Alumna Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt recounts her story, from the Institute to membership of the UN Security Council’s Panel of Experts on North Korean sanctions.

In 1992, while working at the Council of Europe, I was asked to administer a programme that provided academic scholarships to Eastern and Central European diplomats for post-graduate work in European universities. The Graduate Institute was on that list. My father had obtained his doctorate at the Graduate Institute in 1960 and always remained passionate about his Swiss education. I soon discovered that some colleagues at the Council of Europe had graduated from the Institute too. I applied, was accepted, and moved from Strasbourg to Geneva in 1993.

Six months later, the Rwandan genocide was unleashed. April to mid-July 1994 saw the slaughter of some 800,000 men, women and children, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Because of the Institute’s proximity to United Nations (UN) organisations, I learned that the UN Human Rights Office was planning a field operation in Rwanda to investigate the genocide. I applied and was soon on my way there. I returned to Geneva and the Institute a year later. I had just three months to write my thesis, which used the case of a post-genocide Rwandan massacre of internally displaced persons (IDPs), among the world’s most vulnerable, to analyse the “gap” in their international protection. The thesis, published by the Graduate Institute, won the Prix Arditi and hopefully made a modest contribution to drawing attention to the plight of IDPs.

I then worked for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, before returning to Geneva to work for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on issues surrounding Africa. Subsequently, I was asked by then High Commissioner Mary Robinson to work on China, and Asia-Pacific has been the focus of my career ever since. In 2006, I joined the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and in 2008, I moved with my then 7 year old son to Beijing where I set up and ran the International Crisis Group’s Northeast Asia office. In 2013, I moved to Washington DC to head the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Asia-Pacific programme. In September 2013, I joined the UN Security Council Panel of Experts on DPRK (North Korea) sanctions, thus bringing my career back full circle to those early years at the Graduate Institute, the foundation of my international career, and when I left on my first UN assignment.

This text was published in Globe, the Graduate Institute Review.