The Global Eye – Friends (1)

  1. Oraib Al Rantawi. Founder and General Director of the Think Tank Al Quds Center for Political Studies (1999-Present) Amman- Beirut; Columnist at the Jordanian Daily Newspaper Ad-Dustour (1995-Present); Produced and presented political talk shows for Jordan TV; Member of the Higher Council for Media (2001 –2004);  Submitted Hundreds of Articles Studies Published in Numerous Newspapers, Magazines and Books; Participates regularly in talk shows for numerous regional and international radio stations, and TV channels; Author and Editor of Several Books on the Palestinian Cause, Conflicts in the Middle East, Democratic Reform the Arab World.

  2. Robert D. Atkinson, as founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) (recognized as the world’s top think tank for science and technology policy), leads a prolific team of policy analysts and fellows that is successfully shaping the debate and setting the agenda on a host of critical issues at the intersection of technological innovation and public policy. He is an internationally recognized scholar and a widely published author whom The New Republic has named one of the “three most important thinkers about innovation,” Washingtonian Magazine has called a “tech titan,” Government Technology Magazine has judged to be one of the 25 top “doers, dreamers and drivers of information technology,” and the Wharton Business School has awarded him the “Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award.”. A sought-after speaker and valued adviser to policymakers around the world, Atkinson’s books include Big is Beautiful: Debunking the Mythology of Small Business (MIT Press, 2018); Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage (Yale, 2012), and The Past And Future Of America’s Economy: Long Waves Of Innovation That Power Cycles Of Growth (Edward Elgar, 2005). He also has conducted groundbreaking research projects and authored hundreds of articles and reports on technology and innovation-related topics ranging from tax policy to advanced manufacturing, productivity, and global competitiveness. He has testified before the United States Congress more than 30 times. President Clinton appointed Atkinson to the Commission on Workers, Communities, and Economic Change in the New Economy; the Bush administration appointed him chair of the congressionally created National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission; and the Obama administration appointed him to the National Innovation and Competitiveness Strategy Advisory Board. He also has served as co-chair of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s China-U.S. Innovation Policy Experts Group; as a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and on the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information. Atkinson is a member of the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age and serves on the boards or advisory councils of the Internet Education Foundation, the NetChoice Coalition, the University of Oregon’s Institute for Policy Research and Innovation, and the State Science and Technology Institute. Additionally, Atkinson is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Electronic Government and the Journal of Internet Policy; a member of the Global Innovation Forum Brain Trust; a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; a fellow at the Columbia University Institute of Tele-Information; and a fellow of Glocom, a Tokyo-based research institute. Atkinson was previously vice president of the Progressive Policy Institute, where he directed the Technology & New Economy Project. He wrote numerous research reports on technology and innovation policy, covering issues such as broadband telecommunications, e-commerce, e-government, privacy, copyright, R&D tax policy, offshoring, and innovation economics. Previously, Atkinson served as the first executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council (RIEPC), a public-private partnership whose members included the state’s governor, legislative leaders, and both corporate and labor leaders. As head of RIEPC, Atkinson was responsible for drafting a comprehensive economic development strategy for the state and working with the legislature and executive branch of government to successfully implement each element of a 10-point action agenda. Prior to his service in Rhode Island, Atkinson was a project director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, where, among other projects, he spearheaded The Technological Reshaping of Metropolitan America, a seminal report examining the impact of the information technology revolution on America’s urban areas.

  3. Mark Beeson is Professor of International Politics at the University of Western Australia. Before joining UWA, he taught at Murdoch, Griffith, Queensland, York (UK) and Birmingham, where he was also head of department. He is the founding editor of Critical Studies of the Asia Pacific. His most recent books are    Rethinking Global Governance, Palgrave, forthcoming;  Regionalism and Globalization in East Asia: Politics, Security and Economic Development, 2nd Edition,  Palgrave, 2014;  China’s Regional Relations: Evolving Foreign Policy Dynamics, (with Fujian Li),  Lynne Rienner, 2014.

