Jean-Pierre Filiu

Jean-Pierre Filiu (born in Paris, 1961) is a French professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs. A historian and an Arabist, he has also been visiting professor at Columbia University (New York City, NY) and Georgetown University (Washington, DC). He has been invited as a guest speaker to various American universities and think tanks,[1] including the Harvard Kennedy School (Cambridge, MA)[2] and the James Baker Institute (Houston, TX).[3] His "Apocalypse in Islam"[4] was awarded the main prize (Augustin-Thierry) by the French History convention (Rendez-vous de l'Histoire), held every October in the city of Blois (this book, published in 2011 by the University of California Press is a in-depth study of Islamic eschatology and its contemporary narratives).

Jean-Pierre Filiu
Jean-Pierre Filiu at the L’année vue par l'histoire forum organized by France Culture, 25 April 2015
Born (1961-12-19) 19 December 1961
Paris, France
NationalityFrench
EducationINALCO
Sciences Po
OccupationHistorian
Islamologist

Before joining Sciences Po in 2006, Jean-Pierre Filiu was a career-diplomat who served as a junior officer in Jordan and the US, before becoming the French Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in Syria (1996–99) and in Tunisia (2002-2006). Filiu was also diplomatic adviser to the French minister of Interior (1990–91), the minister of Defense (1991–93) and the Prime Minister (2000-2002). He was one of the ten independent experts that President François Hollande designated to contribute to the 2013 White Book for National Defense and Security.

Jean-Pierre Filiu authored some twenty books, including "The Arab Revolution, ten lessons from the democratic uprising",[5] published in 2011 by C. Hurst & Co. (in the UK) and Oxford University Press (in the USA). This was the first academic attempt at explaining the movement that led to the demise of the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt in January–February 2011. He later authored, also with Hurst (UK) and Oxford University Press (USA), "Gaza, a history" (2014, Palestine Book Award) and "From Deep State to Islamic State, the Arab counter-revolution and its jihadi legacy" (2015). With the same two publishers in the UK and the USA, he edited, along with Stéphane Lacroix, "Revisiting the Arab uprisings, the politics of a revolutionary moment" (2018). His previous research focused on the multi-faceted adaptation of Islam to globalized modernity. He described the conflicting dialectics between local and global jihad. And he highlighted how radical movements try to "modernize" traditional concepts, giving them a new meaning previously unknown in Islam, for instance in the case of the caliphate.[6] His works have been translated and/or published in some fifteen languages.

He has been interviewed by Christiane Amanpour,[7] by BBC/The World [8] and is a frequent guest to the English-speaking branch of France 24.[9] He has also published five graphic novels, including Best of Enemies (SelfMadeHero, 2012), illustrated by David B. Finally, he wrote the lyrics of two popular songs, one about life in the Gaza strip,[10] the other about the Syrian revolution.[11]

References
  1. Lecture at the New America Foundation, on February 15, 2010
  2. Lecture at the Belfer Center, March 5, 2013
  3. Lecture at the James Baker Institute, March 27, 2012
  4. Presentation in Washington, on October 29, 2008
  5. Review in the Telegraph (UK)
  6. Articles in Prospect magazine and in Le Monde diplomatique
  7. ABC "Around the world", January, 17, 2013
  8. and the Arab spring, March 5, 2013
  9. Ramadan in revolutionary Aleppo, July 31, 2013
  10. Video-clip of "One life less" with English subtitles
  11. Video-clip of the "Lady from Damascus", with Arabic subtitles
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