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'''Timothy Garton Ash''' [[Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George|CMG]] [[Royal Society of Arts|FRSA]] (born 12 July 1955) is a [[British people|British]] [[historian]], author and commentator. He is Professor of European Studies at [[Oxford University]]. Much of his work has been concerned with the late modern and [[contemporary history]] of [[Central and Eastern Europe]].
He has written about the [[Communism|Communist]] regimes of that region, their experience with the secret police, the [[Revolutions of 1989]] and the transformation of the former [[Soviet Bloc|Eastern Bloc]] states into member states of the [[European Union]]. He has examined the role of Europe and the challenge of combining [[Political freedom|freedom]] and [[diversity (politics)|diversity]], especially in relation to [[free speech]].
==Education==
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Garton Ash describes himself as a [[liberal internationalist]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/13/liberal-internationalists-populists-globalisation|title=Liberal internationalists have to own up: we left too many people behind|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=12 September 2017}}</ref> He is a supporter of what he calls the "[[free world]]" and [[liberal democracy]], represented in his view by the [[European Union]], the [[United States]] as a super-power and [[Angela Merkel]]'s leadership of Germany. Garton Ash opposed [[Scottish independence]] and argued for [[Britishness]], writing in ''[[The Guardian]]'': "... being British has changed into something worth preserving, especially in a world of migration where peoples are going to become ever more mixed up together. As men and women from different parts of the former British empire have come to live here in ever larger numbers, the post-imperial identity has become, ironically but not accidentally, the most liberal, civic, inclusive one."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/03/scotland.devolution1|title=Independence for Scotland would not be good for England|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=12 September 2017}}</ref>
Garton Ash first came to prominence during the Cold War as a supporter of [[free speech]] and [[human rights]] within countries which were part of the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Eastern Bloc]], paying particular attention to Poland and Germany. In more recent times he has represented a British liberal pro-EU viewpoint, nervous at the rise of [[Vladimir Putin]], [[Donald Trump]] and [[Brexit]]. He is strongly opposed to conservative and populist leaders of EU nations such as [[Viktor Orbán]] of [[Hungary]], arguing that Merkel should "freeze him out", evoking "[[appeasement]]."<ref name="orban">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/12/viktor-orban-appeasement-merkel-centre-right-hungary|title=We know the price of appeasement. That’s why we must stand up to Viktor Orbán|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=12 September 2017}}</ref> Garton Ash was particularly upset about Orbán's move against [[George Soros]]' [[Central European University]].<ref name="orban"/> Anti-Soviet themes and Poland remain topics of interest for Garton Ash; once a promoter of the anti-Eastern Bloc movement in Poland, he notes with regret the move away from [[liberalism]] and globalism towards [[populism]] and [[authoritarianism]] under socially conservative political and religious leaders such as [[Jarosław Kaczyński]], in a similar manner to his criticisms of Hungary's Orbán.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/07/polish-democracy-destroyed-constitution-media-poland|title=The pillars of Poland’s democracy are being destroyed|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=12 September 2017}}</ref>
==Personal life==
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