Postdoctoral fellow at the Centre on Conflict, Development & Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies
Elena Butti is an anthropologist, humanitarian practitioner and participatory film-maker interested in the lives of adolescents and young people at the urban margins. She holds a PhD and a Post-Doc from the University of Oxford (CSLS and DPIR, respectively). Her current book project We Are the Nobodies: Youth, violence and drug-dealing in and around Medellin is an ethnographic exploration of adolescents’ first hesitant steps into drug-related crime in contemporary Colombia. She has collaborated with several international organizations on matters related to the Youth, Peace and Security agenda. More recently, she worked as Global Youth Advisor for the humanitarian NGO War Child. She is also the author of several participatory films co-directed with young people in Colombia.
Areas of expertise include:
Contact: elena.butti@graduateinstitute.ch
Website: www.elenabutti.com
Visiting Fellow at the Centre on Conflict, Development & Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies
Miguel Mikelli L. A. Ribeiro is a Professor of International Relations at the Political Science Department of the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil), teaching undergrad and graduate students. He has held visiting researcher positions at institutions such as the European University Institute in Florence and Leiden University in the Netherlands. He was also a fellow at the Civil War Paths Project, led by The Centre for the Comparative Study of Civil War (University of York).
Dr. Ribeiro's research interests are reflected in his publications, including articles in journals such as Global Responsibility to Protect, Global Society, and International Peacekeeping. His current research project is about the role of the Global South in Conflict Management, focusing on Brazilian engagement vis-à-vis other nations. He was awarded a scholarship from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) to conduct
the project.
Areas of expertise:
Souhail Belhadj Klaz is a researcher and visiting professor in the Master in International and Development Studies (MINT-Graduate Institute), holds a PhD in Political Science at Sciences Po Paris. He benefits from 20 years of experience in research on politics in Syria and Tunisia and is the author of the book La Syrie de Bashar al-Asad. Anatomie d'un régime autoritaire (Belin 2013). With the support of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, he was the principal investigator of the three-year project (2016-2019) Tunisia Security Provision and Local State Authority in a Time of Transition. He is currently the leading investigator of the policy research project Mapping Military and Security Actors in the Syrian Economy and is conducting in parallel research on Migration, Mobility and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Cooperation Process.
Areas of expertise include:
Research Associate, Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies
Neil Buhne served the United Nations over 37 years in 9 countries from 1984 to 2021 before in 2022 joining CCDP as a Research Associate, and Mc Gill University’s Institute for Studies in International Development as a Professor of Practice. His focus at the UN was on bringing its different elements together to do better work for people at the country level, through development cooperation, humanitarian assistance and peace building. He did this most recently as Regional Director, Asia-Pacific, for the United Nations Development Coordination Office based in Bangkok, and before that in Pakistan and Sri Lanka as United Nations Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative. Earlier he was UN RC/UNDP RR in Bulgaria and Belarus, as well as Acting RC and UNDP RR/Deputy RR in Malaysia. His first involvement with the Graduate Institute was in 2011, when he led UNDP’s engagement with the Geneva humanitarian and peace-building communities as head of the Geneva office UNDP’ Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, and later as Director of UNDP’s integrated Geneva Liaison Office. He continues to engage as a consultant to help improve the UN’s work at the country level.
Areas of expertise:
Contact: neil.buhne@graduateinstitute.ch
Christie J. Edwards, JD, LLM is a legal expert in international humanitarian and human rights law, gender, atrocity prevention, peacebuilding and conflict prevention, and civilian protection. Christie has led successful non-profit management and humanitarian implementation programs, international policy and advocacy, strategic planning, and grant management in senior leadership and management roles at national and international levels with prominent humanitarian, human rights, and multilateral organizations such as The Stimson Center, American Red Cross, Geneva Call, and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). Christie has also worked at a torture treatment clinic for political refugees, served as counsel for asylum seekers, managed and implemented women’s human rights, political advocacy, and civil society building programs in the MENA region following the Arab Spring, and taught courses on International Human Rights, Gender and Conflict, and Women, Rights, & Gender Equality as an Adjunct Professor at GWU Elliott School of International Affairs and Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She currently teaches a summer course on Women and International Human Rights Law at AU Washington College of Law (AU WCL).