  4. Shlomo Ben Ami was educated at Tel Aviv University where he did his B.A and M.A in History and Hebrew Literature, and Oxford University[ St.Antony’s College] where he received his D.Phil. He taught at the History Department of Tel Aviv University, where he also headed the Graduate School of History. He was also the incumbent of The Elias Sourasky Chair for Spanish and Latin American Studies. Professor Ben Ami is the author of studies in the Spanish history and fascism. Among others he wrote The Origins of the Second Republic in Spain, and Fascism from Above, both published by Oxford University Press. Throughout his academic career  Professor Ben Ami taught and conducted research in a number of international academic institutions. He was a Visiting Fellow ay St.Antony’s College in Oxford, and  had a similar fellowship at The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in Washington. In 1987, he was appointed to be Israel’s Ambassador in Spain, where he served until December 1991. He was a member of Israel’s delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference. In1993, he headed the Israeli delegation at the Multilateral Talks on Refugees in the Middle East held in Ottawa, Canada. In 1993, Professor Ben Ami created The Curiel Center for International Studies at Tel Aviv University, which he headed until 1996. In the same year he was elected to the Knesset, where he served as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In 1999, after Labor’s landslide victory, Professor Ben Ami was appointed as Minister of Public Security. In 2000, he became Foreign Minister. As such he led the peace talks with the Palestinians throughout the last two years of the Clinton administration. He conducted the secret negotiations with Abu Ala in Stockholm [The Swedish Channel], and  participated with Prime Minister Barak in the Camp David Summit, after which he led the Israeli team in all the different phases of the negotiations with the Palestinians, including Taba. He was a central actor in the shaping of the so-called Clinton Peace Parameters. Professor Ben Ami published in France a book[ Quel avenir pour Israel?—Presses Universitaires de France, 2001] analyzing the Israeli-Palestinian situation and Israel’s regional and international dilemmas. His thorough account of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during the last two years of President Clinton in office (the inside story of Camp David and Taba) was published in Hebrew: A Front Without a Homefront: A Voyage to the Boundaries of the Peace Process ( Yedioth Ahatonoth, Tel-Aviv, 2004). His comprehensive overview of the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the quest for peace- Scars of War, Wounds of Peace. The Arab-Israeli Tragedy- was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson (London, 2005) and Oxford University Press,New York, 2006). Prof. Ben-Ami served as a member of the international board of The International Crisis Group; he is now a member of the board of senior advisors of ICG. Throughout 2009, Prof. Ben Ami served in the Advisory Board of The International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. He is a signatory to, and active member of, Global Zero, an organization created to promote global nuclear disarmament. He is also a special advisor to the United States Middle East Project (whose members include among other others Zbigniev Brzezinski , Tom Pickering, and Chuck Hagel). Prof. Ben Ami is a regular contributor to Project Syndicate on Strategic Affairs. He has also been serving as an advisor to the Colombian government on the peace process with the FARC guerrilla. He currently serves as  the vice-president of the Toledo International Center for Peace ( Citpax ) of which he is a co-founder. Through the Center, Prof. Ben Ami has been involved in conflict resolution processes such as among others,  in Colombia, Dominican Republic ( the tensions with Haiti ), Bolivia ( intercultural issues ), Russia-Georgia,  Lybia ; Spanish Sahara, and Israel-the Arab world. Prof. Ben Ami is now also the co-chair ( together with ex-chief of Mossad Efraim   Halevi ) of an Israeli commission for strategic planning. Prof. Ben Ami has lectured extensively in international conferences in Europe, Russia, the U.S. and Latin America. In 2016, he was  the George MacGovern Professor of International and Public Affairs at the University of Columbia.
  5. Diether W. Beuermann is a Senior Economist in the Caribbean Country Department of the Inter-American Development Bank. He has led research and data collection projects in various countries including Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Peru, Russia, Suriname, The Bahamas, Democratic Republic of Congo, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States.  His research has covered the effects of different information and communication technologies on agricultural profitability, child labor, academic performance, pre-natal care, and neo-natal health. He has also conducted research on the effectiveness of participatory budgeting, the short- and long-run effects of educational quality, the role of remittances as a social insurance mechanism, the effects of early-life weather shocks on long-term human capital, and the effects of public health insurance on health outcomes and the labor supply. He has published in several international peer reviewed journals including the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Economics of Governance, Journal of Development Studies, Review of Development Economics,and Journal of Developing Areas. He holds a B.A. in Business Management and a B.Sc. in Economics from the Universidad de Lima, a M.Sc. in Finance from the University of Durham, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland-College Park.
  6. Michael J. Butler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Henry J. and Erna D. Leir Luxembourg Program at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts (USA). In 2014-15, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of International Studies, University of Wrocław (Poland). His research is primarily focused on security studies, conflict management and resolution, and foreign policy analysis. He is the author or editor of five books including Securitization Revisited: Contemporary Applications and Insights (2019), Global Politics (2019)(with M.A. Boyer and N.F. Hudson), Selling a ‘Just’ War: Framing, Legitimacy, and U.S. Military Intervention (2012); and International Conflict Management (2009). Butler has published numerous articles in leading academic journals including International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Global Security Studies, Global Policy, International Studies Review, International Studies Perspectives, International Negotiation, the Canadian Journal of Political Science, and Global Change, Peace, and Security, and hasserved on the editorial boards of International Studies Review, Simulation & Gaming and International Studies Perspectives. He is a member of the Governing Council of the International Studies Association-Northeast as well as a Senior Fellow at the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (CCR2P) at the University of Toronto, and is series co-editor (with ShareenHertel) of the International Studies Intensives book series (Routledge).
  7. Marina Caparini (Canada) is a Senior Researcher in the Peace and Development Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Her research focuses on governance, society and the state, in particular the nexus between security and development. Marina has conducted research on diverse aspects of security and justice governance in post-conflict and post-authoritarian contexts including police development, intelligence oversight, civil-military relations and the regulation of private military and security companies. Her recent work has examined conflict prevention, sustaining peace, public security, police in peacekeeping, and peacebuilding in Haiti, Darfur, Mali, Liberia, and Kenya. Prior to joining SIPRI in December 2016, she held senior positions at the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs (NUPI), the International Center for Transitional Justice and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. She holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London.
