Dr Paul Gillespie is Foreign Policy Editor and a duty editor of The Irish Times. He works in the editor's office of the newspaper as an editorial writer and columnist on international affairs. He has special expertise and interest in European politics and political identities, British-Irish relations, transatlantic relations, Middle East affairs and East Asian affairs. He lectures at the School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin and is a member of the advisory council of the European Policy Centre, Brussels. He is the author of many articles and book chapters and edited Blair's Britain, England's Europe, Dublin: Institute of European, 2000.