Center for Global Affairs
FACULTY BIOGRAPHIES
VERA JELINEK, Ph.D.
DIVISIONAL DEAN AND DIRECTOR, NYU CENTER FOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS
Dr. Vera Jelinek's mission to create a community of global citizens has spanned over two decades at New York University. After an initial career in international educational exchange, she joined NYU as the director of International Programs, Social and Natural Sciences. While overseeing the growth of programs in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, Jelinek envisioned and established a new department of international affairs. In 1999, the prestige and overall excellence of the international affairs program allowed Jelinek to found The Lillian Vernon Center for International Affairs at NYU. The Vernon Center provided Jelinek with the opportunity to develop innovative and compelling public programs that attracted world leaders, the U.N. community, authors, journalists and scholars in international affairs.
Under Dr. Jelinek's direction, 2004 brought the birth of the Masters of Science in Global Affairs program and the emergence of the Center for Global Affairs (CGA) in lower Manhattan's historic Woolworth Building. Currently, the CGA has over 200 graduate students and presents public programs during the academic year which bring together NYU students and the greater New York community for conversations on critical global issues with experts in the field. Dr. Jelinek maintains close ties with international and nongovernmental organizations, the UN community, international media, and the US Department of State. She has a Ph.D. in modern European history from NYU, a Masters in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in history from Queens College. She is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Women and Who's Who in the East. She is conversant in French, Italian and Hungarian.
TopALON BEN-MEIR, Ph.D., M.PHIL.
SENIOR FELLOW IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS
Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is professor of international relations and Middle East studies, as well as a noted journalist and author with over 25 years of direct involvement in foreign affairs. In addition to his essays on global conflict-oriented issues, Dr. Ben-Meir writes a weekly article about current international policies and events. Ben-Meir is the author of numerous books, including: The Middle East: Imperative and Choices; Israel: The Challenge of the Fourth Decade; In Defiance of Time; Framework for Arab-Israeli Peace; and The Last Option and a War We Must Win. He expects to publish Lost Perspectives in 2009, which will address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr. Ben-Meir is fluent in Arabic and Hebrew and holds an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in international relations from Oxford University.
AMBASSADOR RICHARD BUTLER AC, M.Ec.
GLOBAL DIPLOMAT IN RESIDENCE
CLINICAL PROFESSOR
Ambassador Butler joined the graduate program in 2008 as NYU's first Global Diplomat in Residence. He has held numerous international posts for both the government of Australia and for the United Nations, including the Executive Chairmanship of the United Nations Special Commission to Disarm Iraq (UNSCOM), as appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan from 1997-1999. As Executive Chairman, Ambassador Butler was responsible for the direct negotiations with the Iraqi government to "destroy, remove or render harmless" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. He worked in conjunction with heads of government, defense ministers, and intelligence chiefs, advised the UN Security Council regarding policy matters, and directed all UNSCOM operations.
Ambassador Butler also has held the following posts: Australian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Chairman of the establishment for UNAIDS (a global program on HIV/AIDS), Australian Ambassador to Thailand, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the Supreme National Council of Cambodia, Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations (an elected position by the UN General Assembly), Australian Ambassador for Disarmament (Geneva), Diplomat in Residence for the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Governor of Tasmania, among many other positions.
Ambassador Butler is a well-published author of policy statements, papers, and books. His books include: The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Crisis of Global Security; Saddam Defiant: The Threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Crisis of Global Security; and Fatal Choice: Nuclear Weapons, Survival or Sentence. He holds a B.Ec. in Economics from the University of Sydney, an M.Ec. in International Relations from the Australian National University, and has been awarded multiple honorary doctorates. He is a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian honor.
MARK GALEOTTI, Ph.D.
ACADEMIC CHAIR AND CLINICAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Dr Mark Galeotti is a specialist in transnational organized crime, security affairs and modern Russia. He started his academic career concentrating on conventional security issues, including the impact of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the implications of the disintegration of the USSR. However, in his fieldwork he encountered the rising new generation of gangsters carving out their portions of the decaying Soviet Union and was one of the first Western academics to recognize this as an emerging security concern. Since then, he has become increasingly interested in the transnationalisation of not just Russian but all forms of organized crime and their impact on the international order and development as a shadowy opposite to the global citizenship at the heart of the CGA's mission.
Dr. Galeotti read history at Cambridge University and then took his doctorate in politics at the London School of Economics. He has worked as a researcher in the British Houses of Parliament and in the City of London, and visiting professor of public security at Rutgers-Newark, but before joining the faculty of the Center for Global Affairs he had been head of the history department at Keele University in the UK and the founding director of its Organized Russian & Eurasian Crime Research Unit, the only such specialized center in Europe. He has served as an advisor to the British Foreign Office and has worked with a wide range of commercial, law enforcement and government agencies, from the State Department to Interpol.
Dr. Galeotti founded the interdisciplinary journal Global Crime and wrote a monthly column on post-Soviet affairs in Jane's Intelligence Review from 1991 to 2007. He has published widely, with 11 authored and edited books to his name and numerous other pieces, from articles in peer-reviewed academic journals to newspaper op-eds. His present projects include a global history of organized crime and an analysis of the Russian ‘mafiya'.
CAROLYN KISSANE, Ph.D., M.A.
CLINICAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Dr. Carolyn Kissane has worked as a researcher and consultant in Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia, Argentina, Japan, and Sweden for educational and nongovernmental organizations including World Teach, The Academy for Educational Development, Soros Foundation, United States Institute of Peace, US Department of Education, and the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). She also works with CIMERA, an NGO she helped set up that works in the Balkans, Caucasus, and Central Asia. She has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in the areas of international affairs, nongovernmental organizations and international development, and education and international development at Teachers College Columbia University, CUNY Queens College, Colgate University, and New York University. She currently holds a fellowship from the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs for her work on post-Soviet history education in Kazakhstan. She also received a Fulbright Hayes Doctoral Dissertation Research Award, Teachers College Columbia University Dean's Grant, IREX Caspian Sea Fellowship, IREX travel grant, and a National Security Graduate Enhancement Fellowship.
Dr. Kissane's publications include an article on history education in Comparative Education, Freedom House Countries at the Crossroads report on Kazakhstan, Evaluating Human Rights Education, a forthcoming chapter on History Education for Reconciliation and Understanding, and new research on the impact of oil revenues on educational policy and financing in resource-rich countries. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Education and Policy Studies from Columbia University.
LOUIS KLAREVAS, Ph.D.
CLINICAL ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Dr. Louis Klarevas is a member of the clinical faculty at the Center for Global Affairs. Prior to moving to New York, he was the Defense Analysis Research Fellow at the London School of Economics. He has also held teaching positions at American University, George Washington University, and the City University of New York. Before joining the ranks of academia, he served as a research associate at the United States Institute of Peace – a U.S. government think tank devoted to resolving international conflicts and global security problems. His areas of expertise are international security, transnational terrorism, American foreign policy, national security law, and the Eastern Mediterranean (Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus). His publications and commentaries have appeared in some of the top policy and academic journals (e.g., International Security, Harvard International Review, Diplomatic History, Fletcher Forum, and Public Opinion Quarterly) and some of the most prominent periodica ls and newspapers (e.g., New York Times Magazine, New Republic, International Herald Tribune, New York Newsday, Washington Post, and Washington Times) in the field. Dr. Klarevas holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the School of International Service at American University.
EVERETT MYERS, A.B.D., MBA
CLINICAL ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Professor Everett Myers has spent the majority of his professional life as an international banker/investment banker. He worked for Chase Manhattan Bank, N. A. for many years in their Corporate and Investment banking divisions and also served as Country Manager in Japan for PaineWebber (Tokyo), Inc. Professor Myers has been an active entrepreneur throughout his business career having been one of the founding partners in a boutique investment bank, developing and executing esoteric cross-boarder tax arbitrage financings, as well as managing a number of smaller business endeavors. Prof. Myers is a recently appointed Association for Institutional Research Fellow at the Summer Data Policy Institute where he is working on national data sets from the National Center for Education Statistics. The NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.
Prof. Myers is a frequent speaker recently addressing the Foreign Policy Association-Teacher Training Institute at the NYSE. He is a member of Delta Pi Epsilon, the Association for Institutional Research, and is an evaluator for the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, an accreditor of academic institutions recognized by the U. S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education.
Prof. Myers received his MBA-Finance from St. Johns University, and expects his doctorate in Business Education from NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. His research interests lie at the crossroads of education and economics.
MICHAEL F. OPPENHEIMER, M.A.
CLINICAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Michael F. Oppenheimer is a professor of international relations and political economy. He also does extensive consulting, specializing in futures oriented policy analysis for the US foreign policy and intelligence communities, think tanks, and NGOs. He is an expert on the global economy, US foreign policy, and national security strategy. He has published on a wide range of topics, including Europe's future, international trade distortions, and US trade policy. For the past decade, Oppenheimer has worked for Washington foreign policy makers and intelligence officials on a range of strategic projects. He is credited with expanding the use of scenarios and alternative analyses for the US intelligence community. He worked directly for the Chairman of the National Intelligence Council in establishing the method and process and in creating the scenarios for Mapping the Global Future. He has conducted workshops for The Brookings Institute on legitimacy and the potential use of force against Iran and for the Council on Foreign Relations on early warning and conflict prevention. He was a US delegate for a track two dialogue with Iranian experts, sponsored by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. In April 2007, he conducted a scenario workshop at NYU on the future of Iraq, published by the Center for Global Affairs as Iraq 2010. He recently conducted a similar workshop on Iran, published in June 2008. He chairs the Policy Impacts group of a new US government sponsored expert network on the national security impacts of global climate change. He is currently a fellow at the Institute for Homeland Security and consults to the Department of Homeland Security on future threats.
Oppenheimer is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Foreign Policy Roundtable at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, and the American Council on Germany. He is a frequent speaker on the origins and leading indicators of conflict, domestic sources of foreign policy, and new approaches to thinking about the global system. Before joining the Center for Global Affairs, he was President of Global Scenarios, a New York based consulting company, and Executive Vice President af The Futures Group, a Connecticut based international research and consulting company with government and corporate clients.
JENNIFER TRAHAN, J.D., LL.M.
CLINICAL ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Jennifer Trahan has been counsel and of counsel to Human Rights Watch, International Justice Program since 2002. She has extensive experience in international criminal law and is the author of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity: A Topical Digests of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (Human Rights Watch, 2006), as well as several other publications in international criminal law and human rights law. She holds an A.B. degree from Amherst College, a J.D. from New York University Law School and an LL.M. from Columbia University Law School.