  8. Jón Danielsson is Director of the ESCR founded Systemic Risk Centre at the London School of Economics. He received his PhD in economics from Duke University, where his dissertation focussed on stochastic volatility. His research interests include systemic risk, financial risk forecasting and financial regulations. Jón has written two books, Financial Risk Forecasting and Global Financial Systems: Stability and Risk and published a number of articles in leading academic journals.
  9. Fatim-Zohra El Malki is a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. She was previously a researcher on Islam and Politics at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center in Washington DC. She holds Masters degrees in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (2016) and in Security Studies from Queen’s University of Belfast (2013). Fatim-Zohra’s research focuses on counter-terrorism cooperation as well as law and institution making in the Maghreb region.
  10. Hillel Frisch is a professor in the Departments of Political Studies and Middle East Studies in Bar-Ilan University, Israel and Senior Researcher in the BESA Center for Strategic Studies. His latest book is Israeli Security and its Arab Citizens  (Cambridge University Press, 2011), Amongst his latest studies are Israel, Hamas-Gaza and the Palestinian Authority: A Dense Triangle, 10 August 2017 (Hebrew),  Mideast Security and Policy Studies, BESA Center for Strategic Studies, https://besacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/MSPS137_HE.pdf  and with  Oshri Bartal  Are Lone Wolves Really Acting Alone? The Wave of Terror 2008-2015 (Hebrew) May 13, 2017 Mideast Security and Policy Studies, BESA Center for Strategic Studies, https://besacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/MSPS137_HE.pdf 
  11. Xiang Gao is a Lecturer of International Relations, specialised in Asian Politics, at University of New England, Australia. Xiang holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research interests are China’s international relations and Asia Pacific politics. She has published her research in many academic journals, such as Asia Pacific Law Review, Australian Journal of Asian Law, and International Journal of China Studies. She is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Indigenous Rights and Law at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.
  12. Edward Harcourt is currently Director of Research, Strategy and Innovation at the Arts and Humanities Research Council, a part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and has been AHRC lead on numerous projects, including AI and ethics; national collections in the digital age; and adolescence, the developing mind and mental health. A member of the Oxford Philosophy Faculty and a Fellow of Keble College since 2005, his research is in ethics, in particular in moral psychology, and he has published on topics including neo-Aristotelianism and child development, the ethical dimensions of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, love and the virtues, the philosophy of mental health and mental illness, literature and philosophy, and Wittgenstein. He is a Director of the biennial Oxford Summer Schools in Philosophy and Psychiatry, and served until recently as Chair of the Oxford Philosophy Faculty Board.
  13. Gary Hawke joined the staff of Victoria University of Wellington in 1968, and retired as Head of the School of Government and Professor of Economic History in 2008. He was a visiting fellow at Stanford University in the United States, All Souls’ College, Oxford in the United Kingdom, at the Australian National University in Australia, and with a number of institutions in Japan. He was Tawney Lecturer for the Economic History Society in the UK in 1978, and in 1998 in New Zealand, he was awarded the NZIER-Qantas Prize in Economics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Distinguished Fellow of the NZ Association of Economists  and Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration of New Zealand. He is a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. As Director of the Institute of Policy Studies from 1987 to 1998, he was responsible for projects in a wide area of public policy, including relations among Australia, New Zealand and the United States, New Zealand’s position in the Asia-Pacific region, public sector reform, taxation policy, regulatory management, the public responsibilities of private corporations and interactions between public and private sectors, education policy, the future of the welfare state, and biculturalism. His own publications are in economic history and public policy. He has consulted for government on education policy, social science capabilities, and retirement policy, and currently chairs the NZQA Technical Overview Group (Assessment). He has been a member of the board of the New Zealand Committee of the Pacific Economic Co-operation Council, NZPECC, since 1987, serving as chair 2002-09. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia and represents NZ Institute for Economic Research on its Research Institutes Network. He is now Emeritus Professor, Victoria University of Wellington, and Senior Fellow, NZ Institute of Economic Research.
  14. Ron Huisken. Adjunct Associate Professor, SDSC, ANU.  Ron Huisken joined the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, ANU, in 2001 where he  focussed, in particular, on US and Chinese security policies , multilateral security processes in East Asia and arms control.  Dr Huisken spent nearly 20 years in government with the departments of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Defence, and Prime Minister & Cabinet. Prior to government, he worked with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the University of Malaya, and the United Nations secretariat in New York.  He holds degrees in economics from the University of Western Australia and the Royal Stockholm University, and a PhD in international relations from the ANU.
  15. Armine Ishkanian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE). She is also the Programme Director of the MSc in International Social and Public Policy and an associate member of the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute. Her research examines how civil society organisations and social movements engage in policy processes and transformative politics in a number of countries including Armenia, Egypt, Greece, and the UK. She is the author of the book Democracy Building and Civil Society in Post-Soviet Armenia (2008) and numerous peer reviewed academic articles.