Areas of expertise include:
Farrah Hawana is an independent researcher and freelance consultant who finished her Ph.D. in Political Science/International Relations at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in 2016. In 2006, she completed an M.A. degree in International Conflict Analysis at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies in Belgium. Her undergraduate degrees in History and International Relations were awarded by the College of William and Mary in 2004. Farrah has accumulated extensive professional experience over more than fifteen years of work with various non-governmental organizations, international institutions, and academic research/policy centers, such as the International Labour Organization and the Small Arms Survey. Most recently, she was a Lecturer in International Politics & Security at Aberystwyth University, where she taught courses and supervised dissertations at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is broadly interested in exploring questions of power, legitimacy, security, and justice, and in understanding complex political change, with specific focus on the Middle East and North Africa.
Areas of expertise:
Contact: farrah.hawana@graduateinstitute.ch
Lead on the Future of Arms Control Project
Dr. Ibrahim is a Research Associate, Senior Advisor and lead to the Future of Arms Control Project at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP), at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Abdulla is researching international conflicts with over twelve years of expertise in multilateral dialogues and research processes. He is also a Nonresident Fellow with the Stimson Center, and an adjunct fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC. Abdulla’s research interests at the CCDP span topics ranging from arms control to European security, armed groups and armed forces consolidation, U.S. and Russian foreign policies and relations, to the current and future challenges to international order. Abdulla holds a PhD in international relations and political science from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva (IHEID); and an MA from the Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame.
Areas of expertise include:
Languages spoken: English, Arabic, French
Contact: abdulla.ibrahim@graduateinstitute.ch
Director of Studies at the Changing Character of War Programme (Pembroke College) and Research Associate at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, UK
Dr Annette Idler is the Director of Studies at the Changing Character of War Programme, Pembroke College, and Research Associate at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. She holds a doctorate from the Department of International Development and St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford and a MA in International Relations from the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Dr Idler’s work focuses on the interface of conflict, security, transnational organized crime and peacebuilding, and the role that violent non-state actors play in these dynamics.
Areas of expertise include:
Interactions and trends among violent non-state actors
Nexus of conflict, security and transnational organised crime
Illicit drug trade and drug policy
Conflict prevention and peacebuilding
Borderlands
Colombia's armed conflict and citizen security in Latin America
Contact: annette.idler@politics.ox.ac.uk
SNSF Postdoctoral Researcher / Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute, Florence
Vassily A. Klimentov is a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Postdoctoral researcher/ Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute in Florence. His research is focusing on the insurgencies in the North Caucasus. He is also a Research Associate at the Pierre du Bois Foundation in Geneva. He has received his PhD in International History from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. He also holds a MA in General History from the University of Geneva and a MA in Asian Studies from the Graduate Institute and the University of Geneva. Vassily A. Klimentov has previously worked for several years with humanitarian NGOs as an analyst and a needs and security assessment coordinator. He has notably been posted for two years in the Middle East.
Areas of Expertise include:
Research Associate, Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies
Patrik Meyer has eclectic personal, academic and professional backgrounds. He earned his PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Cambridge working with Chinese scholars to provide better understanding of the conflicts in Xinjiang that fuel tensions between the Uyghurs and the Chinese government. He has conducted extensive research on the Uyghur issue and is one of a few western scholars that can visit Xinjiang to conduct research. He also holds an MPA from Harvard University, a MS in Structural Engineering from MIT, and a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Currently, he is a PhD student in neuroscience at the University of Zurich, where he investigates how the (over)use of smart apps affects human cognitive skills. Concurrently, he is a professor at Halic University in Istanbul, where he lectures on engineering ethics.
Contact: patrikmeyer@gmail.com
Visiting Professor, MINT Programme, Ambassador (ret.), Associate Fellow, GCSP
Fred Tanner is currently a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute and an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) in Geneva. He previously served as Senior Adviser to the Secretary General of the OSCE, and subsequently, at the Swiss MFA in Crisis Management. For seven years, he was the Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). He recently conducted research on peace missions as Practitioner-in-Residence at the Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. While at the OSCE, he was also the project leader of a Lessons Learned Project on the performance of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine. Earlier he was a member of the UN Secretary-General Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (ABDM) and serves now on the Boards of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Regional Office and the International Institute for Peace, Vienna.
