Professor John McGarry

About

Professor McGarry has published widely on issues such as power-sharing; federalism; conflict resolution; constitutional design; and on the politics of deeply divided places, such as Cyprus, Iraq and Northern Ireland. His work has had an important public policy dimension and impact.  He has appeared as an expert witness before the U.S. Congress and has worked with a number of governments. His work on policing reform in Northern Ireland, conducted with Brendan O’Leary, was singled out by the press as crucially influencing the Report of the Independent Commission on Policing Reform (the Patten Commission), which reported in 1999.  In 2008-09, McGarry served for fifteen months as ‘Senior Advisor on Power-Sharing’ to the United Nations (Standby Team, Mediation Support Unit). He was the first person appointed to this position.  In 2014, he was awarded the Innis-Gérin Medal, the Royal Society of Canada’s highest honour for a social scientist. In 2015, his research on conflict resolution was recognized by the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) as one of the top 50 examples of ‘game-changing’ research conducted in Ontario during the past 100 years.