John Gellner

Gellner, John

John Gellner, author, journalist (b at Trieste, Italy 18 May 1907; deceased 27 april 2001). A graduate of Masaryk U in Brno, Czech, where he practised law until 1939, Gellner served in the RCAF from 1940 until he retired with the rank of wing commander in 1958 to become a free-lance journalist. The bitter memory of WWII turned Gellner to the study of history and international power relationships and to the belief that only strength had ever preserved nations from war. He was also an influential force behind Liberal defence policy in the early 1960s.

Among his publications are The Czechs and Slovaks in Canada (1968), Canada in NATO (1970) and Bayonets in the Streets (1974), along with hundreds of articles on defence and international relations. He was a professor of political science at York (1972-82), editor of the Canadian Defence Quarterly (1971-87) and a board member of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies and the International Institute of Strategic Studies (UK). He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1983.