Allen Buchanan is Laureate Professor of Philosophy and Research Professor, University of Arizona Center for the Philosophy of Freedom. His B.A. is from Columbia University (1970) and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1975).

His main research is in Philosophy of International Law, Bioethics, and Political Philosophy. He recently was chosen for the Tanner Lectures on Human Values. In addition to scholarly work and teaching, Allen has participated in policy-making processes at the highest levels, including serving on the Advisory Council for the Human Genome Project, as a Staff Philosopher or consultant for all the Presidential Bioethics Commissions, as a consultant to the Transitional Government of Ethiopia on the writing of the secession clause, and as a consultant on self-determination issues to the Government of Canada, the President of Catalonia, the European High Commissioner on National Minorities, and the U.S. State Department. His current research is on the role of ideologies in large-scale social change. His hobbies include fly fishing, hiking, sporting clays and skeet, and 100 yd rimfire benchrest competition.