Edward AldenSpeaker and Booking Agent Information

Alden was recently the project director of a CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force, co-chaired by former Michigan Governor John Engler and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, that published the study The Work Ahead: Machines, Skills, and U.S. Leadership in the Twenty-First Century.

He was the project codirector of the Independent Task Force that published US Trade and Investment Policy in 2011. He was the project director of the Independent Task Force that created U.S. Immigration Policy in 2009. The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security was Alden's previous book.

In 2009, he was a nominee for the Lukas Book Prize for narrative nonfiction. Alden's book was described by the jury as "a magnificent effort of extensive reporting, fair-minded analysis, and structurally solid reasoning." Alden was formerly the Financial Times' Washington bureau head, and before that, the newspaper's Canada bureau chief, located in Toronto.

He was a reporter for the Vancouver Sun and the managing editor of the journal Inside U.S. Trade, which was generally regarded as a major source of information on U.S. trade policies. Alden's work has earned him a number of national and international honors.

He has been on various TV and radio shows as a political and economic expert, including the BBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, and PBS NewsHour. Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Fortune, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Toronto Globe and Mail, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post have all published his work.

Alden graduated from the University of British Columbia with a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in international relations. Before returning to journalism, he undertook PhD studies. Alden has received several academic honors, including a Mellon Humanities Fellowship and a MacArthur Foundation Graduate Fellowship.