Alanna O’Malley is Associate Professor at the Leiden University Institute for History.

More information about Alanna O'Malley

Alanna O’Malley held the Chair of United Nations Studies in Peace and Justice at Leiden University’s Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs until 2021. This Chair, in honor of the former Dutch Foreign Minister and Mayor of The Hague Jozias Van Aartsen, is shared with The Hague University of Applied Sciences. 

Alanna is a historian focusing on the United Nations, decolonization, Congo and the Cold War. Her current research focuses on recovering the invisible histories of the UN, investigating the role of the Global South challenging the liberal world order from 1945-1981. She completed a PhD at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence from 2007-2012. In 2009, she was a Visiting Scholar at New York University, in Spring 2017 a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Visiting Fellow at the Laureate Research Program in International History at the University of Sydney and from August 2017-February 2018 she was a Fulbright Research Scholar at the History Department of George Washington University in Washington D.C.

Her first book The Diplomacy of Decolonisation, America, Britain and the United Nations during the Congo crisis 1960-64 was published by Manchester University Press in 2018. She is the co-editor of The Institution of International Order, From the League of Nations to the United Nations published by Routledge in 2018. She has also published a range of other articles in the International History Review, Journal of Cold War Studies, Journal of Transatlantic History and the Journal of World History. She has been a regular contributor to the international press including The Conversation, The Irish Times and The Washington Post. Her TEDxFulbright talk, ‘The United Nations, From Blue Helmets to Blue Skies’ will shortly be available on the TED Youtube channel.

Publications