Aaron Edwards is an academic lecturer, author and security analyst working in the Professional Military Education and Higher Education sectors.
Aaron received his PhD in Politics and International Studies from the Queen’s University of Belfast where he completed his doctoral thesis on the theme of ethnic conflict and cooperation in divided societies, with a case-study focus on Northern Ireland. He subsequently worked as a journalist with The Other View Magazine, a publication established by former loyalist and republican paramilitaries, and led a major EU-funded peace and reconciliation programme at INCORE, a University of Ulster/United Nations University Centre for Excellence in Peace and Conflict Studies. The Journeys Out Project facilitated dialogue between community representatives and former paramilitaries on the legacy of the Troubles.
Since 2008, Aaron has been a Senior Lecturer in Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he teaches Officer Cadets and Army Officers at home and overseas.
Aaron was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2012 and became a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy in the same year. He has been a Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Politics and International Studies at the Queen’s University of Belfast and is currently an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History, Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester. He is also a PhD Supervisor in Modern War Studies and Contemporary Military History at the University of Buckingham.
Aaron has delivered education and training courses to high-ranking government officials, diplomats, armed forces personnel, police officers, intelligence and special forces operators in over 25 countries worldwide. He deployed in support of UK military operations during the Iraq War in 2008.
He is the critically acclaimed author of Mad Mitch’s Tribal Law: Aden and the End of Empire (2014), UVF: Behind the Mask (2017), Agents of Influence: Britain’s Secret Intelligence War Against the IRA (2021) and A People Under Siege: The Unionists of Northern Ireland, From Partition to Brexit and Beyond (2023).
Aaron’s work has featured in the Irish Times, Belfast Telegraph, Belfast Newsletter, Irish News, Irish Independent, Irish Mail on Sunday, Sunday Business Post, Irish Examiner, Fortnight magazine and The Dublin Review of Books. He has given commentary and analysis on political and security matters to the BBC, TRT World, UTV, RTE, Vice News, Sunday Times, The Economist, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Christian Science Monitor, New European, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland), The Herald on Sunday, Profil (Austria), DPA International (Germany) and Tagesspiegel (Germany).
Aaron is available for media commentary on all aspects of the Northern Ireland Troubles and Peace Process, as well as some general aspects of Intelligence and National Security, Counter-Terrorism and other Global Security matters.
He can be contacted at: [email protected]