ADJUNCT FACULTY
GIUSEPPE AMMENDOLA, Ph.D., M.A., DOTT.
For over twenty-five years, Dr. Giuseppe Ammendola has been teaching courses in international trade and investment, international management, international marketing, international finance, international political economy, international relations, American government, US foreign policy, and the European Union. In addition to teaching at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU, he has taught at the City University of New York. He has also taught and lectured at various Italian graduate business schools and postdoctoral institutions. Dr. Ammendola consults for mid- and small-sized companies on strategic management, marketing, and business plan evaluation and writing. His writings include the book From Creditor to Debtor: The U.S. Pursuit of Foreign Capital - The Case of the Repeal of the Withholding Tax, published in the "Foreign Economic Policy of the United States - Outstanding Studies" Series as well as the internationally recognized country study "The Government of Italy" in Michael Curtis, ed., Western European Government and Politics. He is the editor and main author of the book The European Union: Multidisciplinary Views. As a guest commentator on Bloomberg TV, Dr. Ammendola's analyses in several languages on the US economy and capital markets have reached millions worldwide. He has given hundreds of presentations (including many in Spanish, French, and Portuguese) to corporate and nonprofit international managers as well as general audiences on many aspects of the global economy. Professor Ammendola earned a Doctorate in Economics and Business Summa cum Laude from the University of Naples and a Ph.D. in Political Science with a specialization in International Political Economy from the Graduate School of the City University of New York, where he also worked at several research institutes. He came to the United States as a Fulbright scholar. Dr. Ammendola has received the New York University SCPS Excellence in Teaching Award.
BARBARA BORST, M.A.
Barbara Borst has taught at New York University's Center for Global Affairs since 2000 and led the Center's field intensive courses to Ghana in May 2008 and June 2009. She teaches courses on democratic transitions, the news media and global affairs, global civil society, African affairs, and humanitarian aid and intervention.
In addition, she teaches international reporting at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She received an NYU award for teaching excellence in February 2007. She earned a B.A. in English Literature from Yale University and an M.A. in International Relations from Boston University's overseas program in Paris. A journalist specializing in international affairs, she worked for The Associated Press as an editor on the international desk and frequently reported from the United Nations. The AP recently published her article and photos on the efforts of two Kenyan women to rescue their community from the AIDS epidemic. While based abroad for a dozen years, in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Paris and Toronto, she reported frequently for Newsday, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, The Los Angeles Times, Inter Press Service news agency, and others.
JOSEPH COELHO, Ph.D.
Professor Joseph Coelho teaches International Relations in the Post-Cold War Era, Peacemaking and Peace-Building, Ethnic Conflict, and State-Building and Development. His research interests include post-conflict state-building, civil conflict, democratization and global governance and his regional expertise is in Southeast Europe. Professor Coelho has taught at a number of universities, including SUNY, Pace University, Wheelock College, Bentley College, and the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He recently completed his doctorate in the Department of Political Science at Northeastern University. Joseph's dissertation, “Building Stable and Effective States through International Governance: The Politics of Technocratic Interventions,” examines the impact of cosmopolitan norms on the policymaking and state-building projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo and is in the process of developing it into a book manuscript. In the summer of 2009, he will participate as a co nsultant in developing an upcoming Early Warning Survey in Kosovo, which is sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme. He served as a graduate research assistant at Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Democracy, where he was inducted into the Political Science National Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha, in 2003.
BELINDA COOPER, J.D.
Belinda Cooper is a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York and a co-founder of its Program on Citizenship and Security. She writes and lectures on human rights and international law and is the editor of “War Crimes: The Legacy of Nuremberg,” which explores the interconnections between the Nuremberg tribunal and today's international criminal tribunals. She has taught human rights, international law, transitional justice and gender and law at Humboldt University in Berlin, the New School, Seton Hall Law School and Ohio Northern University Law School.
Cooper lived in Berlin, Germany from 1987-1994, working closely with members of the East German opposition in 1988-89 and following developments in the region after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She returned to Berlin in 2002 as a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. She has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, Newsweek, World Policy Journal, and the Christian Science Monitor. A fluent German speaker, Cooper has also contributed to German-language print media, radio and TV, appeared as a guest on German radio, and taken part in numerous panel discussions in Germany. She is also a translator of German scholarly books and articles, including many texts on the Holocaust and Nazi Germany and, most recently, a textbook on international criminal law, and has worked as a translator on the case of Turkish-German Guantanamo detainee Murat Kurnaz. Cooper has also taken part in human rights fact-finding missions and has coauthored reports on domestic violence in Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Tanzania. Cooper graduated summa cum laude with her B.A. in History from Yale College and received her J.D. from Yale Law School.
JOHN GREEN, M.I.A.
John Green is a Research Director and member of the Management Committee at Eurasia Group, where he also serves as head of the Asia Practice. His involvement in Asia encompasses a wide range of academic and professional experiences. He holds a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University's School of International Affairs, where he studied international economics and East Asia, and a bachelor's degree in political science from Princeton University, where he focused on Southeast Asia.
Professor Green has worked at Eurasia Group since 2001. He participates in coverage of country developments in South, Southeast, and Northeast Asia, and leads the analysis of regional issues including security and economic developments, and US relations with the region. In addition to his own research coverage, Professor Green co-directs the activities of a Research team of over 40 analysts. He has appeared frequently on CNBC, CNN and Fox News.
