Robert W. Merry Named Editor of The National Interest

September 19, 2011 Topic: Media

Robert W. Merry Named Editor of The National Interest

WASHINGTON, September 16, 2011—The National Interest magazine announced today the appointment of distinguished publishing executive and author Robert W. Merry as the magazine’s new Editor. Merry, a former President and Editor-in-Chief of Congressional Quarterly, will assume leadership of the prominent foreign policy bimonthly on September 26. Merry will oversee the print magazine as well as the highly-successful web site www.nationalinterest.org, which was named one of the top five global news sites by Real Clear World after its re-launch in 2010.

Maurice R. Greenberg, the Chairman of the Center for the National Interest, which publishes the magazine, praised Merry’s selection. “Bob Merry is a proven leader in publishing and did great things at Congressional Quarterly. I am confident that his combination of intellectual excellence and industry experience will make a major contribution to The National Interest.”

Center President Dimitri K. Simes, who also serves as The National Interest’s Publisher, said “I am excited to have Bob Merry as a partner and colleague. In addition to his impressive background as an editor and publisher, Bob is a strategic thinker who will play a major role in sustaining and further defining The National Interest’s role as America’s pre-eminent realist foreign policy magazine—something especially important at a time of great uncertainty in our nation’s foreign policy.”

“I have long admired The National Interest as a leader in thoughtful and provocative debates on American foreign policy,” said Merry. “I am thrilled to take on this new challenge and look forward to working with Dimitri Simes and others to make an outstanding magazine even better.”

A career journalist, Merry served as a reporter for the Denver Post, National Observer, and The Wall Street Journal before joining Congressional Quarterly as Managing Editor. At Congressional Quarterly, he rose to become Executive Editor and later President and Editor-in-Chief, a position he held for twelve years, until a change in ownership. He is the author of three books, including the recent New York Times bestseller A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent, published by Simon & Schuster.

For further information, please contact Center Executive Director Paul J. Saunders at [email protected] or by telephone at 202-887-1000.