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DOCTORATE JUSTIFICATION |
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In addition to his scientific studies in the field of political psychology and psychiatry, he was awarded the title of "Honorary Doctorate" by the Üsküdar University Senate for his projects in the field of international relations and his unique contributions to world peace. |
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Lord John Alderdice |
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As leader of the Northern Ireland Alliance Party for eleven years, John Alderdice has been involved in all negotiations and major political events in Northern Ireland since his election to parliament in October 1987. He played an important role in the development of the Irish Peace Process and the negotiation of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. He then stepped down as Leader of the Alliance Party and was appointed as the first Speaker of the New Northern Ireland Assembly, responsible for the establishment and development of the new Legislative Assembly. This included the establishment and implementation of all new procedures, as well as ensuring that members of the various political parties cooperated in all aspects of the new institution building process. Some of the new members of the Legislative Assembly had been involved in political violence and many had refused to even sit in the same room before being elected to the Assembly, but Lord Alderdice found ways to work across these deep divisions. In 2004, he retired as Speaker when he was appointed by the British and Irish Governments to the Independent Monitoring Commission charged with overseeing the end of terrorist operations and the normalization of security activities in Northern Ireland. In 2015, he was appointed to a three-person panel by the First, Deputy First and Justice Ministers of Northern Ireland to advise on ways to tackle the residual armed forces. A former Vice-President of the European Liberal Democratic and Reform Party, Lord Alderdice was Deputy President from 2005 to 2009 and then President of Liberal International (the worldwide network of over 100 liberal political parties). He continues his work on international liberalism as Honorary President of the Liberal International. Lord Alderdice was appointed to the House of Lords by the Queen of England in 1996. At the time, he was one of the youngest members to be given the title for life. He served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords under the Conservative/Liberal Coalition Government from 2010 to 2014 and has recently been particularly active on how the challenges of Brexit for Northern Ireland can be addressed. In 1978 he qualified as a medical doctor with a degree in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. After 1988 he worked as Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast where he established the Psychotherapy Center. He was also Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Co-Chair of the Critical Incidents Analysis Group at the University of Virginia (USA). He is currently a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. More recently, Lord Alderdice has increasingly emphasized and focused his academic and practical involvement in understanding and addressing situations of violent political conflict in various parts of the world. Lord Alderdice is currently the founding Chair of the Centre for the Resolution of Difficult Conflicts (CRIC) at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. He has also recently been appointed Senior Research Fellow at St Benet's Hall, Oxford, to study Faith, Leadership and Interfaith Dialogue. Lord Alderdice is a research fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations and the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnology at Oxford and is the Founding Chair of the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building in Belfast. Lord Alderdice speaks, lectures and consults worldwide on the psychology of terrorism, violent political conflict and religious fundemantalism. He also works on conflicts between indigenous peoples and majority populations around the world. Lord Alderdice's work has been widely recognized with national and international awards. These include the John F Kennedy Courage Award and the W Averell Harriman Democracy Award in the USA, the International Psychoanalytic Association Award for outstanding service to psychoanalysis, the World Federation of Scientists Ettore Majorana Erice Award for using science for peace, the Liberal International 'Freedom Award', honorary doctorates from the University of East London, Robert Gordon University, Open University (UK), Queen's University at Kingston Canada, American University Bogota, Colombia, and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David University. Lord Alderdice lives with his wife in London, Oxfordshire and France. His three children, all married, live in England and Scotland. |
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