Edward Burke is an Assistant Professor in the History of War since 1945 at University College Dublin where he lectures and researches issues relating to military history, strategic studies, insurgency and terrorism.

Prior to joining UCD, he was an Associate Professor in International Relations at the University of Nottingham (2017-2022). From 2015 to 2017 Edward was a Lecturer in Strategic Studies at the University of Portsmouth, attached to the Royal Air Force College Cranwell.

He received his PhD in International Relations in 2016 from the University of St. Andrews. From 2010 to 2011 he was seconded by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to serve as Deputy Head of the International Police Coordination Board in Kabul, Afghanistan; previously he served as an analyst at the EU Police Mission in Afghanistan. He also worked as a Foreign Policy Fellow at the Foundation for International Relations (FRIDE) in Madrid and at the Centre for European Reform in London.

Edward recently completed a two-year fellowship funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council on paramilitary violence in Ulster. He is the author of An Army of Tribes: British Army Cohesion, Deviancy and Murder (Liverpool University Press, 2018) and Ulster’s Lost Counties: Loyalism and Paramilitarism since 1920 (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and Ghosts of a Family: Ireland’s Most Infamous Unsolved Murder, the Outbreak of the Civil War, and the Origins of the Troubles (Merrion, 2024). Edward has also published a range of articles and book chapters on paramilitary forces in British empire and the NATO-led counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan.

Edward was recently appointed by the UK government to an advisory role in relation to its forthcoming official history on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He has appeared as an expert witness at the UK Houses of Parliament / the European Parliament and lectured at RUSI and at Chatham House, among other places. His media contributions include writing opinion articles for The Guardian, The Irish Times, The New York Times, and El País. Burke has appeared on news and documentary programmes for the BBC and RTÉ.

His media contributions include writing opinion articles for The Guardian, The Irish Times, The New York Times, and El País. Burke has appeared on news and documentary programmes for the BBC and RTÉ.