  16. Ivailo Izvorski is a lead economist in the office of the Senior Director, Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment Global Practice of the World Bank.  Prior to this position, Ivailo was the manager of the World Bank economists working on Eastern and Central Europe and Turkey, and before that on Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus.  Before joining the Bank, Ivailo worked for the Institute of International Finance and the IMF.  Ivailo is one of the authors of Diversified Development: Making the Most of Natural Resources in Eurasia, Reinvigorating Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa’s Resource-Rich Countries, and other reports and articles.  He holds a PhD in Economics from Yale University.
  17. Ali Jarbawi is a political scientist at Birzeit University and a former minister of the Palestinian Authority.
  18. Peter S. Jensen is a Professor at the Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark. He has published in international journals such as Journal of the European Economic Association, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Growth and Journal of Public Economics. His current research focuses on economic growth and economic history.
  19. Marwan J. Kabalan is the Head of Policy Analysis at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) in Doha, Qatar. He is also chair of the Gulf Studies Forum (GSF) and head of Contemporary Syria Studies at the ACRPS. He is an adjunct professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. Kabalan served as Dean of the Faculty of International Relations and Diplomacy at the University of Kalamoon in Damascus, Syria. He thought International Political Theory at the University of Manchester, UK. He was a member of the board of directors at the Damascus University Center for Strategic Studies and Research. Kabalan’s research interests include theory of international politics and foreign and security policy in the Middle East. Select publications include Syrian Foreign Policy and the United States, from Bush to Obama, (eds.) 2009 and Turkey-Syria Relations: Between Enmity and Amity (eds.) 2013. Marwan’s most recent research publication is Qatar Foreign Policy: Elite v. Geography in Arabic (2017).
  20. Robert Kelly, Professor, Department of Political Science and Diplomacy, Pusan National University, Korea. Robert Kelly’s work focuses on international security and political economy. His primary areas of interest are East Asian security, US foreign policy, and the Middle East. His recent scholarly work has focused on North Korea, the US ‘pivot’ to Asia, and on Confucianism in the geopolitics of East Asia. He has written for journals such as, the European Journal of International Relations,the Pacific Review, and theInternational Studies Review. Dr. Kelly also writes regularly for popular publications, includingThe New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The New York Review of Books, The National Interest, and Newsweek. He has appeared as an analyst on television news services, including the CNN, BBC, and CNBC. He has visited North Korea. He has consulted for private sector firms for many years on northeast Asia.  Website: AsianSecurityBlog.wordpress.com
  21. Fuat Keyman is Director of Istanbul Policy Center and Professor of International Relations at Sabancı University. Keyman is a leading Turkish political scientist and an expert on democratization, globalization, international relations, Turkey – EU relations, Turkish foreign policy, and civil society development. He is a member of the Science Academy. In 2013, he was awarded the Strategic Vision Owner of the Scientific People Award within the scope of the 7th Tasam Strategic Vision Awards. He has worked as a member on the Council of Wise People as part of the Peace Process to the Kurdish issue. He also serves on advisory and editorial boards for a number of respected international and national organizations as well as for academic journals. Prior to joining Sabancı University, Keyman taught in the Department of International Relations at Koç University between 2002 and 2010 and in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Bilkent University between 1994 and 2002. He was also Visiting Professor at Carleton University in the summer of 1997. Keyman holds several post-doctoral fellowships from Wellesley College and Harvard University. He has received numerous prestigious grants from the EU Framework Programme and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. Furthermore, Keyman has been the research director for various projects such as Peter Berger and Samuel Huntington’s Many Globalizations, CIVICUS, and Mapping Civil Society in Turkey. Keyman has conducted the first extensive research project and written copiously on the political and social trends in Turkey, urban transformation, and living together in Anatolian cities. He is the author and editor of more than twenty books, including Istanbul: Living with Difference in a Global City (with Nora Fisher-Onar and Susan C. Pearce, 2018), Turkey, The Arab Spring and Beyond (with Bülent Aras, 2016), Global Turkey in Europe 3: Democracy, Trade, and the Kurdish Question in Turkey-EU Relations (2015), Democracy, Identity and Foreign Policy in Turkey (with Şebnem Gümüşçü, 2014); Global Turkey in Europe 2: Energy, Migration, Civil Society and Citizenship Issues in Turkey-EU Relations (2014); Global Turkey in Europe: Political, Economic, and Foreign Policy Dimensions of Turkey’s Evolving Relationship with the EU (2013); Remaking Turkey (in Turkish, 2013); Symbiotic Antagonisms: Competing Nationalisms in Turkey (with Ayşe Kadıoğlu, 2011); Cities: The Transformation of Anatolia, the Future of Turkey (2010); Competing Nationalism in Turkey (2010), Turkey in a Globalizing World (2010); Remaking Turkey, Globalization, Alternative Modernities and Democracy (2008); Turkish Politics in a Changing World (with Ziya Öniş, 2007), Citizenship in a Global World: European Questions and Turkish Experiences (2005); Changing World, Transforming Turkey (2005). Keyman has also authored numerous articles published in prestigious, peer-reviewed international journals such as Third World Quarterly, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, Journal of Democracy, European Journal of Social Theory, Theory Culture & Society, and Review of International Political Economy. He received his PhD in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations and Comparative Politics from Carleton University. He completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey.
