Popular essayist, host of programs on politics and the arts on the BBC, former MP in Canada, he is considered “an essential reference in a present loaded with wars” by the Spanish foundation.
After the French historian Hélène Carrère d’EncausseCanadian writer and former politician Michael Ignatieff, 77, received the Princess of Asturias Award for social sciences 2024, one of the most prestigious in the Spanish-speaking world, the Spanish jury announced on Wednesday.
The academic, historian, philosopher, essayist, was distinguished for his professional life “intense and multifaceted”which resulted in a work, “original blend of political realism, humanism and liberal idealism, where the values of freedom, human rights, tolerance and the safeguarding of institutions are the fundamental concern”indicated the jury of this prize awarded by the Foundation of the Princess of Asturias, the heir to the Spanish throne. Among his best-known books are The needs of foreigners (1984), Isaiah Berlin: A Life (1998) and Human rights as politics and idolatry (2001).
Ignatieff’s contribution “constitutes an essential reference to guide us in a present fraught with conflicts, wars, political polarization and threats to freedom”emphasized the jury. A descendant of Russian immigrants, Michael Ignatieff is a Canadian intellectual who spent a good part of his life abroad.
A prolific author mastering polished Oxford English and Parisian café French, he was born on May 12, 1947 in Toronto, into a family of Russian dignitaries who fled the Bolshevik revolution. At a very young age, he became passionate about politics, philosophy and international affairs and in the 1960s, he was active in the Liberal Party, the formation of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the father of Canadian multiculturalism.
A gifted student, Michael Ignatieff completed a thesis in history at Harvard University in 1976, then taught at the cream of universities in the United Kingdom, a country where he established himself as a popular essayist, host of programs on politics and arts on several major channels including the BBC.
He returned in 2000 to Harvard to direct the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, but came out in favor of the war in Iraq, a mistake, he later admitted. After spending 27 years abroad, Michael Ignatieff returned to Canada in 2005 with the ambition of one day leading the country. A few months later, he was elected Liberal MP.
In 2011, he resigned as leader of the Canadian Liberal Party after a historic failure in the legislative elections. In September 2016, he became president and rector of the Central European University (CEU, created by American billionaire George Soros) in Budapest and established himself as a critic of the Hungarian president. Viktor Orban.
The Princess of Asturias prizes, created in 1981, are worth 50,000 euros and are presented by the Princess of Asturias, Leonor, as well as King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia in October, during a ceremony in Oviedo.