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Jean
ABT
In 2000, Jean Abt was elected to the International Committee of
the Red Cross, for which he has been working on a
voluntary basis since the 1st of January
2001. Jean Abt
originally studied agriculture and business before
embarking on a military career in 1963. He passed
through every level of the army, eventually becoming
a general and corps commander. He specialized in
training, first as an instructor and later as
commander of basic training centres,
non-commissioned officer (NCO) and officer training
schools and central military schools. In parallel
with his training activities, he held several
command positions, ranging from company commander to
regimental commanding officer. These postings were
interspersed with staff positions, including a
period as commander of a divisional headquarters.
His own training included a period at the French
Joint Staff College (École Supérieure de Guerre
Interarmées) in Paris from 1980 to 1981. He was
promoted to the rank of Divisional General,
commanding a division from 1990 to 1991, before
taking command of one Corps in 1992. He was also
appointed at this time to the council of the Swiss
Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and
Sports.
Martti
AHTISAARI
Currently Martti
Ahtisaari mediates the talks between the Indonesian
government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) about the future
status of the province of Aceh, Indonesia.
He
is a former President of the Republic of
Finland (1994-2000). Before his election as
President, he led a prestigious diplomatic career,
working for both Finland’s Ministry for Foreign
Affairs and the United Nations. Between 1965 and
1972, Mr Ahtisaari held various posts in the Bureau
for Technical Co-operation of the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs and as Ambassador to the United
Republic of Tanzania. From 1977 to 1994 he was
Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs, Under-Secretary General for Administration
and Management in the UN, Special Representative of
the UN Secretary General for Namibia, and Secretary
of State in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Mr
Ahtisaari is founder and chairman of Crisis
Management Initiative, a Finnish NGO. He also serves
in leadership roles in several international
institutions and foundations. He is co-chairman of
the East-West Institute and serves as a member of
the joint advisors’ group for the Open Society
Institute and the Soros Foundation. He chairs the
Balkan Youth and Children Foundation and the Global
Commission of the International Youth Foundation, as
well as the international board of the War-Torn
Societies Project. Other post-presidential
assignments have included chairing an independent
panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in
Iraq and appointments as an independent inspector of
the IRA’s arms dumps, as a member of the committee
assessing the Austrian government’s human rights
record, as a Personal Envoy of the Chairman in
Office of the OSCE in Central Asia and as a UN
Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa.
Ichiro
AISAWA
Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs
and
Member of
the Japanese House of Representatives.
10 June
1954 - Born in Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture;
March 1979
- Graduated from the Department of Administration
Engineering Faculty of Engineering, Keio
University;
April 1980
- Joined the Matsushita Institute of Government and
Management (1st graduating class);
July 1986
- Elected for the first time to the House of
Representatives at the 38th general election
(elected six times consecutively);
January
1991 - Deputy Director, National Defence Division,
Policy Research Council, Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP);
December
1992 - State Secretary for International Trade and
Industry (Second Miyazawa Cabinet);
September
1995 - Director, Commerce and Industry Division,
Policy Research Council, LDP;
November
1996 - Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, House
of Representatives;
September
1997 - Director, Committee on Rules and
Administration, House of Representatives;
October
1997 - Deputy Chairman, Diet Affairs Committee, LDP,
Deputy Chairman, Special Committee on External
Economic Cooperation, Policy Research Council LDP;
July 1998
- Chief Director, Committee on Rules and
Administration, House of Representatives;
May 2001 -
Deputy Chairman, Policy Research Council, LDP;
October
2002 - Chief Secretary, Research Commission on
Foreign Affairs, Policy Research Council, LDP;
25 September 2003 - Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign
Affairs.
Tadatoshi AKIBA
Tadatoshi Akiba is Mayor of Hiroshima City. Prior to
becoming mayor in 1999, he served for nine years as
a member of Japan’s House of Representatives. He was
also a professor at Hiroshima Shudo University from
1986 to 1997. Mayor Akiba studied mathematics at the
University of Tokyo and obtained a PhD from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). From
1970 to 1986, Dr. Akiba held positions at the State
University of New York at Stony Brook and Tufts
University in Medford, Massachusetts.
