Uri Ra'anan


Uri Ra'anan, originally named Heinz Felix Frischwasser-Ra’anan, is an American expert in the politics of communist countries, particularly the Soviet Union and China, and in the resurgence of post-Soviet Russia. He taught at Boston University where he was involved in the University Professors Program, and also at the International Security Studies Program. He spoke at the Ford Hall Forum twice, in 1978 and again in 2007.

Early life and education

He received an M.A. and M.Litt. from Oxford University.

Academic career

Uri Ra’anan was on the faculty of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University for over two decades, holding the titles of Professor of International Politics and Director of the International Security Studies Program.
He has also taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and the City University of New York. In addition, he has been an associate of the Davis Center at Harvard University.
At Boston University, he served as director of the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy, teaching there from 1988 until his retirement in 2009.

Books and other writings

He has written, co-written, edited, or co-edited over two dozen books and contributed to 19 others. They include:
He has also published extensively in both scholarly and general periodicals, including the Slavic Review, Strategic Review, Global Affairs, Soviet Analyst, the Boston Globe, and the Boston Herald.
In an August review for Commentary of Hydra of Carnage, a collection of contributions to a 1985 Tufts conference by Ra'anan and others, Angelo Codevilla wrote that the essays “inadvertently make it clear that government lacks the intellectual and moral tools” to meet the challenge of terrorism.
His 2006 book on Russia, Flawed Succession, was called "superb" by historian Simon Sebag Montefiore in the NYT.

Personal life

He had a son named Gavriel who graduated from Fletcher in 1978, who died of cancer several years later.