Olivier Roy

Olivier Roy

Olivier Roy (born 1949) is a French philosopher with a particular interest in Islamism. He has enjoyed some popularity in Britain and the United States, perhaps because he has argued that terrorist attacks targeting the West are unrelated to Western foreign policy; and more broadly that Islamic terrorism is the result of a frustration with modernity rather than the result of political grievances. In the aftermath of the London underground attacks he wrote an article in the The New York Times entitled ‘Why Do They Hate Us? Not Because of Iraq’.

Biography

Biography from the website of French National Center for Scientific Research (accessed 3 April 2008):

Olivier Roy is research director at the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) He holds a state "Agrégation" in Philosophy (1972), a Master's in Persian language and civilization from the Institut National des Langues et Civilizations Orientales (1972), a PhD in political sciences from the IEP (1996) and has been qualified to supervise PhD candidates since 2001. He currently lectures at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques (IEP) in Paris and has acted as consultant to the French Foreign Ministry (Center for Analysis and Forecast) since 1984. Olivier Roy was also a consultant with UNOCA on Afghanistan in 1988, special OSCE representative to Tajikistan (August 1993 to February 1994) and headed the OSCE Mission for Tajikistan from February to October 1994.

Relations with the US and French state

Roy states that he was an advisor to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1984 and 2008. In addition much of his early work (a total of 5 articles) was published in a journal called Central Asian Survey. This would appear to have been a US government funded propaganda operation. A translation of a further publication appears to have been published by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a division of the CIA.

Publications

Books

• Olivier Roy, The politics of chaos in the Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008)
• Olivier Roy, George Holoch, Secularism confronts Islam (Columbia University Press, 2007)
• Olivier Roy, Antoine Sfeir, Dr. John King, The Columbia world dictionary of Islamism (Columbia University Press, 2007)
• Olivier Roy, Secularism confronts Islam (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007)
• Olivier Roy, Turkey today: a European country? (London: Anthem Press, 2005)
• Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: the search for a new Ummah (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004; London: Hurst & Co., 2004)
• Olivier Roy, The new Central Asia: the creation of nations (New York: New York University Press, 2000)
• Olivier Roy, Council on Foreign Relations, The foreign policy of the Central Asian Islamic Renaissance Party (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1999)
• Olivier Roy, Council on Foreign Relations, The foreign policy of the Central Asian Islamic Renaissance Party (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1999)
• Olivier Roy, The new central Asia : The creation of nations (London: I.B. Tauris, 1999)
• Olivier Roy, The failure of political Islam (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1994)
• Olivier Roy, The lessons of the Soviet/Afghan war (London: Brassey's for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1991)
• Olivier Roy, United States Institute of Peace, The civil war in Tajikistan : causes and implications (Washington, D.C: United States Institute of Peace, 1993)
• Olivier Roy, Islam and resistance in Afghanistan (Cambridge University Press, 1986)

Articles

• Olivier Roy, ‘Friend or Faux?’, The New York Times, 15 May 2007
• Olivier Roy, ‘Seen on the Streets; The French protests are about much more than jobs. Elites don't get it’, Newsweek, 10 April 2006
• Olivier Roy, ‘Holy War; The cartoon brouhaha really illustrates the divisions within the Muslim community, not with the West’, Newsweek, 13 February 2006
• Olivier Roy, ‘Opinion: What Sarko Did Wrong’, Newsweek, 14 November 2005
• Olivier Roy, ‘Get French or Die Trying’, The New York Times, 9 November 2005
• Olivier Roy, ‘The ideology of terror; Global jihad’, The International Herald Tribune, 23 July 2005
• Olivier Roy, ‘Why Do They Hate Us? Not Because of Iraq’, The New York Times, 22 July 2005
• Olivier Roy, ‘Europe will not be fooled by the U.S. again’, The New York Times, 14 May 2003
• Olivier Roy, ‘EuroIslam: The Jihad Within?’, The National Interest, Spring 2003
• Olivier Roy, ‘Afghanistan After the Taliban’, The New York Times, 7 October 2001
• Olivier Roy, ‘Fundamentalists without a common cause’, Manchester Guardian Weekly, 15 October 1998, Le Monde Diplomatique
• Olivier Roy, ‘From Victory to Defeat in Afghanistan’, The Washington Post, 7 August 1989
• Olivier Roy, ‘Soviets in danger of over-extending themselves’, Manchester Guardian Weekly, 25 December 1983, Le Monde Diplomatique
• Olivier Roy, ‘Neither bled to death nor deserted’, Manchester Guardian Weekly, 18 December 1983, Le Monde

Affiliations

• Farhad Khosrokhavar, co-author

Resources

• Podcast of Conversations with History Interview in 2007
• Webcast of Conversations with History Interview in 2002

Contact information

Email: oroy@compuserve.com