It is politically and morally right for European states to support Kurdish forces in Iraq

On 15 August, the Council of the European Union stated that it welcomed efforts by EU governments to provide arms to Kurdish forces attempting to halt the advance of Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq. Brendan O’Leary provides a comprehensive overview of the political situation in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the development of the conflict between Kurdish and IS forces. He argues that it is not only legally permissible under the Iraqi Constitution for foreign governments to arm Kurdish forces, but that it is also politically and morally right for European democracies to do so. Moreover, in contrast to attempts to strengthen the Iraqi federal army, providing support to Kurdish forces is also likely to be highly effective in preventing IS militants from making further military gains within the country

Iraq's Future 101: The Failings of the Baker-Hamilton Report; Strategic Insights, v. 6, issue 2 (March 2007)

This article appeared in Strategic Insights, v.6, issue 2 (March 2007)Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Detoxifying the UK’s exit from the EU: a multi-national compromise is possible

Current public discussions about how the UK is to leave the European Union have been too simplified, and have failed to come up with any solution that recognises that only England and Wales voted to leave. Brendan O’Leary outlines a way forward that might enable those nations of the UK that want to remain in the EU to do so

Now Brexit cannot mean UKEXIT – because the DUP won’t tolerate a hard border

The UK general election has done Ireland and its northern neighbour one immense favour. A hard UKEXIT, defined as the entire UK leaving the customs union and the single market, is off the agenda for now. Brendan O’Leary argues that Theresa May’s difficulties in enforcing such a uniform mode of leaving the EU will prove an opportunity for Ireland’s new Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar

Exit plan: how Scotland and Northern Ireland can remain in the EU

Public discussions about how the UK is to exit from the European Union have been too simplified, and have failed to come up with any solution that recognizes that only England and Wales in fact voted to leave. Brendan O’Leary outlines a way forward where those nations wanting to remain in the EU might be able to do so

Self-assembling molecular capsules

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry, 1999.Includes bibliographical references.by Brendan M. O'Leary.Ph.D

A Study of Labour Force Flows 1961-80. Quarterly Economic Commentary Special Article, May 1982

A Study of Labour Force Flows

Attention and Social Cognition in Virtual Reality:The effect of engagement mode and character eye-gaze

Technical developments in virtual humans are manifest in modern character design. Specifically, eye gaze offers a significant aspect of such design. There is need to consider the contribution of participant control of engagement. In the current study, we manipulated participants’ engagement with an interactive virtual reality narrative called Coffee without Words. Participants sat over coffee opposite a character in a virtual café, where they waited for their bus to be repaired. We manipulated character eye-contact with the participant. For half the participants in each condition, the character made no eye-contact for the duration of the story. For the other half, the character responded to participant eye-gaze by making and holding eye contact in return. To explore how participant engagement interacted with this manipulation, half the participants in each condition were instructed to appraise their experience as an artefact (i.e., drawing attention to technical features), while the other half were introduced to the fictional character, the narrative, and the setting as though they were real. This study allowed us to explore the contributions of character features (interactivity through eye-gaze) and cognition (attention/engagement) to the participants’ perception of realism, feelings of presence, time duration, and the extent to which they engaged with the character and represented their mental states (Theory of Mind). Importantly it does so using a highly controlled yet ecologically valid virtual experience