  22. Vu Minh Khuong is an Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (National University of Singapore). His research and teaching concentrate on economic development strategy and policy analysis, with a special focus on Asian economies and their transformation in the fourth industrial revolution. Professor Vu’s research articles have appeared on prestigious international journals, including Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Information Economics and Policy, Telecommunication Policy, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, German Economics Review, Journal of Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, China Economics Review, Journal of Contemporary Economic Policy, Energy Policy, Journal of Policy Modeling, Asian Economics Papers, Journal of Economic Policy Reform, and Economics Letters. Professor Vu is the author of two books “The Dynamics of Economic Growth: Policy Insights from Comparative Analyses in Asia” published by Edward Elgar and “Vietnam – the Journey toward Prosperity, published by the Knowledge Publisher.” He is currently working on two book projects: “Economic Catchup Strategy – a Handbook for Policy Makers in Developing Countries” and “Toward ASEAN Economic Community: The Dynamics of Integration, Structural Change, and Productivity Performance”.  Dr. Vu is a winner of the 2011 Best Article Award of the Public and Non-Profit Division of the Academy of Management (USA). He also won the LKY School Research Excellence Award in 2012 and the LKY School Annual Teaching Excellence Award in 2009 and 2011. Professor Vu has been an active player in Vietnam’s economic reforms. Before transitioning into academia, Professor Vu had served in the Vietnamese People Army and held various positions in Vietnam’s government, including Deputy Chief of the Haiphong City Government Office, Vice-Chairman of Dinh Vu Economic Zone, and CEO of Song Cam Chemical Company. Elected CEO of the Song Cam Chemical Company by workers in 1988 when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, he presided over a major turnaround of the business and made it an excellent success. Thanks to this achievement, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1993. Professor Vu is currently a member of the Vietnamese Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Team.  Professor Vu has provided extensive consulting and advisory services to international organizations and government agencies, including UNIDO, UNDP, IMF, World Bank, IFC, ILO, APO, USAID, KPMG, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), the Financial and Budgetary Committee of Vietnam’s National Assembly, and the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam. Professor Vu received a BA in Mathematics from Hanoi University (with highest honours) and an MBA and PhD from Harvard University. Prior to his arrival at the Lee Kuan Yew School, he taught at Suffolk University (Boston) and Keio University (Tokyo). He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Telecommunications Policy and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of East Asian Policy.
  23. Robert Kubinec is an assistant professor of political science at New York University Abu Dhabi. He has a PhD from the University of Virginia and was previously a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, http://www.robertkubinec.com/
  24. Daniel C. Kurtzer is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. During a 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Ambassador Kurtzer served as the United States Ambassador to Israel and as the United States Ambassador to Egypt. He was also a speechwriter and member of the Secretary of State George Shultz’s Policy Planning Staff; and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research. Kurtzer is the co-author of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East, co-author of The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011, and editor of Pathways to Peace: America and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.  He served as a member of Secretary of State John Kerry’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and as an advisor to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. Ambassador Kurtzer earned a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.
  25. John Mathews is Professor Emeritus at Macquarie University, Sydney, in the faculty of Business and Economics. For the past 20 years he was a Professor of Strategy at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, retiring from active teaching in 2018. From 2009 to 2012 he held concurrently the Eni Chair of Competitive Dynamics and Global Strategy at LUISS Gardo Carli University in Rome. For the past several years Professor Mathews has focused on the greening of industry with an emphasis on the role of China. The year 2017 saw publication of Global Green Shift by Anthem Press in London (http://www.anthempress.com/global-green-shift-pb), with a web page created for the book: www.globalgreenshift.org. In July 2018 Professor Mathews was awarded the biannual Schumpeter Prize in recognition of his work and most recent book.
  26. Ahmadou Aly Mbaye -Nonresident Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development, Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution – is a professor of economics at the University Cheikh Anta DIOP (UCAD) in Senegal and a senior research associate at the Centre for Development Research (ZEF, University of Bonn, Germany). He currently holds the position of director of the Laboratoire d’Analyse des Politiques de Developpement (LAPD). He is also the director of the regional graduate program in climate change economics (including 10 countries). Previously, he had served as the dean of the School of Economics and Management at the Cheikh Anta DIOP University and chair of CIEREA-PTCI (the Francophone African network of research and higher education in economics) Board for 10 years. Mbaye has been a consultant for many regional and international organizations. He is managing several international programs within his universities and has numerous publications on development economics and Africa. Mbaye has been serving as a member in the AERC’s Programme Committee for more than four years now. In the area of research, Mbaye has developed a new concept of the informal sector, which challenges the mainstream formal/informal dichotomous classification, and proposes an approach of informality based on a continuum of degrees of formality. He then led an international team that implemented the methodology in most Francophone African countries. The multi-donor financed project that resulted from this experience has led to several publications, including a volume and numerous peer reviewed papers.
