Brendan O'Leary

Brendan O'Leary

Brendan O'Leary in 1989 at the LSE
Born 19 March 1958
Citizenship Irish
Alma mater Keble College, Oxford, London School of Economics
Occupation Academic
Employer London School of Economics, University of Pennsylvania

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.

Biography

O'Leary studied at Keble College, Oxford and the London School of Economics, where he gained his PhD on the Asiatic mode of production.[1]

O'Leary 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.[2][3] 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.[4] 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.[5] He has also advised the United Nations, the European Union and the UK's Department for International Development.[3] 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.[5] In the course of his career he has supervised more than thirty doctoral dissertations, including those of political scientists Stefan Wolff and Tristan James Mabry.

In both his own writings and those with John McGarry, O'Leary has long backed consociationalism as a method of conflict management for Northern Ireland, and is supportive of the Good Friday Agreement.[6][7] In this regard, Arend Lijphart has been a significant influence on O'Leary's work.[3][7] In 2009, a book entitled Consociational Theory: McGarry and O'Leary and the Northern Ireland Conflict was published, edited by Rupert Taylor.[8] He is also the author of How to Get Out of Iraq with Integrity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).

References

  1. ^ Peter Kingston (1996-06-18). "Celebrity scholars, number 23: Brendan O'Leary". The Guardian education section. p. 4. 
  2. ^ "Brendan O'Leary". Penn Program in Ethnic Conflict. http://www.polisci.upenn.edu/ppec/PPEC%20People/Brendan%20O%27Leary/Brendan%20O%27Leary.html. Retrieved 2007-12-08. 
  3. ^ a b c McDermott, Peter (2009-02-11). "Ethnic conflict specialist proposes Iraq withdrawal". Irish Echo. http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=19057. Retrieved 2009-04-02. 
  4. ^ Barry White (1999-09-18). "Patten...finding the gems in the detail". Belfast Telegraph. 
  5. ^ a b "Brendan O'Leary, CV" (PDF). University of Pennsylvania Political Science Department. http://www.polisci.upenn.edu/faculty/CVs/cvOleary.PDF. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 
  6. ^ O'Leary, Brendan (1989). "The limits to coercive consociationalism in Northern Ireland". Political Studies 37 (4): 562–587. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.1989.tb00289.x. 
  7. ^ a b McGarry, John; O'Leary, Brendan (2006). "Consociational theory, Northern Ireland's conflict, and its Agreement. Part 1: What consociationalists can learn from Northern Ireland" (PDF). Government and Opposition 41 (1): 43–63. doi:10.1111/j.1477-7053.2006.00170.x. http://www.polisci.upenn.edu/ppec/PPEC%20People/Brendan%20O'Leary/Brendan%20O'Leary%20Publications/Journal%20Articles/Consociational_Theory_NIreland_conflict_part_1.pdf. 
  8. ^ Taylor, Rupert, ed (2009). Consociational Theory: McGarry and O'Leary and the Northern Ireland Conflict. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415429137. 

External links