Brendan O'Leary is Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and a Visiting Professor of Political Science at Queen's University, Belfast. He is an American citizen but both Irish (born in Cork) and Northern Irish in origin. He graduated from Keble College Oxford and the London School of Economics, where he earned his PhD. He has been deeply engaged in conflict resolution in Ireland for nearly four decades (including over a decade advising the British Labour Party in the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement; advising an influential group of Irish-Americans led by Congressman Bruce Morrison through the 1990s; and writing advisory memoranda for the Irish government). He has advised on national and ethnic conflicts in a number of African and Asian countries and worked for the UK's International Department of Development, the European Union and the UN. Brendan has written, co-authored and edited many books and Making Sense of a United Ireland will be his 30th book.
