Michael McDowell is Northern Irish first, and British and Irish second or third and holds multiple citizenships. He is a Trinity College, Dublin (1592) and Harvard (1636) alumnus and right now a Visiting Scholar at the Senator George Mitchell Institute. He is the son of a journalist, worked in newspapers and broadcasting (BBC and CBC in Canada and Washington DC), specializing mainly in foreign affairs until 1997. A fellow in several think-tanks in the US, he has worked on military safe training legislation (following the preventable death of his son Conor, 24, a young Marine officer), global health (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), international development (World Bank staff), etc.. Reading, both fiction and non-fiction is his constant passion, and a love of classical music, and travel, especially in France. His favorite theologian/public intellectual is Reinhold Niebuhr. He and his wife Susan love their John Bolton House (1759) home, which they share with Conor's two cats, Missy & Max.