  27. Julien Nocetti est chercheur à l’Institut français des relations internationales (Ifri) depuis 2009. Au sein du Centre Russie/NEI, ses recherches portent sur la politique étrangère russe, tout particulièrement au Moyen-Orient. Il est également spécialiste de l’Internet russe, un sujet auquel il a consacré de nombreuses publications (interactions Etat-société sur le Web, approche des autorités en matière de cyber-sécurité et de guerre de l’information). Sur l’ensemble de ces problématiques, il participe régulièrement à des conférences internationales et publie des commentaires dans la presse française et internationale. En outre, il conduit des recherches sur les effets de l’irruption de l’Internet en politique internationale. A ce titre, il a consacré des travaux sur les thèmes de la gouvernance de l’Internet, de la cyber-conflictualité et de la diplomatie américaine du numérique.
  28. Damaris Seleina Parsitau (Ph.D.) is a Sociologist of Religion, Culture and Gender Studies and a thought leader in Girls’ Education, Mentorship and Leadership. She is also the Director of the Institute of Women, Gender and Development Studies (2012-2018) at Egerton University in Kenya, a Centre of excellence in gender research, leadership, mentorship, policy making and advocacy for gender equity and equality in Kenya. Dr Parsitau was recently appointed as a research Associate and visiting fellow at the Women Studies in Religion Programme (WSRP) at Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge MA, Boston, USA. Dr Parsitau is also the immediate former Echidna Global Scholar 2017 at the Brookings Institutions, Centre for Universal Education (CUE), Washington DC, USA where she has been carrying out impactful research on cultural issues impacting Maasai girls’ education in Kenya. Parsitau holds a Ph.D in Religion, Gender and Public Life from (Kenyatta University), an MA in Sociology of Religion (University of Nairobi) and a Bachelor of Arts in History, Egerton University. She is a visiting Research Associate and Fellow at the College of Williams and Mary in Williamsburg, in Virginia USA and the University of South Africa (UNISA) respectively. Parsitau has previously held Visiting Research Fellowships at the University of Cambridge in the UK and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Parsitau has over twenty years’ experience in teaching, research, leadership training and mentorship. She is also well travelled and is highly published in peer reviewed journals and book chapters, with two forthcoming manuscripts. Parsitau has a strong multi-disciplinary background and is well grounded in social science research.
  29. Theodore Pelagidis is professor of economics at the University of Piraeus, Greece. He has also been a NATO scholar at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University; a National Bank of Greece professorial fellow at the London School of Economics; a Fulbright professorial fellow at Columbia University; and served as an external expert in the internal evaluation office at the International Monetary Fund. He received his diploma in economics from Thessaloniki University, Greece; his M.Phil. from Sussex University, U.K.; and his Ph.D from Paris University, France, while serving as an EU SPES researcher. He has also conducted post-doctoral research on the EMU at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University, USA, (1993-94 and 1995-96 as a NATO scholar). He has been and NBG professorial fellow at LSE, UK (2010), and a Fulbright fellow at Columbia University, USA (2010). He has published extensively in professional journals such as, The Journal of Policy Modelling, Cambridge Journal of Economics, International Review of Law and Economics, Journal of Economic Studies, The Cato Journal, European Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics, Challenge. The Magazine of Economic Affairs, Industrial Relations, Review of International Studies, Current Politics and Economics of Europe, World Economics, Review of European Economic Policy, Papers in International Political Economy, Economy and Society, International Review of Economics and Business, Cahiers Economiques de Bruxelles, Actualite Economique. Review d’Analyse Economique, etc. He is also co-editor of the Welfare State and Democracy in Crisis, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2001, and co-author of Understanding the Crisis in Greece: From Boom to Bust, MacMillan/Palgrave, 2011 and 2012 2nd revised paperback edition. He is also a co-author of Who’s to Blame for Greece? Austerity in Charge of Saving a Broken Economy, MacMillan Palgrave 2015/2016.
  30. Dr. Kaewkamol “Karen” Pitakdumrongkit is a Deputy Head and Assistant Professor at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies, at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She completed her MA and PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S.A. Her research interests include international economic negotiation, Southeast Asian and East Asian economic governance (focusing on trade, money and finance), regional-global economic governance dynamics, ASEAN Economic Community, and cooperation between ASEAN and dialogue partners (ASEAN-Plus frameworks). She has published in various outlets such as The Singapore Economic Review, The International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, The Pacific Review, Australian Outlook, The Diplomat, Eurasia Review and East Asia Forum. Her media interviews include Bangkok Post, Bloomberg, Business Times, Channel News Asia, CNBC Asia-Pacific, New Straits Times, The Strait Times, South China Morning Post, and Xinhua. Beside publications and media engagement, Dr. Karen organized several capacity-building programmes such as the Annual RSIS-World Trade Organization (WTO) Parliamentarian Workshops in Singapore, and In-Country Workshops on Technical Trade Issues which are tailored to the specific needs of the trade officials in Asian countries. She was also part of the team involved in composing the elements of the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint 2025. In addition, Dr. Karen teaches courses on International Economics for International Political Economy, and the Political Economy of Southeast Asia at the RSIS MSc International Political Economy programme, and occasionally provides briefings to international diplomats and military students at Singapore’s Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College.
