Tom Lodge BA, B Phil & Ph D (York), is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick. Before his arrival in Limerick in 2005 he was Professor of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has also held positions at the University of York, the Social Science Research Council in New York, and the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa. In 1999 - 2000 he was Chair of the Africa Institute in Pretoria and between 2004 and 2005 he served on the Research Assessment Executive Evaluation Committee of the National Research Foundation in Pretoria. He is the author of five books and two edited volumes. They include Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (Longman, 1993) and Politics in South Africa From Mandela to Mbeki (University of Indiana Press, 2002). A sixth book, Nelson Mandela: A Critical Biography, will be published by Oxford University Press in July 2006. His publications also include 60 journal articles and chapters in edited collections. Current writing projects: a short text on political corruption and a general survey of African contemporary history. General research interests: African political parties, democratisation, post conflict politics, late development, political corruption.