Brian Crozier

Brian Rossiter Crozier (born 4 August 1918, Far North Queensland) is a British-based historian, strategist and journalist.

Crozier was born in Australia, although he was raised in France, learning French. Thereafter his family moved to England where he would receive a scholarship to study piano and musical composition at the Trinity College of Music in London. Early in his life, Crozier believed in communism - as a reaction to the Great Depression and to Adolf Hitler - but changed his mind and later worked to combat it.cite news | title = Brian Crozier | author = Joseph D'Agostino | publisher = Human Events | date = 1999-11-26]

He eventually became interested in journalism, and pursued a career that would lead him to become a foreign correspondent for Reuters, columnist for "The Economist", reporter for the BBC and - during a brief return to Australia - a writer for "The Sydney Morning Herald".cite news | title = Student of Subversion | author = David Rees | publisher = National Review | date = 1985-12-31]

Crozier was the director of Forum World Features, a 1966 outfit setup by the Congress for Cultural Freedom, and apparently supported by the CIA. John Hay Whitney was FWF's first owner, its ownership later promulgated to Richard Mellon Scaife. Crozier stated in 1975 that FWF had broken all ties to the CIA when he became director in the 1960s. [cite news | title = CIA News Service Reported | publisher = Washington Post | date = 1975-07-03]

In 1970, Crozier founded The Institute For The Study Of Conflict, a London-based group that studies insurgencies and terrorism, which he would preside over for the better part of a decade. According to a profile written by David Rees in 1985 for the American fortnightly "National Review", it:cquote|...was the first private think-tank devoted to the study of terrorism and subversion. Under his direction (he left it in 1979) the institute specialized in the study of the "peace-time" strategy of the Soviet Union. Its analyses, including the Annual of Power and Conflict it published for ten years, have been used in war colleges throughout the West. For many years, Crozier authored the regular column, "The Protracted Conflict," in the "National Review".

Joseph D'Agostino of "Human Events" states: "Crozier has another distinction: In 1988, he appeared in the "Guinness Book of World Records" for having interviewed the most heads of state or government, 58 in all."

Crozier has provided advice to the British Secret Intelligence Service, the Information Research Department (IRD) of the British Foreign Office, and the CIA. His memoirs appeared in 1993 as "Free Agent: The Unseen War 1941-1991".

Crozier is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow on War, Revolution, and Peace of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

References

Bibliography

*"The Rebels: A Study of Postwar Insurrections" (1960)
*"The Morning After: A Study of Independence" (1963)
*"Franco: A Biographical History" (1967)
*"Since Stalin" (1970)
*"De Gaulle" (1973, reprinted 1990)
*"The Man Who Lost China: The First Full Biography of Chiang Kai-shek" (1976)
*"Strategy of Survival" (1978
*"The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire" (1999) ISBN 0-7615-2057-0

External link

*worldcat id|lccn-n50-17164