John Joseph Moakley Chair for Peace & Reconciliation, UMass Boston

03/12/2026

⏰ REMINDER : THIS TUESDAY!

Don't miss the first MOAKLEY CHAIR WEBINAR of 2026: Tuesday, 24 March, 1:00 p.m. EDT
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Remember Greenland? Padraig O'malley writes this:

Dear friends & colleagues,

While the war in Iran has sucked the air out of the news cycle, the question of Greenland festers on the geopolitical sidelines. Given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump and his penchant for the use of force to get what he wants, one cannot be sure about what lies ahead for the island To discuss the implications of different scenarios for the future of Greenland, I will be joined in conversation with Henrik Bach Mortensen on March 24th at 1:00 p.m.

Henrik Bach Mortensen is a prominent Danish political figure, Vice President of Liberal International, Chairperson of its Security & Defense Working Group, and an expert on Greenland politics.

Register here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/8d7p4z5



Date: March 24, 2026

Location: Zoom

Time: 1:00 PM EDT / 6:00 PM CET (Copenhagen time)

Please note the updated U.S. time following the daylight saving change.



Please see the flyer below for additional information.



We look forward to seeing you!

11/11/2025

Padraig O'malley writes,

WEBINAR: DISARMING HAMAS

The Trump Peace Plan calls for the disarmament of Hamas. Who will oversee? How will weapons be put verifically beyond use? What will stop Hamas from rearming a few years from now?

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Please join Padraig O'Malley, the John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professor of Peace and Reconciliation, in conversation with Lord John Alderdice, for a Moakley Chair Webinar on "Disarming Hamas — Drawing on the Experience of Paramilitary Disarmament in Northern Ireland: Parallels & Differences."

▪️Tuesday, December 2, 2025 on Zoom.

▪️Register here for the Zoom link: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/dfn8zj3

Lord Alderdice was chairperson of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), the body that oversaw the disarmament of the Provisional IRA and other paramilitaries in Northern Ireland after the Good Friday Agreement was adopted in 1998.

11/05/2025

This issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy is published to coincide with the global gathering in Belém Brazil (COP30), November 10 /21, the annual meeting of governments to address climate warming. At COP 21 in Paris (2015), countries agreed to a landmark agreement, which set the central goal of limiting global average temperature rise this century to "well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, while also pursuing efforts to cap the increase at 1.5°C."

Multilateralism in Climate Change Negotiations: Progress, Pitfalls, and ProspectsPeter Njenga and Cecilia Kinuthia-Njenga

10/20/2025

RUSSIA – UKRAINE: WILL THIS WAR END?

Who + where: Join Moakley Chair Padraig O'malley and retired four-star general George Casey in a virtual conversation over Zoom.

When: Monday, 27 October 2025 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.

RSVP required. Link below.

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Padraig O'Malley writes this:

As we enter the fourth year of the Russia – Ukraine war, there is no end in sight. Both sides have hardened their core positions. The battlefield resembles the Somme during WWI. Both sides are dug into heavily-fortified positions. Along a long trench line; metres of territory change hands at great human cost. Meanwhile, the war is prolonged by technological innovations, especially precision-targeted kamikaze drones. Russia is testing NATO's response to provocations within its boundaries. Ukraine seeks Tomahawk missiles from the United States that would allow it to strike deep into Russian territory. Europe vacillates over developing a defense capability to withstand future Russian aggression that would reduce its reliance on the United States (Trump). Can Trump impose a settlement?
Join General George Casey and me next Monday, October 27th, at 1:00 p.m. EST for a discussion of the state of play in this war. Link to registration below:

https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/dhfcjx7/lp/03c445bd-5f3c-4448-8966-70304a8dc388

03/28/2025

🌐 🌎🌍🌏🌐

The rules-based world order, established after World War II when the United States was the sole hegemonic power, is a framework of political, legal, and economic rules designed to manage relations between states, prevent conflict, and uphold human rights. This rules-based system no longer works in a multi-polar world where China and Russia also assert hegemonic status. What will replace the old order, and how, is the subject of this webinar.