  31. Sine Plambech is Senior Researcher, Anthropologist, PhD, Department of Global Transformations in Finance, Migration & Aid, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Copenhagen. Sine is Adj. Assistant Professor at the Barnard – Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Columbia University, New York.
  32. Claude Rakisits is an Honorary Associate Professor in Strategic Studies at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. Dr Rakisits has had almost 20 years of experience in the Australian public sector, including in the Departments of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Office of National Assessments, Australia’s principal analytical intelligence agency.  He was also an advisor to a shadow federal minister for foreign affairs and to a deputy prime minister in Australia. In 2006-2009 he taught international affairs at tertiary institutions in Switzerland. In 2010-2013 he was the academic adviser at the Centre for Strategic and Defence Studies, the senior staff college at the Australian Defence College in Canberra. Dr Rakisits is an Associate with the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington DC. He taught there for three years (2015-2017), including a course on peace and security in the Indian Ocean region and Australia-US Alliance. His principal, but certainly not sole, academic interest is Pakistan and Afghanistan, which he has been following for over 30 years. His doctoral thesis was National Integration in Pakistan: The Role of Religion, Ethnicity and the External Environment. His publications and media interviews can be viewed on his consultancy homepage: www.geopolitical-assessments.com
  33. Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC; senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California;and senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly. Between 2002 and 2004, Rubin worked as a staff advisor for Iran and Iraq in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon, in which capacity he was seconded to Iraq. Between 2004 and 2009, he was chief editor of the Middle East Quarterly.  A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Rubin received a B.S. degree in biology from Yale University in 1994, and a Ph.D. in history from the same institution in 1999. He has previously worked as a lecturer in Iranian history at Yale University; Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC; and at three different universities in northern Iraq. He has lived and conducted research in Yemen, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and with the Taliban in Afghanistan pre-9/11.Rubin currently teaches classes regarding Iran, Turkey, and the Arab world onboard deploying carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups. Rubin is author of Kurdistan Rising (AEI, 2016), Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engagement (Encounter, 2015), a history of a half-century of American diplomacy with rogue regimes and terrorist groups,The Shi’ites of the Middle East (AEI, 2014) and two earlier books examining Iranian history.
  34. Vessela Tcherneva is ECFR’s Programme Director and Head of ECFR Sofia Office. She is the co-founder of Sofia Platform, a venue for dialogue between members of NGOs, the media, and politics from Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. From 2010 to 2013 she was the spokesperson for the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a member of the political cabinet of Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov. She has been the head of the Bulgarian office of the European Council for Foreign Relations since 2008, as well as programme director for Foreign Policy Studies at the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia. Between 2004 and 2006 she was secretary of the International Commission on the Balkans, chaired by former Italian prime minister Giuliano Amato. She has been a supervising editor for Foreign Policy Bulgaria magazine since its launch in 2005.
  35. Brendan Thomas-Noone is a Research Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre where he works on national security and technology issues, US defence and foreign policy and Indo-Pacific security. A frequent media contributor, Brendan’s research has appeared in national and international newspapers including The Economist, the Australian Financial Review and The Washington Post. Brendan was formerly a Research Associate in the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute where he worked on nuclear deterrence and policy in Asia, maritime security affairs and Australian defence policy. While at the Lowy Institute he was also an editor and contributor for The Interpreter. Over a five-month period, Brendan previously completed an internship with the Atlantic Council in Washington DC. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a Master of International Relations from the University of Melbourne. Brendan has also received a Master of Science in Global Politics from the London School of Economic and Political Science.
  36. Dr. phil. Frank Umbach. Research Director of the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS), King‘s College, London; Adjunct Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at the Nanyan Technological University (NTU) in Singapore; Senior Associate at the Centre for Euro­pean Se­curity Strategies (CESS GmbH), Munich; Visiting Professor on “EU Energy (External) Policies and Gover­nance” at the College of Europe in Natolin/Warsaw (Poland); Executive Advisorat Proventis Partners GmbH, Munich& Consultant for the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) and Wikistrat.com on inter­natio­nal energy se­cu­­ri­ty, geopolitical risks, critical (energy) infrastructure protection/CEIP, and (maritime) security policies in Asia-Pacific.
    Consultancy work for: German Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence Policies; European Commission and European Parliament, US-State and Energy Departments, U.S.-China Eco­nomic and Security Review Commission (US-Congress), the Lithuanian Government, the House of Lords (British Parliament), the Polish Foreign and Economic Ministries, Hungarian Foreign Ministry, South Korean Foreign Ministry, the Singaporean government, NATO, OSCE, World Energy Council (WEC), Feder­a­tion of the German Industries (BDI), Central East European Partners (CEEP), Wikistrat.com, APCO, national/international energy and consulting companies as well as advising international investors/investor groups via GLG. Moreover:regular presenter at official high-ranking NATO-conferences and author of more than 500 publications in more than 30 countries worldwide; contract author of the Geopolitical Intelligence Service (GIS), Liechtenstein since 2011, and Co-Editor of the (monthly intelligence reports on) Energy and Geopolitics (E&G), Berlin.

  37. Piergiorgio Valente is Founder and Managing Partner of the leading Law Firm Valente Associati GEB Partners. He is: Adjunct Professor of EU Tax Law, as well as Tax and Financial Planning at the Link Campus University in Rome; Professor of Taxation of Multinational Enterprises at the Faculty of Political Studies and for the Superior European and Mediterranean Education “Jean Monnet” of the Second University of Studies in Naples; President of the Confédération Fiscale Européenne (CFE), https://www.cfe-eutax.org. [2017-2018];  Chairman of the International Tax Committee of the International Association of Financial Executives Institutes(IAFEI), [2012-present];  Bureau Member of the Taxation and Fiscal Policy Committee of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD, [2010-present]; Italian Representative of Confindustria with the Tax Policy Working Group of BUSINESSEUROPE, [1997-present]; National Lead Coordinator for “International Tax Relations – EU Observatory – Taxation Area” of CNDCEC (Dottori Commercialisti), [2015-present]; Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of San Marino [2013-present]; CFE Representative to the Platform for Tax Good Governance, Aggressive Tax Planning and Double Taxation of the European Commission [2013-2016; 2016-2019];  Author of 15 volumes, co-author of more than 25 books;  Over 500 articles published.

  38. Andrés Velasco is the Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2017-18 he was a member of the G20 Eminent Persons Group. During 2015-16 he co-chaired the Global Panel on the Future of the Multilateral Lending Institutions. In 2013-16 he was a member of the Global Oceans Commission. Mr. Velasco was a presidential candidate in Chile in 2013. He also was the Minister of Finance of Chile between March 2006 and March 2010. During his tenure he was recognized as Latin American Finance Minister of the Year by several international publications. His work to save Chile´s copper windfall and create a rainy-day fund was highlighted in the Financial Times, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, among many others. In 2013-17 Mr. Velasco served as Professor of Professional Practice in International Development at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. In 2000-06 he was Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School. Earlier he was Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. Andrés Velasco received a B.A. in economics and philosophy and an M.A. in international relations from Yale University. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University and was a postdoctoral fellow in political economy at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of nearly one hundred academic articles, several academic books and two novels. He was president of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) from 2005 to 2007. In February 2006 he received the Award for Excellence in Research from the Inter-American Development Bank. He has served as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and to governments, central banks and private businesses around the world.
  39.  Marvin G. Weinbaum is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and served as analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 1999 to 2003.  He is currently a scholar-in-residence and Director of Afghanistan and Pakistan Studies at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC. Professor Weinbaum has his doctorate from Columbia University in 1965, his MA from the University of Michigan in 1958, and his BA from Brooklyn College in 1957. In 1965 he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  At Illinois, Dr. Weinbaum served for fifteen years as the director of the Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. He was awarded Fulbright Research Fellowships for Egypt in 1981–82 and Afghanistan in 1989–90, and was a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in 1996–97.   Additionally, Dr. Weinbaum has been the recipient of research awards from the Social Science Research Council, the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, IREX, the American Political Science Association, and other granting agencies. After retiring at Illinois, Professor Weinbaum has held adjunct professorships at Georgetown and George Washington universities, and has frequently lectured at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. At the State Department he was a recipient of its Superior Honors Award.  While at the Middle East Institute, he has assumed numerous consultancies, both with government agencies and the private sector. Dr. Weinbaum’s research, teaching, and consultancies have focused on the issues of national security, state building, democratization, and political economy.   He is the author or editor of six books. Dr. Weinbaum has also written more than 100 book chapters and professional journal articles, mostly about Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, but also on Egypt and Turkey.  He is author of numerous opinion pieces in leading American newspapers and magazines, and many think-tank reports.
  40. Chin-Huat Wong is a professor of political science at Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development, Sunway University, Malaysia. Trained in University of Essex, his fundamental quest is on how to manage group conflicts in human societies so that they can be healthy and productive. His research interests cover electoral system, party system, executive-legislative relations, division of power, and communal politics, both in Malaysia and beyond. He currently serves on Malaysia’s Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) leading its clusters on electoral system and constituency delimitation. He writes political commentaries in English, Chinese, Malay for international and Malaysian media including New York Times, Project Syndicate, Malaysiakini, Initium Media (Hong Kong) and The Journalist (Taiwan).

  41. Sarah Yerkes is a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where her research focuses on political, economic, and security developments in North Africa as well as state-society relations in the broader Middle East and North Africa region.  She has been a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow and has taught in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. Dr. Yerkes is a former member of the State Department’s policy planning staff, where she focused on North Africa. Previously, she was a foreign affairs officer in the State’s Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian affairs. Yerkes also served as a geopolitical research analyst for the U.S. military’s Joint Staff Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate (J5) at the Pentagon, advising the Joint Staff leadership on foreign policy and national security issues. She holds a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University and an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.