Nassrine
AZIMI
Nassrine Azimi is
the first Director of UNITAR’s Office for Asia
and the Pacific, located in Hiroshima. Ms
Azimi has a post-graduate degree in urban studies
from the School of Architecture of the University of
Geneva. She graduated in political science from the
University of Lausanne and in international
relations from the Graduate Institute of
International Studies in Geneva, and has also
completed a programme of communication and
journalism at Stanford University. At UNITAR, Ms.
Azimi has been the coordinator of the Institute’s
environmental training programmes, deputy to the
Executive Director, and Chief of the New York
Office, respectively. She directs the publications
for the UNITAR-IPS conference series in
peacekeeping, under which she has edited six books.
In 2003, she was invited as a visiting scholar to
the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at
Columbia University.
Marcel
BOISARD
Marcel
A. Boisard, an Assistant-Secretary-General of the
United Nations is currently the Executive
Director of UNITAR. He has a doctoral degree from the
Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva,
Switzerland and a Certificate from the Institute of
World affairs, USA. He was a councillor to
governments of developing countries and a delegate
of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
for almost 15 years. A member of several scientific
societies, he is author of over 30 publications
dealing with cross-cultural relations, the Arab and
Muslim world, multilateral negotiations and
intergovernmental organizations.
Lakhdar
BRAHIMI
Lakhdar
Brahimi is currently a Special Advisor to the UN
Secretary-General. He was the envoy of the
Secretary-General to Iraq and the first head of the
United Nations'
Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA).
He is the former Under-Secretary-General for Special
Assignments in Support of the Secretary-General's
Preventive and Peacemaking Efforts. He also served
as the Chairman of the panel on the reform of the
United Nations Peace Operations that was established
by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in early 2000 and
which produced the Brahimi Report. Lakhdar Brahimi
was a former foreign minister and an ambassador of
Algeria to Cairo and London. He was the special
envoy of the "Tripartite High Committee on Lebanon",
established by the Arab League in 1988-1991, which
successfully mediated an end to the civil war in
that country. He headed the United Nations Observer
Mission in South Africa, which ended the apartheid
regime. He was also the Special Representative of
the Secretary-General in Haiti (1994-1996) and
Special Envoy in Afghanistan
(1997-1999).
Li Lin CHANG
Chang Li Lin is Head of
Public Affairs at the Institute of Policy Studies.
Li Lin coordinates the external relations and
outreach of the institute. She also assists in
fundraising for IPS and is responsible for the
development and management of and the IPS Corporate
Associate Scheme. Prior to her current position she
was a research associate at the institute. In that
capacity, she coordinated the institute's work in
the area of international relations and
international law. To that end, she has been part of
the UNITAR/IPS Peacekeeping Conference Series since
its inception in 1994. She has a Masters in
International Relations from the University of Kent
at Canterbury, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in
Sociology and International Relations from the
University of Reading in the United Kingdom.
James
DOBBINS
James Dobbins is Director of
the International Security and Defence Policy Centre
at the
RAND
Corporation. Mr.
Dobbins is a veteran diplomat who has held senior
White House and State Department positions under
four Presidents and most recently served as the Bush
administration's special envoy for Afghanistan. He
previously served as a United States special envoy
for Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti, and Somalia. Among his
many State Department and White House posts, he was
Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, Special
Assistant to the President for the Western
Hemisphere, Special Advisor to the President and
Secretary of State for the Balkans, and Ambassador
to the European Community. Throughout the 1990's, he
supervised peace operations in Kosovo and Bosnia, as
he earlier had for Haiti and Somalia, managing the
American relief and reconstruction efforts in the
Balkans in excess of $1 billion per annum. In the
wake of September 11, 2001, he served as the Bush
administration's representative to the Afghan
opposition. He worked to form and install a
successor regime to the Taliban, represented the
U.S. at the Bonn Conference, reopened the U.S.
Embassy in Kabul, and represented the U.S. in the
inauguration of Hammid Karzai as Afghanistan's new
head of state.
Yuzan FUJITA
Yuzan
Fujita is currently Governor of Hiroshima
Prefecture. He graduated from the Faculty of
Commercial Science of Keio University in Tokyo in
1972. From 1972 to 1982 Governor Fujita worked for
Mitsui & Co., Ltd. From 1982 to 1989 he served as
Secretary to Mr. Masaaki Fujita, then President of
the House of Councillors. In July 1989 he was
elected as a member of the House of Councillors. He
was elected as the Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture
in 1993 and re-elected in 1997 and 2001. Governor
Fujita is married and has one son and two daughters.
David
HARLAND
David
Harland has been the Chief of the Best Practices
Unit of DPKO since 2003. Previously, he was Senior
Policy Advisor to the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, Geneva, Acting Deputy
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for
the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor,
Dili, Head of Civil Affairs, UN Mission in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Sarajevo and Senior Civil Affairs
Officer, UN Protection Force, Sarajevo. Mr Harland
has a PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, MA and a
Master of Arts from Harvard University, Cambridge,
MA. He has written the Killing Game (Boston,
Praeger, 1994) plus a range of articles and op-ed
pieces on international law, international relations
and peacekeeping, appearing in the International
Herald Tribune and elsewhere.
Julian
HARSTON
Julian
Harston is currently the Director of the
United Nations
Office in Belgrade. He started his work with the
United Nations in 1995 and prior to this,
had a
variety of postings abroad with the United Kingdom
diplomatic service
for more than 25 years. Mr. Harston has direct field experience in five UN
peacekeeping missions, including as Representative
of the Secretary-General in Haiti and Deputy Special
Representative of the Secretary-General in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. An accomplished linguist, Mr.
Harston possesses a good knowledge of French, German
and Portuguese, along with some knowledge of the
Scandinavian languages. His hobbies include travel,
photography, jazz and early English church music.
Mr. Harston has one son, Alexander.
Sukehiro
HASEGAWA
Sukehiro
Hasegawa is currently Special Representative of the
Secretary-General of the United Nations for Timor
Leste and Resident Co-ordinator of the United
Nations' operational activities for development.
During his United Nations career extending over 30
years, he served in senior positions at the
UNDP, the
United Nations Volunteers (UNV), and UN
peace-keeping organizations. Mr. Hasegawa holds a BA
degree in Political Science from the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor, an MA degree in Public
International Administration from the Graduate
School of Public Administration, International
Christian University, Tokyo, Japan and a Ph.D in
International Relations from Washington University,
St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He also obtained two
certificates in the French Language, one from the
Université de Grenoble, France and the other from
the Université de McGill, Montreal, Canada.
Katsuyuki KAWAI
Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs
and
Member of
the House of Representatives.
11 March
1963 - Born in Hiroshima Prefecture;
March 1985
- Graduated from the Department of Political
Science, Faculty of Law, Keio University;
April 1985
- Entered the Matsushita Institute of Government and
Management (Sixth graduating class);
January
1988 - International Governmental Trainee in Office
of Management and Budget, City of Dayton, Ohio, USA;
March 1990
- Graduated from the Matsushita Institute of
Government and Management;
April 1991
- Elected to Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly
(Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima City);
October
1996 - Elected to the House of Representatives at
the 41st House of Representatives Election
(Hiroshima 3rd District);
September
1997 - Member of the Committee on Security, House of
Representatives;
October
1999 - Deputy Director, National Defence Division,
Policy Research Council, Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP);
November
2003 - Elected to the House of Representatives at
the 43rd House of Representatives Election (2nd
term); Director, Special Committee on Disasters,
House of Representatives; Member of the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives; Deputy
Director, Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and
Telecommunications Division, Policy Research
Council, LDP; Deputy Director, Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology Division, Policy
Research Council, LDP; Vice-Chairman, Committee on
Organizations Involved with Public Finance, Finance
and Securities, Party Organization Headquarters,
LDP;
30
September 2004 - Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign
Affairs.
Justin
KELLY
Brigadier Kelly is the
Director-General of Future Land Welfare at the
Department of Defence, Canberra.
