Jennifer Mary WelshFRSC (born 1965) is a Canadian professor of international relations, currently working as the Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University.[1] Welsh is the Director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies at McGill's Max Bell School of Public Policy, and a co-director of the Canadian Research Network on Women, Peace and Security.[2] Welsh is a frequent commentator in Canadian media on foreign affairs.
Prior to her appointment at McGill, Welsh was a professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford from 1999 to 2014, where she also co-founded the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict.[3][4][5] From 2014 to 2019, Welsh was the chair in International Relations at the European University Institute (Florence), where she directed a five-year European Research Council project on the ethics and law of contemporary armed conflict.[6]
From 1997 to 1998, Welsh was a Professor and Associate Director of the Peace & Conflict Studies Programme at the University of Toronto.[9] Welsh was a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Oxford (1999–2006) and was appointed a full professor in 2006.
Welsh has engaged in a number of policy processes related to international peace and security and Canadian foreign policy. In 2005, she was the lead writer for the International Policy Statement for the Government of Canada. From 2013 to 2016 Welsh was served as Assistant Secretary General and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-Moon on the Responsibility to Protect[10][11][12] – a position in which she helped to further develop and implement the principle within and beyond the UN system. She delivered the 2016 Massey Lectures.[13]
Welsh currently works as the Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security and serves as the Director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies (CIPSS) at McGill University. She is also a professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy, and the Co-Director of the Research Network on Women, Peace and Security.[14]