Brendan O’Leary, Lauder Professor of Political Science and Director of the Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at the University of Pennsylvania, gave a lecture on “The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq,” on Monday, April 4, 2005, in 016 Robertson Hall on the Princeton University campus. The lecture was co-sponsored by LISD and the Woodrow Wilson School.

A leading authority on national and ethnic conflict within deeply divided territories, O’Leary is currently working on Kurdish interests in the constitutional reconstruction of Iraq serving as a constitutional advisor to the parliament and the Kurdish Regional Government. During this time, O’Leary has written several articles discussing this process, including “A Transactional Law Worth Fighting For,” “Multi-national Federalism, Federacy, Power-sharing and Kurds of Iraq,” “Multi-Nationalism, Power-Sharing and The Kurds in New Iraq,” and published The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq, co-authored with John McGarry.

O’Leary’s research interests and expertise span the topics of national and ethnic conflict; conflict regulation; power sharing systems; democracy; human rights; and the history, political theory and political science of the state. He served as a leading public policy advisor to the British Labour Party and consultant on the Irish peace process. O’Leary has served an a constitutional consultant for the European Union, the United Nations in Somalia, and the United Kingdom’s Department of International Development in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa.