Ben Tonra is Jean Monnet Professor ad personam of European Foreign, Security and Defence Policy and Associate Professor of International Relations at the UCD School of Politics and International Relations. In UCD he teaches, researches  and publishes in European foreign, security and defence policy, Irish foreign  and security policy and International Relations  theory. From 2005 to 2010 he was Director of the Graduate School at the UCD College of Human Sciences. Outside the university Ben serves on the Royal Irish Academy's Committee on International Affairs and is the Project Leader for a research programme in EU foreign and security policy at the Institute of International and European Affairs, Dublin. From 1997-1999 he was a Lecturer at the Department of International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth and from 1993 to 1996 he was a Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin (TCD). From 1989-1991 he was a Research Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Washington DC. Professor Tonra was born in the United States, is a graduate of the University of Limerick (BA and MA) and completed his doctoral studies at TCD in 1996.