Brigadier Kelly
graduated from the Royal Military College in 1977
and was commissioned into the Royal Australian
Armoured Corps. Following initial employment as a
tank troop leader in the 1st
Armoured
Regiment he enjoyed a number of regimental postings
in reconnaissance and armoured personnel carrier
units and at the School of Armour. In 1995/96 he
commanded the 1st
Armoured
Regiment. He also commanded the Peace Monitoring
Group on Bougainville in 2000/01 and was Deputy
Force Commander of the Peace Keeping Force in East
Timor in 2002/03. His staff experience has been
principally with Army force development and has
included postings in the Directorate of Operational
Requirements and Directorate of Armour and as
Director of Restructuring the Army and Director of
Concepts and Capability Development. In January
2000, Brigadier Kelly was made a Member of the Order
of Australia for services to Army force development.
He is presently Director General of Future Land
Warfare at Army HQ. Brigadier Kelly has attended a
number of training institutions including the UK
Armour School (1981/2), the UK Royal Military
College of Science (1986), Australian Command and
Staff College (1990), Joint Services Staff College
(1997) and US Army War College (2002). He has a
Masters degree in Defence Studies and a Masters in
Strategic Studies.
Tommy
KOH
Tommy Koh is currently
Ambassador-At-Large at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Chairman of the Institute of Policy
Studies of Singapore. He is Chairman of the Chinese
Heritage Centre and Chairman of the National
Heritage Board
and a Professor of Law at the National University of
Singapore. He was Dean of the Law Faculty from
1971-1974. He was Singapore’s Permanent
Representative to the United Nations in New York
from 1968 to 1971 (concurrently accredited as High
Commissioner to Canada) and from 1974 to 1984
(concurrently accredited as High Commissioner to
Canada and Ambassador to Mexico). He was Ambassador
to the United States of America from 1984 to 1990.
Professor Koh was President of the Third UN
Conference on the Law of the Sea from 1980 to 1982,
and Chairman of the Preparatory Committee and the
Main Committee of the UN Conference on Environment
and Development from 1990 to 1992. He served as the
UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Russia,
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1993. He was
Chairman of two WTO dispute panels and a member of a
previous panel. Professor Koh was the founding
Executive Director of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).
He held the post from February 1997 to October 2000.
He was also Singapore's Chief Negotiator for the
US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (2000 to 2003).
Professor Koh graduated from the University of
Singapore and has post-graduate qualifications from
Harvard and Cambridge universities. His publications
include The United States and East Asia: Conflict
and Co-operation (Singapore: Institute of Policy
Studies & Times Academic Press, 1995); The Quest for
World Order: Perspectives of a Pragmatic Idealist
(Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies & Times
Academic Press, 1998); and Asia and Europe: Essays
and Speeches (Singapore: Asia-Europe Foundation &
World Scientific Publishing, 2000).
Jean-Philippe LAVOYER
Jean-Philippe
Lavoyer is Head of the
Legal Division at the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC). Prior to this, he was, among
other posts at the ICRC, Deputy Head of the Legal
Division, Head of Delegation in Kuwait and Arabian
Peninsula during the first Gulf War, and Head of
Delegation in Afghanistan and Somalia in the late
80’s. Mr. Lavoyer has participated in numerous
international negotiations and meetings, most
particularly for the Establishment of the
International Criminal Court (Preparatory Committee
and Diplomatic Conference in Rome), the Conventions
on international terrorism and the Guiding
Principles on Internal Displacement. Mr. Lavoyer
has published extensively on a variety of subjects,
notably terrorism and international humanitarian
law, refugees and internally displaced persons,
protected zones/safe areas, the Red Cross and Red
Crescent emblem, the legal status of the ICRC, the
Centenary of the First International Peace
Conference, the (first) Gulf War, and other issues
related to international humanitarian law. Mr. Lavoyer was born in Berne, Switzerland
in 1950 and studied Law at Berne University. He was
admitted to the Bar in 1976 and was the legal
adviser of the Swiss National (Reserve) Bank, before
joining the ICRC, in 1984.
Alastair
MCKECHNIE
Alastair McKechnie
has been the World Bank's Country Director for
Afghanistan since January 2002 and is also
Operations Director for the South Asia Region, where
he assists the Vice President for the region and
oversees the Bank's operations in all sectors in
South Asia. Prior to that appointment he was the
energy sector director for the South Asia region,
responsible for the Bank's energy operations in
Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Mr. McKechnie was formerly the World Bank division
chief for energy, infrastructure and private-sector
development in the Mashreq, Egypt and Iran
Department in the Middle East/North Africa region
from 1991 to 1997, where he played a leadership role
in infrastructure, energy, and environment,
including in the Palestinian and Lebanese
reconstruction programmes. He joined the World Bank
in 1982 as an economist in the Europe, Middle East
and North Africa Projects Department. Prior to
joining the Bank, he worked for international
consulting companies in the United Kingdom for nine
years. Mr. McKechnie has an M.Com. degree in
economics and a BE Honours. degree in electrical
engineering, both from the University of Canterbury,
Christchurch, New Zealand.
Dennis
MCNAMARA
Dennis McNamara is currently Special Advisor on
Internal Displacement at the Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
A
veteran of the UN High Commission
for Refugees (UNHCR), he has
been, among many operational posts, Deputy Special
Representative of the Secretary-General (and Deputy
Transitional Administrator) in East Timor and
Director of the Human Rights Component of the UN
Transitional Authority in Cambodia. From 1986 to
1987, Mr McNamara was a visiting fellow at the
Centre for International Studies at the London
School of Economics. The author of numerous articles
on refugee issues, Mr. McNamara holds an Honours
degree in law from the University of Auckland. He is
married with three children.
Izumi
NAKAMITSU LENNARTSSON
Ms.
Nakamitsu is currently Senior Advisor on
Peacebuilding at the
Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA). After obtaining master’s degree from
Georgetown University, she started her professional
life in UNHCR in 1989 and held various positions.
Between 1992 and 1994, she served as head of UNHCR
offices in Sarajevo and Mostar, and was also
seconded to the staff of the Special Representative
of the Secretary-General for the former Yugoslavia
Mr. T. Stoltenberg and Mr. Y. Akashi. She was Mr.
Sergio Vieira de Mello’s Special Assistant at UNHCR
from 1995 through 1997, when she left for New York
to join the Secretary-General’s UN Reform Team on
loan from UNHCR. In 1998, she became Chef de Cabinet
and later Director of Planning and Coordination at
the International Institute for Democracy and
Electoral Assistance (IDEA), headquartered in
Stockholm, where she worked until 2004. In April
2005, she will be Professor of International
Relations at Hitotsubashi University, in addition to
being visiting senior advisor at JICA. Her
publications include UN and Democratization:
Towards More Sustainable Peace-building,
(Stockholm, International IDEA, 2003), “Electoral
Assistance and Democratization”, From Reaction to
Conflict Prevention: Opportunities for the UN System,
(New York, International Peace Academy, 2002), and
Democracy and Global Cooperation at the United
Nations, (Stockholm, International IDEA, 2000).
Hisashi
OWADA
Hisashi
Owada was appointed to the International Court of
Justice in The Hague in 2003. Before this
appointment, he was President of the Japan Institute
of International Affairs, Advisor to the Minister
for Foreign Affairs of Japan and, concurrently,
Professor of International Law and Organization at
Waseda University Graduate School;
Judge Owada has
also served as Senior Advisor to the President of
the World Bank. Upon completion of his undergraduate
studies at Tokyo University and his Master’s degree
at Cambridge University in England, Judge Owada
joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. He
was Private Secretary to the Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Secretary for the Prime Minister,
Director-General of the Treaties Bureau (Principal
Legal Advisor), Deputy Foreign Minister, Councillor,
then Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, and
Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. He
also served as Permanent Representative and
Ambassador of Japan to the United Nations in New
York. Parallel to his professional activities in the
service of the Government of Japan, Judge Owada has
been working as an academic and professor of
international law and organization at universities
in Japan and abroad. He taught at Tokyo University
from the early 1960’s to the 1980’s and was a
visiting professor at Harvard University, Columbia
University and New York University. He is currently
on the faculty of the New York University Global Law
School. He is a Membre de l’Institut de Droit
International and author of numerous articles and
publications on international political and legal
affairs.
