Michael Brecher

{{Short description|Canadian political scientist (1925–2022)}}

{{for|the American jazz musician|Michael Brecker}}

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Michael Brecher (14 March 1925 – 16 January 2022) was a Canadian political scientist and teacher in Quebec.

Life and career

Brecher was born on 14 March 1925 to a Jewish family. He obtained his PhD in International Relations from Yale University in 1953, and joined the faculty of McGill University in 1954. He was R.B. Angus Professor of Political Science at McGill University until his retirement. His areas of research included; theory of crisis, conflict and war, protracted conflicts/enduring rivalries, foreign policy theory, international systems, the Middle East and South Asia international relations.McGill University website, Dept. of Political Science He founded the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute to promote cultural and research exchanges between Canada and India.{{cite web |last1=Robbins |first1=Eric |title=Academic Michael Brecher mesmerized all with his stories of adventure and research |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article-academic-michael-brecher-mesmerized-all-with-his-stories-of-adventure/ |website=The Globe and Mail |access-date=7 September 2024 |date=4 May 2022}}

He retired after 69 years, thereafter becoming R.B. Angus Professor of Political Science Emeritus, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada. Brecher died on 16 January 2022, at the age of 96.{{cite web |title=Michael Brecher |url=https://montrealgazette.remembering.ca/obituary/michael-brecher-1084230885 |publisher=Montreal Gazette |access-date=19 January 2022}}

Selected publications

= Books =

= Edited collections =

  • Crisis in the Twentieth Century, co-edited with Jonathan Wilkenfeld, (3 volumes), 1988, 1989.
  • Millennial Reflections on International Studies, editor, with Frank P. Harvey, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2002 (5 volumes)

Reception

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A review of Brecher's biography of Nehru called this book 'substantial, scholarly... the best single work available at present on this subject.'Henry L Roberts, Review of Nehru biography, Foreign Affairs, October 1959.

M. A. C. observes in Pakistan Horizon that Brecher's book, The Struggle for Kashmir, is a "painstaking but not a balanced study". The reviewer points out that there are examples of facts being misrepresented to Pakistan's disadvantage.{{cite journal|last1=M. A. C.|title=The Struggle for Kashmir - Book Review|journal=Pakistan Horizon|date=September 1953|volume=6|issue=3|pages=130–132}} Holden Furber calls it a careful study based on relevant published materials. But despite that Furber comments that Brecher's approach lacks ground research and he is more a scholar who has lived among United Nations reports in libraries.{{cite journal|last1=Furber|first1=Holden|title=The Struggle for Kashmir - Book Review|journal=The Western Political Quarterly|date=June 1954|volume=7|issue=2|pages=286–287|doi=10.2307/442486|jstor=442486}} Percival Spears sees that Brecher tends to too readily accept Indian arguments for Kashmir and Junagadh and relies on Alan Campbell Johnson who is seen as prejudiced in Pakistan. Spear also observes that Brecher has a tendency to readily accept Indian reasons for rejecting each proposal in the discussions on conditions for plebiscite and also a tendency to underrate the importance of the Pakistani acceptances of proposals made through January 1951 to the Graham negotiations.{{cite journal|last1=Spear|first1=Percival|title=The Struggle for Kashmir - Book Review|journal=Pacific Affairs|date=December 1954|volume=27|issue=4|pages=384–385|doi=10.2307/2753083|jstor=2753083}}

Honours and awards

References