historiques sur les frontières, sur la Première guerre mondiale, montrent chez toi un intérêt en profondeur, doublé d’une amitié. Mais une amitié qui sait aussi être critique, qui peut aussi nous rappeler que la France n’est pas uniquement ce pays «que le monde entier nous envie» comme s’en rengorgent trop souvent nos grands esprits, mais un pays qui a aussi ses faiblesses, ses défauts, le principal d’entre eux n’étant guère la modestie...
================================
Meanwhile!
Chronicling how we have arrived here is the heart of my latest book:
A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Still Might Happen
Published by Pegasus, distributed by Simon & Schuster.
At the same time, there is the remarkable 12-episode
podcast that I narrated:
A Red Line in the Sand
From Evergreen Podcasts, executive produced by Gerardo Orlando with producer Isabel Robertson.
It's available on Apple, Spotify or wherever you hear podcasts.
And The Reviews !
Sunday Morning, p.1 of the first
Washington Post Book World of 2021
“A book with broad ambitions, [and] a thorough primer on conflict or potential conflict zones around the globe, from North Korea to Iran to the eastern provinces of Congo. Along the way, Andelman weaves into the narrative several episodes from his remarkable journalistic career. A commendable work."
NBC's Tom Brokaw observed:
“As we are learning every day, the world is an ever more dangerous place, on a hair trigger from East to West, North to South. David Andelman, one of our most experienced national security journalists, gives us a timely, insightful analysis of the dangers and prospective solutions in this very welcome book.”
TUTTI QUANTI
Meanwhile, I will continue to write regularly for CNNOpinion from Paris, New York and a host of other places across the globe...exploring many of the critical issues of our times.
And on occasion I appear on CNN broadcasts as well.
Finally, for those who haven't followed me diligently on Facebook or LinkedIn, here's your chance!
Best regards,
David