Moakley Chair Padraig O'malley will discuss "The New World Disorder" with Professor, Lord John Alderdice, FRCPsych, and Professor Kumar Ramakrishna on 17 April 2025, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m .EDT on Zoom. Registration link in comments.

▪️Professor, Lord John Alderdice, FRCPsych, trained in medicine, psychiatry and psychoanalysis and applied his skills in teaching and clinical work at the Centre for Psychotherapy that he established in Belfast, but also took these understandings into politics to address the long-standing political violence in Northern Ireland. He works on conflict issues with various academic positions at the University of Oxford and is also a Professor of Practice both at the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Peace Security and Justice at Queen’s University, Belfast and at the Global Humanity for Peace Institute of the University of Wales Trinity St David. Lord Alderdice is the Founding Chairman of The Concord Foundation.

▪️Professor Kumar Ramakrishna is Professor of National Security Studies, Provost’s Chair in National Security Studies, and Dean of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), in Singapore. He also serves as Research Adviser to the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, at RSIS. Prior to his current appointments, he was Head, International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (2020-2022), Head, Centre of Excellence for National Security (2006-2015) and Head, National Security Studies Programme (2016 to 2020). He also was Associate Dean for Policy Studies (2020 to 2022).

12/09/2024

More on Padraig O'malley's latest issue of the Journal, which he founded 50 years ago.

Quoting:
The current issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy, Volume 36, Issue 2 (2024), "Japan: War and Cultural Trauma," addresses key components of the unprocessed cultural trauma Japan continues to experience that has precluded it from coming to terms with its past, both as perpetrator and victim of, three wars in which Japan was deeply involved: the Asia-Pacific, the Pacific, and World War II.

Read the current issue here: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol36/iss2/

Editor: Padraig O'Malley | Guest Editor: Eugen Koh

Copy Editor: K. Rhett Nichols | Citation Editor: Erin K. Maher | Design Editor: Paul Cain

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View past editions of the New England Journal of Public Policy

A journal of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/A5evdAUH8g217kuc/

The current issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy, Volume 36, Issue 2 (2024), Japan: War and Cultural Trauma, addresses key components of the unprocessed cultural trauma Japan continues to experience that has precluded it from coming to terms with its past, both as perpetrator and victim of three wars in which Japan was deeply involved: the Asia-Pacific, the Pacific, and World War II. Read the current issue here: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol36/iss2/

Editor: Padraig O'Malley | Guest Editor: Eugen Koh
Copy Editor: K. Rhett Nichols | Citation Editor: Erin K. Maher | Design Editor: Paul Cain

05/13/2024

☮️☮️☮️

Moakley Chair Webinar Series: Perspectives on the Israel–Hamas War

☮️☮️☮️

As the war between Israel and Hamas continues, do yourself a favor and gain insights from those who know well the nature and nuance of the conflict. Late last month, Moakley Chair Padraig O'malley moderated a discussion that attracted 300 people from around the world. Joining Padraig were:

▪️ Samer Sinijlawi, Head of Diplomatic and International Relations (Fatah shadow leadership) and Chair, Jerusalem Development Fund. (Fatah is the governing party in the West Bank). He is the Palestinian who has appeared most on Israeli media.

▪️ Dr. Gershon Baskin, the Middle East Director of the International Communities Organization, a UK based NGO working in conflict zones with failed peace processes. Dr. Baskin is a veteran Israeli peace activist who has advised Prime Ministers and has negotiated with Hamas for 17 years.

If you missed it, you can watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/yUVVH_nM9DQ?si=wyjmZe-miKOI1Byt

04/29/2024

Today's Moakley Webinar was not only timely and informative, but attracted 300 registrants.

Deep thanks to our guests Samer Sinijlawi and Gershon Baskin, for educating us, beyond headlines and slogans, about the causes and consequences of this deadly conflict, and the glimmers of hope that lie ahead.

