Walter Laqueur


Walter Ze'ev Laqueur was an American historian, journalist and political commentator. He was an influential scholar on the subjects of terrorism and political violence.

Biography

Walter Laqueur was born in Breslau, Lower Silesia, Germany, into a Jewish family. In 1938, he left Germany, immigrating to the British Mandate of Palestine. His parents, who were unable to leave, were murdered in the Holocaust. After a year of study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Laqueur joined a kibbutz and worked as an agricultural laborer from 1939 to 1944. Between 1939 and 1944, he lived at Kibbutz Sha'ar HaGolan, Kibbutz Ein Shemer, and, as a member, Kibbutz HaZore'a. In 1955, Laqueur moved to London.
Laqueur died at his home in Washington, D.C., on 30 September 2018.

Journalism and academic career

From 1944, when he moved to Jerusalem, until his departure in 1955 he worked as a journalist for the Hashomer Hatzair newspaper, Mishmar, and for The Palestine Post. In addition, he was the Middle East correspondent for journals in the United States and a commentator on world politics for Israel radio.
After moving to London, Laqueur founded and edited Soviet Survey, a journal focusing on Soviet and East European culture. Survey was one of the numerous publications of the CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom.
He was Director of the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library in London from 1965 to 1994. He was founder and editor, with George Mosse, of the Journal of Contemporary History. From 1969 he was a member, and later Chairman, of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington. He was also founding editor of The Washington Papers. He was Professor of the History of Ideas at Brandeis University from 1968 to 1972, and University Professor at Georgetown University from 1976 to 1988. He was also a visiting professor of history and government at Harvard, the University of Chicago, Tel Aviv University and Johns Hopkins University.
Laqueur wrote extensively about the middle east, the German Youth Movement, Zionism, the cultural history of the Weimar Republic, Communism and the Soviet Union, the Holocaust, the Cold War, fascism, post-WW2 Europe and the decline of Europe. He pioneered the study of guerrilla warfare and terrorism. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he accurately predicted that Russia would not become a democracy but an authoritarian system based on nationalist populism. His books have been translated into many languages. His articles on international affairs appeared in many American and European newspapers and periodicals.

Publications