Dr Liam O'Shea is an expert on police and police reform in developing countries and politics and security in the former Soviet Union.
With the 2020/21 LSE Dinam Fellowship, Liam will develop new frameworks and tools of analysis to help governments, NGOs and donors understand the key factors which affect police behaviour and police reform in developing countries. Liam will also explore which policy options work, when, and under what conditions, to reduce police violence and corruption and improve police efficiency. Drawing from his extensive practitioner experience, and insights from international relations, police studies and criminology, Liam will deliver research on interventions to develop democratic and inclusive security forces. He is especially interested in designing policy and interventions that start with a thorough examination of the policing reality of developing countries, and working from there.
From 2018-2020 Liam was a Governance Adviser in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for the UK's £1.3b Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, where he advised on regional strategies and programming in fragile and conflict-affected states. He also led a team coordinating the FCDO's response to Covid-19 in vulnerable countries and on the production of a High-level Event at the UN General Assembly, raising over $1b in vaccine development for developing countries.
Prior to joining the FCDO, Liam was a Policy Adviser in the Cabinet Office and the Associate Director of a philanthropic foundation focused on education in SE Asia. He has consulted a number of organisations on security and justice in developing countries, including the Overseas Development Institute and Saferworld. From 2014-2015, Liam won a place on the Alfa Fellowship,a high-level professional leadership programme in Russia, where he led a project developing policy recommendations for police reform in Russia for a local NGO. He also wrote his PhD on police reform in the former Soviet Union, and speaks Russian.
