Kozloff, Nikolas

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Kozloff, Nikolas

PERSONAL: Education: Attended University of Miami; Oxford University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Home— Carroll Gardens, NY.

CAREER: Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Washington, DC, senior research fellow.

WRITINGS

Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the United States, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Counterpunch, Political Affairs, and the Brooklyn Rail.

SIDELIGHTS: Nikolas Kozloff is a Latin American scholar and researcher who was trained at Oxford University. Kozloff publishes articles about Latin American politics, particularly that of Venezuela and the Hugo Chávez government, in various periodicals, including Counterpunch, Political Affairs, and the Brooklyn Rail.

Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the United States, Kozloff’s first published book, deals with the relations between Venezuela and its larger-than-life president and the United States. Chávez reformed Venezuela, the fifth-largest oil producer in the world, in a way that differed greatly from that of U.S. President George W. Bush and allied himself with international enemies of the Bush administration, causing a significant political and ideological challenge to U.S. hegemony in the region.

A Publishers Weekly reviewer noticed “a leftist bias toward Chávez” and found that the ample historical information mixed with personal stories of the Venezuelan leader created an “uneven read.” However, the reviewer called the book a “thoughtful, well-researched alternative to the majority of information available on Chávez in the English-speaking world.” Tony Pecinovsky, reviewing the book in People’s Weekly World, wrote that the book suffers from “little original research, ... wastes time on miniature biographies,” and contains too much of the author’s own life experiences mixed in. Library Journal reviewer Deborah Lee, however, found Hugo Chávez“useful both for its biographical background material on Chávez” and “its pertinent insights into his ways.”