Michael
SMITH
Mike
Smith is the Chief Executive Officer of AUSTCARE
(Australians Caring for Refugees). He previously had
a distinguished military career in the Australian
Defence Force, including senior command appointments
and was the Deputy Commander of the United Nations
Peacekeeping Force in East Timor. He is the author
of Peacekeeping in East Timor: the Path to
Independence (Lynne Rienner, Boulder and London,
2003), and has spoken at a number of international
symposiums on issues related to security,
development and governance, particularly in
post-conflict situations. Major-General Smith is a
member of the Executive Committee of the Australian
Council for International Development, a member of
the International Advisory Board of the Asia-Pacific
College of Diplomacy, and an Adjunct Professor at
the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and
Governance at Griffith University.
Matthias
STIEFEL
Matthias
Stiefel is the President and Founder of WSP
International, an international institution with a
dual United Nations and Non-Governmental
Organization identity that was founded in May 2000.
WSP International institutionalizes and expands on
the operational experience and methodological
approach of the War-torn Societies Project (WSP) in
support of the international community’s and local
actors’ responses to conflict and crisis situations.
Mr. Stiefel was the Director of WSP between June
1994 and December 1998 where he was responsible for
the conception and implementation of an experimental
global action-research project on problems of
international assistance in post-conflict
situations. Following the conclusion of WSP,
Mr.
Stiefel became the Director of the WSP-Transition
Program between January 1999 and May 2000,
overseeing the search for a new institutional
framework within which WSP could continue its
activities. Before launching WSP, Mr. Stiefel was a
Project Leader with the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP) Humanitarian Program between 1993 and
1994. Mr. Stiefel was also a consultant and advisor
for various international agencies and institutions
between 1986 and 1994. His consultancy positions
were with the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD), UNICEF (various regional and
country offices and the International Child
Development Centre), the U.N. Research Institute for
Social Development (UNRISD), the International
Labour Organisation (ILO), UNDP, the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
and the Swiss Government. Mr. Stiefel’s advisory
roles include being a Senior Advisor to the Director
of UNRISD between 1993 and 1994, and advising on the
Program for Strategic and International Security
Studies at the Graduate Institute of International
Studies, Geneva, in his capacity as Deputy Director,
between 1992 and 1999. Between 1986 and 1991 Mr.
Stiefel spent five years as a farmer on a
traditional dry-land subsistence farm in the South
of Portugal. Prior to that he was the Director of
the Participation Program of UNRISD, during which
time he set up and administered a global research
program on popular participation in development. Mr.
Stiefel joined UNRISD as an assistant to the Project
Director in 1976 after studying for his doctorate in
International History and Politics at the Institut
Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales,
Geneva.
Ramesh
THAKUR
Professor
Ramesh
Thakur is Vice-Rector of the United Nations
University (UNU) and
Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations.
He is
a member of the UNU's senior
academic staff and works as head of the University's
Peace and Governance Programme. Prof.
Thakur, a political scientist and peace researcher,
was born in India in 1948. After completing his
undergraduate degree at the University of Calcutta,
he moved to Canada where he earned a Ph.D. in
political studies at Queen's University. Professor
Thakur spent 16 years with the University of Otago,
New Zealand, where he established eminent foreign
policy and other
study forums. In 1995, he was appointed
to head the Peace Research Centre at the Australian
National University where he was involved with
policy-oriented research, workshops, and
dissemination on numerous undertakings, such as the
Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension
Conference, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and
the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Prof. Thakur is the author of numerous peace-related
publications and has taken on various
responsibilities with national bodies in New Zealand
and Australia.