Professor Green's professional experience includes three and a half years in the United States Marine Corps, including service in East Asia. He also worked for hedge funds in Hong Kong and New York, where he was involved in developing global investment strategies.
ROBERT LANE GREENE, M.PHIL.
Professor Robert Lane Greene writes for The Economist. He has covered American politics, international affairs (including the United Nations and the European Union), and energy. He also has written a regular foreign-affairs column for the website of the New Republic magazine, and his work has appeared on the op-ed pages of the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, and is currently writing a book on the politics of language. He is a consultant for Freedom House, an NGO monitoring political and civil rights around the world, and an adjunct lecturer in Global Affairs at New York University. He is also a frequent television and radio guest commentator. Professor Greene holds an M.Phil. in European Politics and Society from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He received his B.A. in International Relations and History at Tulane University, and in 1996 was a State Department intern at the US embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay.
LUKAS HAYNES, M.A.
Lukas Haynes is vice president of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation in New York, where he manages grantmaking programs to promote solutions to climate change, defend human rights, and invest in under-served New York City communities. From 2002-06, Haynes was program officer for international peace and security at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where he made grants to support U.S. foreign policy institutes and a major initiative to strengthen university research at the intersection of science, technology, and security studies. From 2000-01, he served on the U.S. Department of State's Policy Planning Staff and as a speechwriter for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. After leaving government, Haynes was a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Haynes has taught courses in international relations at Occidental College and the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He has also given lectures on military intervention, nuclear nonproliferation, and international grantmaking at Harvard, West Point, and Princeton, respectively. From 1996-1997, Haynes served as regional representative for OXFAM in the former Yugoslavia and as OXFAM's regional strategy adviser in Sierra Leone and Liberia. In both capacities he helped humanitarian relief operations transition to post-conflict rehabilitation programs. Prior to that, he conducted policy research at the Salzburg Global Seminar, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the International Crisis Group. Haynes is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He earned a master's degree in international relations from Oxford University. He is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of Independent Diplomat.
WILLIAM F. HEWITT, M.S.
Bill Hewitt has been an environmental professional and activist for nearly 25 years. He is a writer and editor, as well as the principal of Hewitt Communications. He was the Director of Public Affairs for the New York City regional office of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for 11 years. He is the blogger on climate change for the Foreign Policy Association. Hewitt has been involved with two Presidential campaigns (Bruce Babbitt and Bill Bradley) and two NYC Mayoral races (David Dinkins and Mark Green), working primarily on environmental issues. He was an activist leader with the Sierra Club in New York working on urban issues and acid rain.
Hewitt has taught on international relations, U.S. environmental politics and policy, and climate change at Pace University. He is teaching a course for Pace on the history of the American Environmental Movement. He has written articles and book reviews, as well as op-ed pieces and letters, on sustainability, energy and environmental issues for the American Planning Association, the Foreign Policy Association, Nature Reports Climate Change, Grist, Crain's NY Business, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Newsday. He has had opinion pieces and letters on international affairs published by the Financial Times, the NY Times, the New Yorker, and Snow Lion, and has published three papers in the Journal of Psychohistory. He has also written on health, nutrition, and sports for a number of publications and has published short fiction, poetry and essays in several literary magazines. Hewitt has an M.S. in international affairs from the New School where he concentrated on conflict and security issues, with particular attention to the psychology of conflict.
THOMAS E. HILL, M.I.A.
Thomas Hill is an Associate Research Scholar at Columbia University's Center for International Conflict Resolution, where he leads the center's work on Iraq. He is a professional peacebuilding practitioner and researcher with nine years experience focusing on Iraq as the locus of his activities. Since 2003, Tom has made 19 field visits to Iraq and has overseen design, development and implementation of a series of inter-related research and educational projects focused on possibilities for the development of sustainable peace in Iraq. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Education, Culture and Society program at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education and an adjunct faculty member at New York University's Center for Global Affairs (CGA). Tom is winner of a 2009 NYU Currciular Challenge Fund Grant to develop a Peacebuilding Concentration in the MSGA program within CGA. Most recently, in May 2009, he traveled to Iraq on behalf of the UN University for Peace to teach a course on "Practices of Conflict Management" in Dohuk University's new MA program in Peace and Conflict studies, the only program of its kind in Iraq. Tom also works to support the Iraqi Peace Foundation, a countrywide organization committed to strengthening a culture of peaceful conflict resolution throughout Iraq. Along with his efforts to support development of university-based peacebuilding programming in Iraq, Tom works with Iraqi activists and researchers interested in conducting community conflict assessments as part of a broader effort to institutionalize conflict-sensitive development.
MARIA IVANOVA, Ph.D., M.A., M.SCI.
Dr. Maria Ivanova teaches and researches on international and comparative political economy, globalization, and sustainable development. Areas of particular interest include political economy of capitalism; transnationalization of production and finance; credit, debt, and development. Her recent publications are in comparative political economy of Europe. Her present research concerns the US current account deficit and the future of the US dollar as key international reserve currency. She holds a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Bonn, a Doctorate in Political Science from the Sofia University, and a postgraduate diploma in International Affairs from the Vienna Diplomatic Academy.
