Shadow wonk

For author and strategic thinker George Friedman, all geopolitics is inevitable and impersonal | Marvin Olasky

Handout

"I am Hari Selden." That's what George Friedman told me in an email after I read a proof of his new book that is likely to hit the best-seller list next week, The Next 100 Years (Doubleday). But to understand the significance of that comment, you need some background.

Friedman is the CEO of Stratfor (Strategic Forecasting, Inc.), which Barron's calls "the shadow CIA." Stratfor publishes a highly informative daily intelligence briefing concerning developments around the world, and also has taken on special assignments for clients such as major companies and foreign governments.

Friedman founded Stratfor in 1996 as the culmination of a life of risk-taking. His parents, Holocaust survivors, escaped with him from Hungary in 1949 while he was still a baby. He came to the United States at age 3 and grew up in the dangerous terrain of the Bronx. He found libraries a safe haven and started reading more, eventually receiving a Ph.D. from Cornell in government, with an emphasis on Marxist political theory.