Susan George

Susan George (June 29, 1934 – February 14, 2026) was an American and French political and social scientist, activist and writer on global social justice, Third World poverty, underdevelopment and debt. She was the president of the Transnational Institute, a think-tank located in Amsterdam. She was a fierce critic of the present policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (IBRD) and what she called their 'maldevelopment model'. She similarly criticized the structural reform policies of the Washington Consensus on Third World development. She was of U.S. birth but resided in France, and had dual citizenship since 1994.

Early life Born Susan Vance Akers on June 29, 1934, in Akron, Ohio, the only child of Edith and Walter Akers, Episcopalians who could trace their residency in the United States back to 1632. Her father was an insurance broker, and her mother was a homemaker and a member of the Junior League. Born during the Great Depression, she was raised in a privileged environment; she had a nursemaid and took dance classes, music lessons, and, at a YMCA, swimming lessons. George said that the Vietnam War "was this sort of gateway to understanding what America could be, which is to say something quite negative, which I had not understood at all when I lived there. I had accepted the usual propaganda." In 1971 she began working with the Front Solidarite Indochine, a group that organized antiwar lectures and protests in France. Shortly after, P.A.C.S. was dismantled by the French government. In 1984, she helped in organizing the World Food Assembly, a meeting held in Rome. She was awarded the title of honorary president in 2008.

George was involved with the World Social Forum since its inception in 2000, and the spin-off European Social Forum. Though she was critical of the forums' initial structure, and believed that more action outside of forums was needed to bring about change, she applauded the steps they made towards changing "the political landscape". She canvassed for Kerry in Pennsylvania, but wrote for in a piece for OpenDemocracy "we all thought [Kerry] had a very good chance, even though everyone admitted it was hard to get really enthusiastic about him.... The man isn't the most charismatic ever to walk the earth. But at least he's not a proto-fascist or a go-it-aloner, and that's what we seem—apart from a last-minute miracle—to be stuck with now. With four years clear ahead of him and no re-election to worry about, I fear Bush and the ghastly neo- con/neo-liberals around him will now go on the rampage. They can continue with impunity their attacks on the Constitution and on hard-won freedoms...". and appearing in the 2008 documentary film, The End of Poverty?.

George was the honorary president of ATTAC France. The couple soon started a family. Susan George obtained her French citizenship in 1994.

Honors Honorary president ATTAC Mentioned as honorary advisor of The Other Economic Summit