Mark Cooney

A native of Ireland, I came to the U.S. for a year to do postgraduate work in law (law is an undergraduate degree pretty much everywhere except the U.S.). I'm still here almost 40 years later. During that time, I switched from law to sociology and have lived and taught in Zimbabwe, Virginia, and now Georgia. I am fascinated by conflict -- how it happens, how it is handled. I have a particular interest in lethal conflict, perhaps because despite the name "the fighting Irish," the Ireland I grew up in was a place where homicide was virtually unknown. So what social conditions produce violence? And how do states and societies respond to violence? Warriors and Peacemakers and Is Killing Wrong,? respectively, tackle these questions. They continue to haunt me.