Prof. Dr. Daniel Frei was a native of Diepoldsau, St Gallen, Switzerland, where he was born in 1940. He studied history at the University of Zurich, where he got his PhD in 1964 with his doctorate thesis on “The promotion of Swiss national consciousness after the collapse of the Old Swiss Confederation in 1798”.
After his graduation Daniel Frei did post-doctoral studies at the London School of Economics, the Graduate Institute of International Studies, in Geneva, and the University of Michigan. In 1968 he obtained his habilitation at the University of Zürich with an analysis with the title “Dimensions of neutral policy” and in 1971 he was appointed to the new professorship for political science with particular emphasis on international relations. Daniel Frei significantly promoted the development of political science in Switzerland – not least through his research on the security policy and the East-West relations. From the mid-1970s he was regarded as the most distinguished German Swiss representative in his field. Starting in 1986 he was a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross, since 1976 also a representative and a president of the Swiss Institute of International Studies in Zurich. Daniel Frei is the author, co-author, or editor of various books in English such as: International Crises and Crisis Management, Evolving a Conceptual Framework for Inter-Systems Relations, Definitions and Measurements of Détente, East-West Relations in Europe: A Systematic Survey, and The Risk of Unintended Nuclear War.
Source: http://www.ipz.uzh.ch/institut/mitarbeitende/ehemalige/frei.html (translated from german into english and rearranged by editor)