Michael Ignatieff is a writer, teacher and former politician. Born in Canada, educated at the University of Toronto and Harvard University, he has written seventeen books, worked as a television presenter and documentary film maker, editorial columnist and university teacher. He has taught at the University of British Columbia, Cambridge University, the London School of Economics and Harvard University, where he was Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government between 2000 and 2005.

He is the author of The Needs of Strangers, (1984), Scar Tissue (1992), Isaiah Berlin (1998) The Rights Revolution (2000) Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry (2001), The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror (2004), and True Patriot Love (2009).

Between 2006 and 2011, he was Member of Parliament for Etobicoke Lakeshore, Deputy Leader and Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. For the academic year 2011-2012, he is Senior Resident at Massey College, University of Toronto. He is a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and holds eleven honorary degrees.