Jean-François Bayart

Jean-François Bayart (born 20 March 1950 in Boulogne-Billancourt) is a French political scientist and former director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. His specialty is the comparative historical sociology of the state.

He is notably the author of several books on sub-Saharan Africa and the historicity of politics. Since 2015, he has been a professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

He was the founder of the journal ''Politique africaine'' (in 1980–81), Critique internationale (in 1998) and of the collection “Recherches internationales” (in 1998, published by Éditions Karthala). He was the director of the Centre d'études et de recherche internationals (CERI) of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) (from 1994 to 2000) and is the founding president of the Fund for the Analysis of Political Societies (FASOPO). (since 2003).

He is a commentator on international politics in various media, notably Mediapart. He was a permanent consultant for the Policy Planning Staff (France) of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1990–2005), and member of the 2013 French White Paper on Defence and National Security (2012–2013). He is the scientific director of the Focus of the Rencontres des cinémas d'Europe at the Maison de l'image d'Aubenas (since 2010). He taught at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, at the University of Lausanne and at the University of Turin. Provided by Wikipedia