Fraser Barry Cooper is a Canadian Political Scientist at the University of Calgary

University of Calgary

The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...

's Department of Political Science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he teaches courses in Political philosophy

Political philosophy

Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...

. Before coming to Calgary, he taught at Bishop's University

Bishop's University

Bishop's University is a predominantly undergraduate university in Lennoxville, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Bishop's is one of three universities in the province of Quebec that teach primarily in the English language...

 (1968-1970), McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

, and York University

York University

York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....

 (1970-1981). Winner of a Killam Research Fellowship, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Royal Society of Canada

The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...

, he is a knight of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitaler). In 1991, Cooper co-authored Deconfederation: Canada without Quebec, where he argued that Canada would benefit from Quebec separation. He is also a fellow at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies

Centre for Military and Strategic Studies

The Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary is part of Canada's Department of National Defence nationwide security and defence forum research centres. Currently it has over 50 students at both the Masters and PhD level with...

. Cooper attended highschool at Shawnigan Lake School

Shawnigan Lake School

Shawnigan Lake School is a private boarding school, located in Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded by Englishman, Christopher Windley 'C. W.' Lonsdale in 1916, and partly modelled on one of England's leading private schools, Westminster School.- Location :Shawnigan Lake School...

 on Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...

As a regular columnist for the Calgary Herald

Calgary Herald

The Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta.- History :The paper was first published on August 31, 1883 by Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser. It started as a weekly paper with only...

, Cooper is a frequent guest commentator on Canadian political issues. He is a member of an emerging group of political scientists so-called the Calgary School

Calgary School

The Calgary School is a name used to refer to a group of like-minded academics from the University of Calgary’s Political Science, Economics, and History departments in Calgary, Alberta, Canada...

, which also includes Tom Flanagan

Tom Flanagan (political scientist)

Thomas Eugene Flanagan is an American-born political science professor at the University of Calgary, author, and conservative political activist. He also served as an advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper until 2004. Flanagan's scholarship has focused on Native and Metis rights in...

, Rainer Knopff

Rainer Knopff

Rainer Knopff is a writer, professor of political science at the University of Calgary, Canada, and member of a group known as the Calgary School. He especially well-known for his views about the influence of judicial decisions on Canadian public policy...

, Ted Morton

Ted Morton

Frederick Lee Morton , known commonly as Ted Morton, is a Canadian politician and Minister of Energy for the Province of Alberta. As a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta he represents the constituency of Foothills-Rocky View as a Progressive Conservative...

, and David Bercuson

David Bercuson

David Jay Bercuson, OC, FRSC is a Canadian labour, military, and political historian.Born in Montreal, he attended Sir George Williams University and graduated from there in 1965 with a BA in History and was awarded the Lieutenant-Governor's Silver Medal for the highest standing in history...

.

In 2006, Cooper became involved with a non-profit organization, Friends of Science

Friends of Science

Friends of Science is a Canadian non-profit advocacy organization of physicists, geologists and atmospheric scientists founded in 2002 and based in Calgary, Alberta...

, which openly criticized the Kyoto Protocol

Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...

 and the science behind it. The group "offers critical evidence that challenges the premises of the Kyoto Protocol and presents alternative causes for climate change." Friends of Science: About Us. The group is regarded as a corporate lobby for the Alberta oil and gas industry by many environmentalist

Environmentalist

An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...

s. Cooper's involvement in the funding of this group was called into question in 2006, when it was reported he helped start a University of Calgary fund called the Science Education Fund, which accepted monies from Alberta oil and gas companies, foundations and individuals and then used some of that charitable donation to use in the Friends of Science group, to produce a video, available at friendsofscience.org. Globe & Mail article of 12 August 2006 reprinted here.

He is acknowledged widely as an expert on Eric Voegelin, on the meaning of technology, and on stone age politics.

Selected works

• Moens, A. Alexander, 1959-. Canadian participation in North American missile defence [electronic resource] : a cost-benefit analysis / by Alexander Moens and Barry Cooper. -- [Vancouver] : Fraser Institute, 2005.
• Miljan, Lydia A. (Lydia Anita), 1963-. The Canadian "garrison mentality" and anti-Americanism at the CBC [electronic resource] / Lydia Miljan and Barry Cooper. -- Vancouver : Fraser Institute, 2005.
• Szeto, Ray. The need for Canadian strategic lift [electronic resource] / Ray Szeto and Barry Cooper. -- Vancouver : Fraser Institute, 2005.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. Privacy and security in an age of terrorism [electronic resource] / Barry Cooper. -- Vancouver : Fraser Institute, 2004.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. New political religions, or, An analysis of modern terrorism / Barry Cooper. -- Columbia : University of Missouri Press, c2004.
• Miljan, Lydia A. (Lydia Anita), 1963-. Hidden agendas : how journalists influence the news / Lydia Miljan and Barry Cooper. -- Vancouver : UBC Press, c2003.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. Unholy terror [electronic resource] : the origin and significance of contemporary, religion-based terrorism / Barry Cooper. -- Vancouver : The Fraser Institute, 2002.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. Governing in post-deficit times : Alberta in the Klein years / Barry Cooper, Mebs Kanji. -- Toronto : Centre for Public Management, University of Toronto, 2000.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. The Klein achievement / Barry Cooper. -- Toronto : University of Toronto, Faculty of Management, Centre for Public Management, c1996.
• Bercuson, David Jay, 1945-. Derailed : the betrayl of the national deam / David J. Bercuson and Barry Cooper. -- Toronto : Key Porter Books, c1994.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. Sins of omission : shaping the news at CBC TV / Barry Cooper. -- Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c1994.
• Bercuson, David Jay, 1945-. Deconfederation : Canada without Quebec / David Jay Bercuson, Barry Cooper. -- Toronto : Key Porter Books, c1991.
• Bercuson, David Jay, 1945-. Deconfederation : Canada without Quebec / David Jay Bercuson, Barry Cooper. -- Toronto, Ont. : Key Porter, 1991.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. Action into nature : an essay on the meaning of technology / Barry Cooper. -- Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press, c1991.
• Bercuson, David Jay, 1945-. Goodbye ... et bonne chance! : les adieux du Canada anglais au Quebec / David J. Bercusson, Barry Cooper ; traduit de l'anglais par Claude Fafard et Stephen Dupont. -- Montréal : Le Jour, 1991.
• The Resurgence of conservatism in Anglo-American democracies / edited by Barry Cooper, Allan Kornberg, and William Mishler. -- Durham : Duke University Press, 1988.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. Alexander Kennedy Isbister : a respectable critic of the honourable Company / Barry Cooper. -- Ottawa : Carleton University Press, 1988.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. The political theory of Eric Voegelin / Barry Cooper. -- Lewiston [N.Y.] ; Queenston, Ont. : E. Mellen Press, c1986.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. Old modes and orders some limits to George Grant's Political theory / Barry Cooper. -- [Canada : s.n.], 1984.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. The end of history : an essay on modern Hegelianism / Barry Cooper. -- Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c1984.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. Michel Foucault, an introduction to the study of his thought / Barry Cooper. -- New York ; Toronto : E. Mellen Press, c1981.
• Cooper, Barry, 1943-. Merleau-Ponty and Marxism : from terror to reform / Barry Cooper. -- Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c1979.External Links=
• University of Calgary's faculty page about Cooper