TODD JOHNSON, M.A.
Todd Johnson is currently the Senior Research Manager for Ferrari Consultancy, a New York City-based firm that provides strategy consulting services exclusively to chief executive officers of multinational corporations. Prior to joining Ferrari Consultancy, Todd was Africa Group Director for Diligence LLC, a risk management firm that specializes in pre-investment due diligence, competitive intelligence, and political risk consulting in emerging and frontier markets. Todd began his career and served for eight years as a political-military analyst with the United States Government, where he focused on southern Africa. Todd has lived and worked in South Africa and the United Kingdom. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with distinction from the University of Kansas and a Master of International Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, where he jointly focused on African politics and energy policy. Todd has been a contributing writer for the Jane's Information Group and appeared as a commentator for the BBC and the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
SYLVIA MAIER, Ph.D., M.A.
Sylvia Maier joined the Center for Global Affairs as an Adjunct Instructor and the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies as an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow in September 2007. She earned her B.A. in Political Science at the University of Vienna, Austria, and her M.A. (1999) and Ph.D. (2001) in Political Science from the University of Southern California. Previously, she was an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Dr. Maier's research focuses on gender and multiculturalism, honor-based violence against women, the legal accommodation of Muslim minority rights in Western Europe, and the role of ICTs in women's empowerment in the Global South. She has authored and co-authored numerous articles and book chapters, including "Honor Killings and the Cultural Defense in Germany," "Shared Values: Democracy and Human Rights in the European Neighborhood Policy" (with Frank Schimmelfennig), "Women and Internet Use in Five South Indian Villa ges: Obstacles and Opportunities" (with Michael Best), and "Empowering Women Through ICT-Based Business Initiatives: An Overview of Best Practices in E-Commerce/E-Retail Projects" (with Usha Nair). She has also authored several shorter pieces and reviews. Dr. Maier is currently completing a book manuscript on Mainstreaming Muslims: Islam, Culture and the Law in France and Germany.
FRANCESCO MANCINI, M.I.A.
Professor Francesco Mancini is currently Deputy Director of Studies at the International Peace Institute (IPI), where he serves as principal liaison between the program staff and the office of the Senior Vice President Edward C. Luck and the President Terje Rod-Larsen. He also heads the larger IPI program “Coping with Crisis, Conflict, and Change” and directs IPI work on peace operations. When he joined IPI in 2004, he served in the Security-Development Nexus program, covering in particular security sector reform. Francesco is also an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and held the same position at New York University. Since 2004, he has been teaching a graduate-level seminar on conflict assessment. Prior to joining IPI, Francesco served as an Associate at the EastWest Institute in New York. From 1996 to 2001, Francesco was a senior management consultant at Charles Riley Consultants International in Paris, where he focused on business strategy and change management, managing multi-million dollar reforms in major public sector companies in France, Italy, and Morocco. Francesco earned his B.S. in Business Administration from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. He received a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs where he studied International Security Policy and Conflict Resolution. While at Columbia, he was awarded a fellowship within the Satzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. In 2002, he researched the peace negotiations in Cyprus at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia. Recent publications include “Security & Development: Searching for Critical Connections” (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2009), “The Company We Keep: Private Contractors in Jamaica,” in Gordon Peake, Eric Scheye and Alice Hills (eds.), Managing Insecurity: Field Experiences of Security Sector Reform (London: Taylor & Francis, 2008) and In Good Company? The Role of Business in Security Sector Reform, Policy Paper (London and New York: Demos and International Peace Academy, 2005). He also contributed to Richard Samuels (ed.), Encyclopedia of United States National Security (London: SAGE Publications, 2006).
COLETTE MAZZUCELLI, Ph.D., MALD
Dr. Colette Mazzucelli enjoys teaching international relations as well as ethnic conflicts and civil wars. Her passion for global affairs was nurtured as an undergraduate in history, philosophy and modern languages at the University of Scranton (BA, magna cum laude, 1983). Her graduate studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (MALD, 1987), the Center for European Studies, Harvard University, and the Department of Government, Georgetown University (PhD, 1996), also reflect her engagement in the transatlantic community. Dr. Mazzucelli's doctoral research, conducted as a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) Paris in 1991, contributed to the volume France and Germany at Maastricht (Kindle Edition, 2007). In 1992-93, she assisted with the ratification of the Treaty on European Union in the Federal Republic of Germany as a Bosch Foundation Fellow. Dr. Mazzucelli is the author of numerous chapters in edited volumes as well as diverse commentaries for the AICGS Advisor (Johns Hopkins University), Atlantic-Community.org, Enduring America (University of Birmingham), LIBERTAS and Conversations on Diplomacy and Power Politics. In 2007 she was a Fulbright Scholar in Belgium and Germany. As an educator, Dr. Mazzucelli is a member of the UN Chronicle Advisory Group at the United Nations. Her biography appears in Marquis Who's Who in the World 2009.
PATRICIO NAVIA, Ph.D., M.A.
Patricio Navia is a Master Teacher in the Liberal Studies Program and an adjunct assistant professor at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. He is also a professor of political science at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales of the Universidad Diego Portales and the director of the Observatorio Electoral at the same school. Before obtaining his Ph.D. (May 2003), he was a graduate student in the Department of Politics at New York University. Previously (April 1995-August 1997), he served as Assistant Director of Student Development Services at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 1992, he graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology and obtained a Master of Arts in Political Science at the University of Chicago in 1994.
