Fred Halliday
Encyclopedia
Frederick Halliday, FBA (22 February 1946, Dublin, Ireland – 26 April 2010, Barcelona
, Catalonia, Spain) was an Irish
writer
and academic specialising in International Relations
and the Middle East, with particular reference to the Cold War
, Iran
, and the Arabian peninsula
.
(1953–1963) before going up to The Queen's College, University of Oxford
in 1964 to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), graduating in 1967, and then on to the School of Oriental and African Studies
(1969–1969). His doctorate at the London School of Economics
(LSE), on the foreign relations of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
, was awarded in 1985, 17 years after beginning it (Sale 2002). From 1973 to 1985, he was a fellow of the Transnational Institute
Amsterdam and Washington. From 1969 to 1983 he served as a member of editorial board of the New Left Review
.
In 1983, he took up a teaching position at the LSE and from 1985 to 2008 was Professor of International Relations there. After recovering from illness in the early 2000s, he was made Montague Burton Professor of International Relations
at the LSE in 2005, but in 2008 he retired and became an ICREA
research professor at IBEI, the Barcelona Institute for International Studies, in Barcelona
where he intensely collaborated with the LSE Alumni Association Spain.
Halliday was also a columnist for openDemocracy
and La Vanguardia
. In 2002, he was elected Fellow of the British Academy
.
A committed linguist, and advocate of the centrality of language to understanding contemporary globalisation, Halliday was competent in twelve languages, including Latin, Greek, Catalan, Persian, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic, and English. From 1965, he travelled widely in the Middle East, visiting every country from Afghanistan to Morocco, and giving lectures in most. He met and interviewed several key Islamic fighters, rebels, and religious leaders and politicians over the years.
Fred Halliday was highly skeptical of the cooperative projects planned between LSE and the Gaddafi Foundation
, the charitable foundation led by Saif al-Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi
. Halliday's views were expressed in a "Note of Dissent" addressed to the LSE Council on 4 October 2009.
and they have one son, Alex. His brother Jon Halliday
is also a historian.
on 26 April 2010, aged 64, after a year long battle with cancer
.
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Catalonia, Spain) was an Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and academic specialising in International Relations
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
and the Middle East, with particular reference to the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, and the Arabian peninsula
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
.
Biography
Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1946 to an English father, businessman Arthur Halliday, and an Irish mother, Rita (née Finigan), Halliday attended the Marist School, Dundalk (1950–1953) and Ampleforth CollegeAmpleforth College
Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, England, is the largest Roman Catholic co-educational boarding independent school in the United Kingdom. It opened in 1802, as a boys' school, and is run by the Benedictine monks and lay staff of Ampleforth Abbey...
(1953–1963) before going up to The Queen's College, University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
in 1964 to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), graduating in 1967, and then on to the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
(1969–1969). His doctorate at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
(LSE), on the foreign relations of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen — also referred to as South Yemen, Democratic Yemen or Yemen — was a socialist republic in the present-day southern and eastern Provinces of Yemen...
, was awarded in 1985, 17 years after beginning it (Sale 2002). From 1973 to 1985, he was a fellow of the Transnational Institute
Transnational Institute
Transnational Institute is an international think tank for progressive politics. It was established in 1973 in Amsterdam and serves as a network for scholars and activists...
Amsterdam and Washington. From 1969 to 1983 he served as a member of editorial board of the New Left Review
New Left Review
New Left Review is a 160-page journal, published every two months from London, devoted to world politics, economy and culture. Often compared to the French-language Les Temps modernes, it is associated with Verso Books , and regularly features the essays of authorities on contemporary social...
.
In 1983, he took up a teaching position at the LSE and from 1985 to 2008 was Professor of International Relations there. After recovering from illness in the early 2000s, he was made Montague Burton Professor of International Relations
Montague Burton Professor of International Relations
The Montague Burton Professorship of International Relations at the University of Oxford is one of the two main professorships of International Relations created by the endowment of Montague Burton in UK universities. The Oxford chair was established in 1930 and is associated with a Fellowship of...
at the LSE in 2005, but in 2008 he retired and became an ICREA
Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies
ICREA, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, is a foundation jointly promoted by the Catalan Government through its Ministry of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise, and the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation...
research professor at IBEI, the Barcelona Institute for International Studies, in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
where he intensely collaborated with the LSE Alumni Association Spain.
