Brendan O'Leary

Brendan O'Leary (born 19 March 1958) is an Irish political scientist, who is Lauder Professor of Political Science and Director of the Penn Program in Ethnic Conflict at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was formerly Director of the now-closed Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict. He was formerly a professor at the London School of Economics. He studied at Keble College, Oxford and the London School of Economics, where he gained his PhD on the Asiatic mode of production.cite news|author=Peter Kingston|title=Celebrity scholars, number 23: Brendan O'Leary|publisher="The Guardian" education section|date=1996-06-18|page=4]

He is the author of numerous influential books about the Northern Ireland conflict, many of them co-authored with John McGarry, who he met when they both attended Saint MacNissi’s College. [cite web|url=http://www.polisci.upenn.edu/ppec/PPEC%20People/Brendan%20O%27Leary/Brendan%20O%27Leary.html|title=Brendan O'Leary|publisher=Penn Program in Ethnic Conflict|accessdate=2007-12-08] McGarry and O'Leary's "Policing Northern Ireland: Proposals for a New Start" (Blackstaff Press, 1999) is considered to have had a significant influence on the work of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland. [cite news|author=Barry White|title=Patten...finding the gems in the detail|publisher="Belfast Telegraph"|date=1999-09-18] He is currently an international advisor to the Kurdistan National Assembly, responsible for advising on the constitutional reconstruction of Iraq and Kurdistan, with special responsibility for federal arrangements and electoral laws.cite web|url=http://www.polisci.upenn.edu/faculty/CVs/cvOleary.PDF|title=Brendan O'Leary, CV|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Political Science Department|accessdate=2008-08-15] Previously, he was a policy advisor to the British Labour Party, and political advisor to Mo Mowlam and Kevin McNamara during their respective spells as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

References

External links

* [http://www.polisci.upenn.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=73 Brendan O'Leary's homepage]