JEAN-MARC OPPENHEIM, Ph.D., M.A., M.Phil
Jean-Marc Oppenheim has been on the faculty of the cga since 2000. he is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of history at Teachers College and the Outreach Lecturer for the Middle East Institute both of Columbia University. He has written on egypt, sudan, the israeli-palestinian conflict, minorities in the middle east, imperialism, as well as the interplay of culture, politics, and sports.
Dr. Oppenheim has lectured widely to the public and private sectors, including the Department of the Army, the New York City Board of Education, Pratt & Whitney, and General Electric.
Dr. Oppenheim also holds memberships to the Board of Visitors of the University of Foreign Military Cultural Studies; the Board of Directors of the Givat Haviva Educational Foundation, an NGO promoting dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians; the Middle East University Seminar at Columbia, and the Board of Directors of the Fencers Club of New York.
Dr. Oppenheim was a Fulbright Scholar in Egypt and Britain and Fellow at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. Dr. Oppenheim was educated in Egypt, France, and the U.S. He holds an M.A., M.Phil, and Ph.D. in history from Columbia University.
MICHELLE PATRON, M.A.
Michelle Patron is a Senior Director at PIRA Energy Group where she oversees PIRA's political risk coverage. She has over a decade of experience analyzing international energy issues. Prior to joining PIRA in 2004, Ms. Patron was an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and conducted energy research at Deutsche Bank. She spent five years as an international policy advisor at the U.S. DOE under the Clinton and Bush administrations. During that time, she advised the U.S. Energy Secretary and other senior U.S. officials on relations with major energy-producing and -consuming countries, including Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, China, Nigeria and the EU. In 2001, Ms. Patron served as Energy Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Prior to the DOE, she worked at the International Energy Agency, the White House, UNICEF and the Center for International Environmental Law.
Ms. Patron holds a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is a commentator to CNBC, BBC, NPR, the New York Times and the Economist and has written for Foreign Affairs, The Financial Times and The Los Angeles Times.
CATHERINE SHEVLIN PIERCE, M.A.
Catherine Shevlin Pierce is a consultant in international development. She worked in international organizations for 28 years, initially at The World Bank and subsequently at the United Nations. She has assisted countries to identify and implement policies and programs addressing the interaction between population trends, resources, environment, migration and sustainable development. Professor Pierce has extensive experience in the areas of human rights, reproductive health and women's micro-finance initiatives and has served as a member of the United Nations Population Fund's delegation and technical resource team for several UN Global Conferences (Environment; Human Rights; Population; and, Women). She managed the UN Global Training Program in Population and Development situated in universities in Botswana, Chile, Egypt, India and Morocco and chaired the UN Development Group Task Force on Knowledge Sharing. From 2000 to 2003, as the Director of the UNFPA Technical Services Team for the Pacific based in Suva, Fiji, Professor Pierce advised governments and civil society organizations on strategies to address the impact of population trends, environmental degradation and globalization on small island countries.
Elected to the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Professor Pierce has written widely on population and development issues and has been an invited speaker at various international conferences and professional meetings. She has taught courses on history, international relations, refugees and internally displaced persons, and humanitarian assistance and humanitarian intervention. Professor Pierce graduated cum laude from Marymount College and holds a M.A. in history from Purdue University and an M.A. in demography from Georgetown University. In 2005 she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Purdue University. Professor Pierce is a member of the Board of Directors of Engender Health, an international NGO addressing health needs in developing countries.
RICHARD PYLE, M.A.
Richard K. Pyle was with the Central Intelligence Agency for 25 years, first as an intelligence analyst and then as an operations officer. Prior to that, he spent several years as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. During his career Mr. Pyle has been intimately involved with issues related to security and international relations. He has lived and worked abroad for approximately 12 years, residing in Europe, the Caribbean, Central Africa, and the Maghreb. He has extensive international travel, meeting with foreign representatives in various countries around the globe to discuss issues related to security and counter-terrorism. He has worked closely with several of the organizations that comprise the Intelligence Community and has drafted and edited numerous, highly classified, inter-agency intelligence memoranda for the Intelligence Community, for the U.S. President and for senior policymakers. He has provided intelligence briefings for senior members of the U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill, for military officers at the Pentagon, and for representatives of foreign governments. He served for four years as an Advisor to the United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN) in New York and he has worked cooperatively with a broad array of NGO's and international organizations. While serving in an assignment abroad, Mr. Pyle was responsible for the management and supervision of Congressionally-mandated and funded programs aimed at countering the threat of international terrorism. He has monitored elections and human rights abuses in politically volatile regions and failed states. During his career he has taught a variety of political science courses and also served as a consultant and instructor to the U.S. and foreign governments on issues related to security and counter-terrorism. He was a senior intelligence officer, supervisor and editor with the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, working closely with the FBI and local law enforcement on issues related to potential threats from domestic terrorism. Mr. Pyle has worked as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He earned his undergraduate degree in political science at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and earned graduate degrees in international relations and comparative politics at URI and Princeton University. One of his main academic interests continues to be political development. Mr. Pyle is a Vietnam Era military veteran who served abroad as an infantry soldier and radar operator in the U.S. Army. He speaks French.