Languages spoken:
English, French, German
Areas of expertise include:
Peacebuilding, peacekeeping, peacemaking
International organisations, UN, OSCE, OSCE Network
Institutional approach to conflict prevention, conflict management and mediation support
European and global security
Armed and protracted conflicts
Arms control and disarmament, conventional arms control, CSBMs, risk reduction
Contact: fred.tanner@graduateinstitute.ch
Academic Coordinator for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region, Executive Master in Development Policies & Practices (DPP)
Researcher and Program Lead at the Small Arms Survey
Program Director of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, a member of the Palestinian Strategic Thinking Group
Alaa Tartir is a research associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP). Amongst other positions, Tartir was a post-doctoral fellow at The Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), a visiting scholar and lecturer at Utrecht University, and a researcher in international development studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he earned his PhD. Tartir is the co-editor of Palestine and Rule of Power: Local Dissent vs. International Governance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and the author of Policing Palestine: Securitising Peace and Criminalising Resistance in the West Bank (Pluto Press, 2019).
Areas of expertise include:
Political Economy of development and international aid
State-building and governance in conflict-affected areas
Security Sector Reform and securitized development
Public Policy Analysis
Political Economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Palestinian politics, and Arab-Israeli conflict
Contact: alaa.tartir@graduateinstitute.ch and full profile.
Research Associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development & Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies
Djacoba Liva Tehindrazanarivelo holds a PhD in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, a Certificate of the Centre for Studies and Research of the Hague Academy of International Law, and a Maîtrise in Public Law and Political Science from the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. For the past 16 years he has been teaching Public International Law, international organizations, UN peace mechanism, human rights, conflict resolution, the Responsibility to protect, and the law and practices of law in Africa – at the Graduate Institute, Boston University Study Abroad Geneva, the Institute for Human Rights (Catholic University of Lyon) and at University of Geneva. As a practitioner, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Madagascar (January 2020 – August 2021); he is also a member of the France-Madagascar Mixed Claims Commission relating to the dispute over islands off the West coast of Madagascar (since November 2019), and has conducted consultancies with various international organizations.
M. Tehindrazanarivelo is author of two books on the unintended effects of United Nations sanctions and on racism against migrants in Europe. He has moreover co-edited four other books, and published articles on a variety of topics in International Law, African Union Law, peace and security, human rights, and the fight against impunity.
Areas of expertise include:
Contact: Coming soon
Research Associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development & Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies
Khalid Tinasti is a political scientist. He also serves as a Visiting Fellow at the International Center on Drug Policy Studies at Shanghai University, and taught international drug policy as a Visiting Lecturer at the Geneva Graduate Institute (2021-2022) where he supervises Master students theses on drug control policies. He is the Director of External Relations at the Climate Overshoot Commission, and the former Director of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Before joining the Global Commission’s Secretariat in 2013 as a Policy Analyst, he worked as an independent consultant for UNAIDS, WHO, the Graduate Institute and others. Prior to that, Khalid worked as a Press and Communications Officer in the office of the Minister of Urban Cohesion (ministre de la Ville) in France, and as an Executive Officer in Gabon. Khalid holds a PhD in political science from the Institut Catholique de Paris, and held research fellowships at the Global Health Programme at the Geneva Graduate Institute (2015-16), at the Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva (2018-2021) and an honorary fellowship at Swansea University (2016-20).
Areas of expertise include:
Research Associate, Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies
Robert joined the CCDP after a 35-year career working for international organisations in political, humanitarian, development and post-conflict recovery areas in some 13 different countries, principally in the Middle East, Central, and South Asia. He served for the United Nations as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General in Lebanon (2011-2014) and Afghanistan (2009-2011) at the level of Assistant Secretary General, as well as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Bangladesh (2015-17), Djibouti (2014), and Georgia (2006-2009). Since retiring from the UN at the end of 2017, he has taught as a Practitioner at the Graduate Institute and at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and presented papers on Conflict Prevention at AUB, Lebanon, and the University of Tianjin, China. He holds an MA in International Affairs from the Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa. He is currently contributing to the second phase of the Action Learning for Conflict Analysis (ALCA) project on “Promoting System-Wide Analytical Capabilities across the Triple Nexus.”
Areas of expertise include:
New approaches to Peacebuilding
Role of Land Ownership in conflict settlement
Digital literacy in the Prevention of Violent Extremism
Mediation
Role of the UN in World Politics, Conflict Prevention & Peacekeeping
Contact: robert.watkins@graduateinstitute.ch
