Pierre Hassner

Pierre Hassner (31January 193326 May 2018 ) was a Romanian-born French geopolitical scientist and philosopher.

He was director of research emeritus at Center for International Studies and Research and at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). He has also taught at the European Center at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna.

In 2003, he received the Alexis de Tocqueville award.

Biography Hassner was born in Bucharest, Romania. Hassner moved to France in 1948 at the age of fifteen with his parents who were fleeing the communist regime. The same year, he read The Great Schism by Raymond Aron, a book that left a deep impression upon him. He joined the École normale supérieure, obtaining the agrégation in philosophy in 1955. He became one of the students of Raymond Aron and Leo Strauss.

In his Memoirs published in 1983, Raymond Aron wrote: "In I do not know what circumstances, Pierre Hassner, who sometimes attended my classes, gave a brilliant, dizzying presentation on Thucydides ... I told him that never, from a student or teacher, had I heard a speech of comparable quality." Under the direction of Aaron, he had begun a thesis, that was never completed.

In 1957, he acquired French nationality.

From 1992, he assumed the presidency of the Kosovo Committee.

Hassner died in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.

Works Change and Security in Europe, Adelphi Papers 45 and 48, London, International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1968 "Kant" and "Hegel", edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, History of Political Philosophy, Chicago, 1973. La Revanche des passions: Métamorphoses de la violence et crises du politique, Paris, Fayard, 2015 Justifier la guerre? De l'humanitaire au contre-terrorisme (with Gilles Andréani, ed.), Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, 2005. La Terreur et l'Empire. La violence et la paix II, Paris, Le Seuil, 2003. Guerre et sociétés. États et violence après la guerre froide (with Roland Marchal, ed.), Paris, Karthala, 2003. Washington et le Monde. Dilemmes d'une superpuissance (with Justin Vaïsse), Paris, Autrement, 2003. La Violence et la Paix. De la bombe atomique au nettoyage ethnique, Paris, Le Seuil. (Coll. "Points"), 2000. Partial and augmented re-edition of four texts of the work published by Éditions Esprit in 1995.