PATRICK REED, Ph.D., J.D., M.A.L.D.
Dr. Patrick Reed has taught the politics of international economic relations and related subjects in the international relations program at NYU-SCPS since 1995. He is an international trade lawyer with the law firm of Simons & Wiskin. His law practice concentrates on U.S. international trade, customs, and import-export law, including international trade agreements such as the World Trade Organization agreements and the North American Free Trade Agreement. He regularly represents business clients in administrative proceedings before federal agencies responsible for international trade matters and in litigation in the U.S. Court of International Trade and other federal courts. Mr. Reed graduated from Indiana University. He received his law degree from Columbia University School of Law. He received a master's degree and a Ph.D. in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, with concentrations in international law and international economic relations. He is the author of a treatise on judicial review in international trade matters, The Role of Federal Courts in US Customs & International Trade Law (Oceana 1997). His most recent publication is "Relationship of WTO Obligations to U.S. International Trade Law: Internationalist Vision Meets Domestic Reality," 38 Georgetown Journal of International law 209-249 (2006).
CAITLIN REIGER, LL.B.
Caitlin Reiger is Deputy Director, Prosecutions Program, International Center for Transitional Justice an Australian lawyer with a BA in History and an LLB from the University of Melbourne, and an LLM (International Law/Human Rights) from the London School of Economics. She has worked on post-conflict justice initiatives in several countries and in 2001 she co-founded and served as legal research coordinator of the Judicial System Monitoring Program in East Timor. Ms. Reiger appeared as defense counsel before the Special Panels for Serious Crimes and has provided policy advice and comparative research on hybrid national-international tribunals for serious human rights violations. She joined the ICTJ from Freetown, Sierra Leone, where from 2003-2005 she was the chambers senior legal adviser to the judges of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. In her work at ICTJ Caitlin has specialized in a wide variety of prosections issues, such as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia; the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and others. She has also led ICTJ's country work in Cambodia and the Balkans.
JOHN P. RENNINGER, Ph.D., M.A.
Dr. John Renninger retired from the UN Secretariat in 2005 after 30 years of service. He is now an international consultant and lecturer. Beginning in 1992, Mr. Renninger occupied senior positions in the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA), where he was the senior American. His last two positions were Director, Americas and Europe Division (2003-2005) and Director, Asia and Pacific Division (2001-2003). In these positions he provided political advice and helped shape the diplomatic initiatives of the Secretary-General, particularly regarding early warning, preventive action and peacemaking. He represented the United Nations at many meetings of other intergovernmental organizations, including the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE. At UN headquarters he was intimately involved with the transition to independence in South Africa, where he served as an election monitor. He also helped plan the consultation leading to the independence of East Timor and played a key role in designing the UN mission dispatched to Afghanistan following the overthrow of the Taliban regime. From 1989 to 1992, he worked in the fields of inter-agency coordination and economic affairs. From 1974 to 1989 he was at UNITAR, eventually becoming Senior Advisor to the Executive Director for Research. In this position he had many contacts with the academic world and authored various books, monographs, and articles concerning UN issues. Mr. Renninger attended Northwestern University (BA, political science), The George Washington University (MA. International Affairs) and the University of Pittsburgh (Ph.D., International Affairs). From 1969 to 1971 he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone.
JENS RUDBECK, Ph.D., M.A.
Before moving to New York in 2008 to join the Department of Sociology at Columbia University as a Visiting Scholar, Jens Rudbeck was a Lecturer at the International Development Program at Roskilde University and at the Department of Political Science, Copenhagen University, Denmark. His primary areas of interest and expertise are international development aid, political conflicts and political reforms in Africa, and social movements in development countries. In addition to teaching various issues of development studies, he has been a Researcher at the Intra-State Conflict Program at Copenhagen Peace Research Institute. His research has mainly focused on political struggle and regime change in sub-Saharan Africa. He has also served as a member of the Danish Military Intelligence Service academic network on conflicts in Africa. He holds a MA in International Development and a Ph.D. in Political Science.
MAYA SABATELLO, Ph.D., LL.B.
Dr. Maya Sabatello is a human rights and international law specialist, and teaches at NYU's Center for Global Affairs and Columbia University's Human Rights Program. Her fields of interest also include law and society, public policy, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and comparative politics and she has lectured on subjects including terrorism, torture, comparative human rights, politics of identity, disability, and bioethics. Dr. Sabatello has worked extensively with human rights organizations, and has been a permanent representative for a nongovernmental organization at the United Nations where she participated in the UN sessions on the formulation of the International Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, at the UN's Commission on the Status of Women, and in the UN's Working Group on Girls. Dr. Sabatello has published in journals including Human Rights Quarterly, The Journal of Medicine and Law, Disability and Society, and the International Journal of Children's Rights. Her book, "Children's Bioethics: The International Bio-Political Discourse on Harmful Traditional Practices and the Right of the Child to Cultural Identity" (Martinus Nijhoff/ Brill Publishing) was published in 2009, and her book, “Voices From Within: Civil Society's Involvement in the Drafting of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” is forthcoming.
Dr. Sabatello has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Southern California, an LL.B. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is a member of the Israeli Bar Association.
PATRICIA A. SAMWICK, M.I.A.
