John G. Stoessinger

Who is John G. Stoessinger?

John George Stoessinger, a prize-winning author of ten leading books on world politics, has been the recipient of the distinguished Bancroft Prize for History for The Might of Nations, and has served as Acting Director for the Political Affairs Division at the United Nations. On the eve of World War II, Dr. Stoessinger fled from Nazi-occupied Austria to Czechoslovakia. His family was saved by a Japanese diplomat, Chiune Sugihara, who issued three visas to transit Russia, allowing them to escape to Shanghai via Siberia and Kobe. Dr. Stoessinger is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, lecturing extensively throughout the world, and serves as Distinguished Professor of Global Diplomacy at the University of San Diego and is a visiting lecturer at the University of California, San Diego.

Stoessinger is notable for his individual analyses of war, contrasted with the systemic views more commonly studied by political scientists after the Second World War. An example of this is his work in Why Nations Go to War.