Jean-François Bayart, former director of the Centre d’études et de recherches internationales (Paris, 1994 – 2000), is currently the chairman of the Fonds d’analyse des sociétés politiques and a senior research fellow at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). He specializes in comparative politics. His main books are translated into English: The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly(2009), Global Subjects: A Political Critique of Globalization (2007), and The Illusion of Cultural Identity (2005). He recently published L’Islam républicain: Ankara, Téhéran, Dakar (2010) and Les études postcoloniales: Un carnaval académique (2010).