HOAP
Secretariat
Sharapiya KAKIMOVA
Sharapiya Kakimova graduated from Kazakh State
Polytechnic Institute in 1993 with qualification of
a system engineer. Later she obtained a Degree of
Master of Arts in the field of international
relations from Hiroshima University. She has been
working in the governmental institutions of the
Republic of Kazakhstan for six years and was
responsible for the external aid coordination.
Meanwhile, she has participated in the courses
organized by JICA, GTZ and TACIS. Ms. Kakimova has
joined UNITAR twice as an Associate, in 2002 and
2003, and since is currently a Fellow with UNITAR
HOAP since January 2004.
Chris
MOORE
Chris
Moore graduated with degrees in Law and Classical
Studies from the University of Canterbury, New
Zealand. He taught English for two years in
Hiroshima, Japan, as a participant on the Japan
Exchange Teaching (JET) Programme before being
admitted to the New Zealand Bar as a Barrister and
Solicitor and then working as a legal assistant in
London for two years. Mr. Moore returned to Japan in
1999 and, after taking a Japanese language course
for a year at the Hiroshima YMCA, entered Hiroshima
University to study international relations. He
graduated with a Master of Arts in 2003 with a
thesis examining Japan’s relations with the Pacific
Island countries. He joined the Hiroshima office of
UNITAR in November 2003.
Kaori
OKABE
Kaori Okabe has a
B.A. degree in education from Kagawa University and
an M.A. degree in Educational Development from the
Graduate School for International Development and
Cooperation at Hiroshima University. Prior to
joining UNITAR she was involved in an
Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)
project for the development of environmental
educational materials for secondary schools in
Nepal. From 1998-2002 she was a
Research Assistant at Hiroshima University for the
Asia-Pacific Programme of
Educational Innovation for Development (APEID)
seminar devoted to Education for All and teachers
education and also spent a year as a researcher at
the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Ms.
Okabe has written several papers in the field of
international development in education and its
evaluation. She has
been the Office Manager of UNITAR HOAP since July
2003.
Vladimir
ROUVINSKY
Vladimir
Rouvinksi is Research Fellow of the Japan Society
for the Promotion of Science and Ph.D. Candidate at
the Graduate School for International Development
and Cooperation of Hiroshima University. His current
research is focused on the use of historical
knowledge for political purposes in the areas of
low-intensity conflicts in the Caucasus, and he is
also interested in the issues of forced migration
and internal displacement. Before coming to Japan,
Mr Rouvinski was lecturing in social sciences in
Russia and South America. He has BA (History) and MA
(History and International Relations) from Irkutsk
State University in Russia, and MA (Development
Science) from Hiroshima University in Japan.
Sergei
SHAPOSHNIKOV
Sergei
Shaposhnikov completed his diploma in political
economy and his Ph.D. in international economics
from St. Petersburg State University in Russia. He
has been an Assistant Professor at St. Petersburg
State University and IT researcher at Stockholm
School of Economics in St. Petersburg. He is an
author of several publications related to Microsoft
Corp., IT market and management. Mr. Shaposhnikov is
currently a Fellow at UNITAR HOAP.
James
SHORT
James
Short received a B.A. degree from the University of
Cardiff in History in 1994 and then worked as an
Educational Support Assistant in a school for
handicapped children. After completing a Post
Graduate Certificate in Education, he taught English
in Hiroshima, Japan for three years as a participant
on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme. After
teaching English in the private sector while taking
a correspondence course in Development Management
with the UK Open University, he entered Hiroshima
University and received an M.A. degree in Education
for International Understanding in 2003. He is
currently undertaking a PhD course at Hiroshima
University focusing on the Peace Education curricula
of the cities of Hiroshima and Dresden. He entered
UNITAR HOAP as an Associate in February 2005.
Atsushi
YASUI
Atsushi Yasui received
his B.F.A from Pratt Institute, (major in
Photography, minor in History of Art) and M.A. from
the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, (major in
Photography). In 2002, he worked as a volunteer for
the Cultural Assets Division Office of the Board of
Education, City of Ustunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture,
Japan. He has also worked as an intern for
Asia-Pacific Region Unit, UNESCO World Heritage
Centre before joining the UNITAR HOAP as an
Associate in November 2003. |