Halliday was also a columnist for openDemocracy
OpenDemocracy
openDemocracy is a website for debate about international politics and culture, offering news and opinion articles from established academics, journalists and policymakers covering current issues in world affairs. openDemocracy was founded in 2000 by Anthony Barnett, David Hayes, Susan Richards and...
and La Vanguardia
La Vanguardia
La Vanguardia is Catalonia's leading daily newspaper as well as the fourth best-selling in Spain. It has its headquarters in Barcelona, Catalonia's largest city....
. In 2002, he was elected Fellow of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
.
A committed linguist, and advocate of the centrality of language to understanding contemporary globalisation, Halliday was competent in twelve languages, including Latin, Greek, Catalan, Persian, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic, and English. From 1965, he travelled widely in the Middle East, visiting every country from Afghanistan to Morocco, and giving lectures in most. He met and interviewed several key Islamic fighters, rebels, and religious leaders and politicians over the years.
Fred Halliday was highly skeptical of the cooperative projects planned between LSE and the Gaddafi Foundation
LSE Libya Links
The affair of the LSE Libya Links refers to the various connections that existed between the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Libyan government and its leader Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The NGO Gaddafi Foundation pledged to donate £1.5 million over...
, the charitable foundation led by Saif al-Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
. Halliday's views were expressed in a "Note of Dissent" addressed to the LSE Council on 4 October 2009.
Family
Halliday was formerly married to Professor Maxine MolyneuxMaxine Molyneux
Maxine Molyneux is a sociologist whose work focuses on the women's movement.That women's interests and gender interests are different categories is the discovery for which Maxine Molyneux is most frequently cited. Her focus is women's movements and her central question is how they and the state...
and they have one son, Alex. His brother Jon Halliday
Jon Halliday
Jon Halliday is a historian of Russia and was a former Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London.Halliday authored a biography of filmmaker Douglas Sirk and has written and edited seven other books. He and his wife, Jung Chang, live in Notting Hill, West London...
is also a historian.
Death
Fred Halliday died in BarcelonaBarcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
on 26 April 2010, aged 64, after a year long battle with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
.
Books
- Edited and introduced Russia, China and the West 1953–1966, by Isaac Deutscher, OUP 1969, Penguin 1970. Serbo-Croat, German translations.
- Translated and introduced Marxism and Philosophy by Karl Korsch, NLB 1970.
- Arabia without Sultans, Penguin 1974, reprinted 1975, 1979; Italian, Japanese, Persian, Arabic, Turkish translations.
- Iran: Dictatorship and Development, Penguin 1978, reprinted 1979 twice; Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish German, Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Chinese translations.
- Mercenaries in the Persian Gulf, Russell Press, 1979. Persian translation.
- Soviet Policy in the Arc of Crisis, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, 1981: issued as Threat from the East? Penguin 1982; Japanese, French, Arabic translations.
- The Ethiopian Revolution, with Maxine Molyneux, Verso, London 1982.
- The Making of the Second Cold War, Verso, London 1983, reprinted 1984, 1986, 1988. German, Persian, Spanish, Japanese translations.
- State and Ideology in the Middle East and Pakistan, edited by Fred Halliday and Hamza Alavi, Macmillan, 1988.
- Cold War, Third World, Radius/Hutchinson, 1989. Published in USA as From Kabul to Managua, Pantheon, 1989. Arabic and Japanese translation.
- Revolution and Foreign Policy: the Case of South Yemen, 1967 1987, Cambridge University Press, 1990.
- Arabs in Exile, The Yemeni Community in Britain, I.B. Tauris, 1992. (new version 2010)
- Rethinking International Relations, Macmillan, 1994. Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese translations.