Thanks, too, to McCormack staff and interim director Adugna Lemi, as well as the Dean's Office of the College of Liberal Arts, for invaluable operational and technical support.

Most of all, thanks to all of you who registered. If you missed it, an edited version will be available soon. Watch this space!

04/11/2024

On Monday, 29 April 2024, from noon (12.00 pm) to 1.30 pm EDT, Gershon Baskin and Samer Sinijlawi will join us to discuss the Israel/Hamas war.

Samer Sinijlawi is Head of Diplomatic and International Relations (Fatah shadow leadership) and Chair, Jerusalem Development Fund. (Fatah is the governing party in the West Bank). He is the Palestinian who has appeared most on Israeli media.

Dr. Gershon Baskin is the Middle East Director of the International Communities Organization, a UK based NGO working in conflict zones with failed peace processes. He is a veteran Israeli peace activist who has advised Prime Ministers and has negotiated with Hamas for 17 years.

REGISTRATION LINK BELOW.

https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/j8g4k6x

11/30/2023

This special issue of the New England Journal of public policy was launched to coincide with the global summit on climate that begins today in Dubai ( COP28).
The issue is edited by Cecilia - Njenga,
UNFCCC & Fareed Yasseen, Iraq Climate Envoy & former Iraq ambassador to the US & France.
Please distribute through your own social media platforms & networks.
I would greatly appreciate it. The planet will too.
very best

https://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol35/iss2/

NEJPP #

To coincide with COP28 in Dubai, this issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy published a series of articles on climate warming.

04/10/2023

Parallel with a young, outward-looking Northern Ireland there exists a Northern Ireland that is still deeply divided, unable to unshackle itself from the chains of its past; still haltingly stepping into an uncertain future.

By Padraig O'MalleyUpdated April 10, 2023, 3:00 a.m.

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Twenty-five years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement that brought 30 years of violent conflict to an end, Northern Ireland is beset with paradox: at once robust and frail, forward-looking and trapped in the past, vibrant and stagnant, where the detritus of the conflict, mined by competing elites for partisan polarizing purposes, can cause the political axis to tilt in one direction or the other. The word most associated with the peace is that it is fragile.

Life has changed immeasurably for the better. Belfast has been transformed beyond recognition. The crime rate in Northern Ireland has fallen. Tourists flock to see the Titanic Belfast museum. The Giant’s Causeway, the Dark Hedges, the Cushendun Caves, and the other locations where “Game of Thrones” was filmed put the country’s beautiful landscapes, sea-to-sky horizons, and undulating hills on a global tourist map.

More than one-fifth of Belfast’s workforce is employed in the technology sector. Northern Ireland is the best place to live and start a business in the UK, according to a 2021 PwC study. The OECD ranks Northern Ireland as among the top-performing regions internationally on several socioeconomic indicators. In the political arena, there is a growing propensity among a significant section of voters not to define themselves in nationalist/unionist, Catholic/Protestant terms. The Alliance Party, which represents the broad center, is now the third largest party.

Parallel with this young, outward-looking Northern Ireland there exists a Northern Ireland that is still deeply divided, unable to unshackle itself from the chains of its past; still haltingly stepping into an uncertain future; still sharpening oppositional narratives of what the conflict was about and who to blame for the bloodshed and death. This Northern Ireland experiences ongoing levels of paramilitary activity, albeit mostly criminal in nature; chronic unemployment in the most deprived areas; and community coercion and “gatekeeping.” Here the past is still prologue to the present, and the remnants of collective trauma can trigger spirals of regression. A flag flown on the wrong day or not at all can provoke a riot.


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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/04/10/opinion/how-northern-ireland-has-changed-25-years-since-good-friday-agreement/

Parallel with a young, outward-looking Northern Ireland there exists a Northern Ireland that is still deeply divided, unable to unshackle itself from the chains of its past; still haltingly stepping into an uncertain future.