Brendan O'Leary

professor, political science, University of Pennsylvania

Brendan O’Leary was born in Cork, Ireland. He was brought up in Nigeria, Sudan, and Northern Ireland. He is a graduate of Keble College, Oxford University, where he was the holder of an Open Scholarship, and received a first class honors degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (1981). Prof. O'Leary wrote his Ph.D. thesis at the London School of Economics & Political Science, which won the Robert McKenzie Memorial Prize and was subsequently published by Oxford: Basil Blackwell (1989). Before coming to Penn, Prof. O’Leary was on the faculty of the London School of Economics and Political Science (1983 – 2003). He is the author, co‐author or co‐editor of 19 books and collections, and has authored or coauthored over 125 refereed articles and book chapters. Prof. O'Leary's book, How to Get Out of Iraq With Integrity (2009) is available from University of Pennsylvania Press. Prof. O’Leary was a political advisor to the British Labour Shadow Cabinet on Northern Ireland (1987 – 1997). He advised Irish, British, and American government ministers and officials and the Irish‐American Morrison delegation during the Northern Ireland peace process, and appeared as an expert witness before the U.S. Congress. He has also worked as a constitutional advisor for the E.U. and the U.N. Prof. O’Leary has been a regular contributor to public media and debate in the U.S., Great Britain and Ireland. He has written numerous op‐eds for The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Guardian, The Belfast Telegraph, The Independent (London), The Independent (Dublin), Canada’s Globe and Mail, The Irish Times and many others.