- From Potsdam to Perestroika, Conversations with Cold Warriors, (BBC News and Current Affairs Publications, 1995.
- Islam and the Myth of Confrontation, I.B. Tauris, 1996. Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Indonesian, Polish, Spanish translations.
- Revolution and World Politics: The Rise and Fall of the Sixth Great Power, Macmillan,1999. Turkish translation.
- Nation and Religion in the Middle East, London: Saqi BooksSaqi BooksSaqi Books is an independent UK publisher co-founded in 1984 by author and feminist Mai Ghoussoub to "print quality academic and general interest books on the Middle East". It now claims to be "the UK's largest publisher of Middle Eastern and Arabic titles"...
, 2000. Arabic translation - The World at 2000: Perils and Promises, Palgrave, 2001. Greek and Turkish translations.
- Two Hours That Shook the World. 11 September 2001, Causes and Consequences, London: Saqi, 2001. Arabic, Swedish translations.
- The Middle East in International Relations. Power, Politics and Ideology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Italian, Polish translation.
- 100 Myths About the Middle East. London: Saqi Books, 2005. Arabic, Italian, Turkish, Portuguese and Spanish translations.
- Britain's First Muslims, I.B.Tauris, 2010. (revised, new introduction, of 1992 book)
- Political Journeys: The openDemocracy Essays London: Saqi Books. 2011. (Collection of columns written for openDemocracy between 2004 and 2009)
- Shocked and Awed, Dictionary of Words and Phrases Occasioned by 9/11, I.B.Tauris, 2011. (final edits and additions made after his death)
- Language and Politics in the Middle East, SaqiBooks (was forecast; not yet published, 2011)
Interviews
- NPR, 13 October 1994: " ...the possible threat of another military showdown in Iraq."
- Peter SnowPeter SnowPeter Snow, CBE is a British television and radio presenter. He is the grandson of First World War general Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow, and cousin of Jon Snow, the main presenter of Channel 4 News, nephew of schoolmaster and bishop George D'Oyly Snow, and the brother-in-law of historian-writer Margaret...
, Interview: "About attempts to construct an alternative, broad based government to replace the Taliban", BBC, 28 October 2001. - John HumphrysJohn HumphrysDesmond John Humphrys , is a Welsh-born British author, journalist and presenter of radio and television, who has won many national broadcasting awards...
, Interview: "Will the talks in Germany on the future of Afghanistan lead to a genuinely broad based government?," BBC, 25 November 2001. - Nadeem Azam, Interview: "Are Islam and the West at Loggerheads?," 1lit.com, undated 2001/2002.
- Jennifer ByrneJennifer Byrne-Early life:Byrne attended St Margaret's School, Melbourne as a boarding student, and began her career in journalism at age 16 as a cadet at Melbourne's The Age newspaper. At age 23 she became the paper's San Francisco correspondent, and later a feature writer....
, Interview, ABC (Australia), 9 April 2002. - ESRC Society Today, 24 May 2005
- Jonathan Sale, "Passed/failed: Fred Halliday, Academic and Writer. 'My PhD thesis on South Yemen took me 17 years'", The Independent, 15 May 2002.
Articles and commentary
- Nadeem Azam, "Are Islam and the West at Loggerheads?" 1lit.com, undated 2001/2002
- Edward Russell-Walling, "The web of bilateral relations spun anew", Gulf News, 8 November 2001.
- Helena CobbanHelena CobbanHelena Cobban is a British-American writer and researcher on international relations, with special interests in the Middle East, the international system, and transitional justice. In March 2010, she founded a new book-publishing company, Just World Publishing, LLC...
, "Fred Halliday Misinformed?" Just World News, 2 February 2003. - Mohammed Almezel, "Full democracy not possible in Gulf region in foreseeable future, says British author", Gulf News, 3 January 2004.
- Fred Halliday, "LSE: and the Qaddafi Foundation: A Dissenting Note", 4 October 2009.
- Danny Postel, "Who Is Responsible? An Interview with Fred Halliday" 23 November 2005.