Biography of Joseph Morrison Skelly

View writings by Joseph Morrison Skelly

Joseph Morrison Skelly is a scholar specializing in international terrorism, diplomatic history, military affairs, and the contemporary Middle East. He has published several books on these topics, including Political Islam from Muhammad to Ahmadinejad: Defenders, Detractors, and Definitions (Praeger Security International, 2010), and Ideas Matter: Essays in Honour of Conor Cruise O'Brien (Poolbeg Press, 1998). He has written articles and reviews for a range of academic journals, such as Jewish Political Studies Review, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Middle East Quarterly, and International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. He has published articles on these themes in National Review Online, Washington Times, and United Press International.

Mr. Skelly has studied international terrorism in the Middle East and Europe. From 2003 to 2007 he was an academic fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a counterterrorist, pro-democracy think tank based in Washington, D.C. With FDD he traveled to Israel to work with scholars, policymakers, and counterterrorist specialists. In Northern Ireland he served as an advisor to Mr. Robert McCartney, a former Member of the British Parliament and leader of the United Kingdom/Unionist Party and staunch opponent of the peace process in the province owing to its appeasement of terrorist groups like the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Volunteer Force. Mr. Skelly received his Ph.D. in diplomatic history from University College Dublin and has taught at Trinity College Dublin.

Mr. Skelly is an officer in the United States Army Reserve. He has served a tour of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was stationed in the city of Baquba, located thirty miles northeast of Baghdad in Diyala Province. He is currently a company commander, and has completed Army training courses at a variety of locations, including Fort Benning, GA, Fort Leonard Wood, MO, Fort Bliss, TX, and Fort Sam Houston, TX.

He is a consulting editor for Academic Press, a scholarly press in Palo Alto, and Enigma Books, which specializes in military, intelligence, and diplomatic history. He has penned the historical introduction to Enigma's recently published volume, The First Iraq War, 1914-18: Britain's Mesopotamia Campaign (2009). He is an associate professor of history at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York City, where he teaches courses in international history, terrorism and counterterrorism, and military affairs.

Long engaged in higher education reform, Mr. Skelly serves on the board of the New York state chapter of the National Association of Scholars. He is treasurer of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) and a member of the Board of Governors of the Historical Society, which is committed to revivifying the historical profession and the study of history in the United States.