Professor Patricia Samwick is the president of Samwick Management Group (SMG), a consulting firm specializing in marketing, fundraising and sales. She has spent more than 20 years working the in the field of international finance, as well as advising global NGOs. Her consulting projects have included work on a major UN affiliate's donor base repositioning. Prior to forming her own consulting group, Professor Samwick spent more than eighteen years with Citigroup working extensively in Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East. Her most recent position was the Sales Director for the Global E- Business Group, where she was responsible for sales to universities in Argentina, Brazil, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and the U.S. Currently, she is working on a book detailing the life of a female consultant in Kuwait. Professor Samwick has been an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs for the past 6 years and joined the faculty of the NYU Center for Global Affairs in early 2004. Professor Samwick holds a B.A. from Connecticut College and M.I.A. from Columbia University's School of International Affairs. She also earned a certificate from NYU in Fundraising and Philanthropy.
CHRISTINE SHAW, Ph.D., M.A.
Christine Shaw worked for the United Nations from 1969 until recently. There she was engaged in analytical work geared toward both the diplomatic and academic communities. She served as Senior Economic Affairs Officer in the Development Policy and Planning Office of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs. She was the Department's trade specialist, writing regularly for the UN's World Economic and Social Survey, as well preparing policy-oriented papers and background material for the Committee for Development Policy and serving as a Report Writer for a number of United Nations World Conferences and Summits. For several years, she has been teaching courses in micro- and macro-economics and international economics at FIT/SUNY. A specialist in trade, development and globalization, she holds a B.A in Economics and Sociology from Harvard, an M.A. in Economics, Statistics and Demography from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University. She is a member of the American Economic Association.
MIRANDA SISSONS, M.A.
Miranda Sissons is Deputy Director of Middle East and North Africa Programs at the International Center of Transitional Justice (ICTJ). Sissons, an Australian, is a specialist in human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) in the Middle East. Before joining the ICTJ, Ms. Sissons worked as a researcher and consultant at Human Rights Watch; helped develop Arab civil society networks on the International Criminal Court; and served in the Australian diplomatic service. She has authored numerous publications on human rights and IHL issues in the Middle East and elsewhere. Ms. Sissons holds a BA from Melbourne University and an MA in international relations from Yale University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. In her work at ICTJ Miranda has lead programming in Iraq and Lebanon, including long-term trial monitoring of the trials before the Iraqi High Tribunal. She is a frequent commentator on Iraq-related justice issues in the international media, including CNN, The Lehrer Newshour, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.
CHRISTOPHER WALKER, M.A.
Christopher Walker is Director of Studies at Freedom House, a non-governmental organization supporting democratic values and standards around the world, where he helps oversee a team of senior analysts and researchers in devising overall strategy for Freedom House's analytical publications. These projects include Countries at the Crossroads: A Survey of Democratic Governance; Nations in Transit: Democratization in East Central Europe and Eurasia; Freedom of the Press: a Global Survey of Media Independence; and Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Professor Walker is responsible for generating special studies and reports, initiating task forces, and responding to critical news and democracy issues through statements and op-eds. Before joining Freedom House, he worked at the EastWest Institute and the European Journalism Network. He has contributed to a wide range of publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, Barron's, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The National Interest, The Moscow Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Newsday. Walker received his undergraduate degree from Binghamton University, State University of New York, and Master's Degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
MUSERREF YETIM, Ph.D., M.A.
Professor Yetim holds a B.A. in economics from the Istanbul University, Turkey (1994) and M.A. in Political Science from Bogazici University (1998). She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin (2006) and she has taught at NYU and Queens College. A visiting scholar at The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University (2002-currently), Prof. Yetim specializes in Political Economy, Environmental Politics, International Relations Theory, Elites, Comparative Political Theory and Middle Eastern Politics. Prof. Yetim is the author of many publications and currently she is working on her book on International Water Rights Conflicts.
JOHN M. ZINDAR, M.A., MBA
John Zindar is a partner with American Business Organization, Inc., a transatlantic business development consultancy, and also with Strategic Ventures & Research Inc., a venture capital advisory group. He is also an advisory board member for Turtlesnap Ventures, Inc., a Baltimore-based technology transfer consultancy.
Zindar served ten years as a U.S. Army Intelligence officer with Meritorious Service, and acquired a very real-world foundation in training, psychological warfare and international negotiation & diplomacy. As a liaison officer with the British Military Intelligence Corps, he developed a special expertise in terrorism counter-action and low intensity conflict operations. Working in politics in Washington, D.C., he contributed to the conclusion of the 1993 peace treaty in El Salvador, lobbied for free trade initiatives, produced award-winning, PBS-broadcasted programs on third world conflict, and initiated a reforestation project in Guatemala. In addition to work as a free-lance journalist in Central America, Professor Zindar has spent nearly 20 years in business and economic development and international risk analysis under various consulting engagements in Europe, North America and Latin America. He has served as an advisor to the Minister of Economics of Germany, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama. He has also given expert testimony on the teaching of torture at the School of Americas before the U.S. Congress, and on the Western Sahara for the United Nations.
Professor Zindar has been published. in American Defense Monitor, Doing Business with Germany, Economist, International Herald Tribune, London First Magazine, Military Intelligence Review, The Times of London, Wall Street Journal Europe, and the Washington Business Journal. Zindar holds an MA in international economics and Latin American studies from The Johns Hopkins University, an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School, and a triple-major BA from Ripon College (Wisconsin) where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.