Anna is an author of the book Terrorist Propaganda, Recruitment and Branding: Selling Terror Online and has a PhD in International studies from Queen’s University Belfast. She also holds an MA in International Conflict Studies from King’s College London and MSc in Security Studies from UCL.

Anna’s research interests are focusing on terrorist propaganda. She is particularly interested in exploring the role of marketing and social media in the recruitment process and extremists’ content creation as well as the role of disinformation and misinformation. In her research, Anna is looking at jihadist, far-right and mixed ideology groups in the West and in Russia/post-Soviet space.

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Her professional work experiences include four years of managing army demobilization and reintegration programs in Ethiopia, four years of managing regional development programs in Ethiopia with Action Aid International, and more than 15 years of coordinating the implementation of the Africa Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) in the Horn of Africa with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

Notable professional achievements include successful implementation of the demobilization and reintegration of ex-soldier’s funded by the World Bank, and managing the establishment of the Regional Mediation Support Unit, and the Regional Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development program within IGAD.

She holds two Masters Degrees, including an MA in International Relations, and an MA in “Managing Peace and Security in Africa”, both from Addis Ababa University. Legawork additionally has several international diplomas including in “leadership and development studies” from Indian Institute of Development Studies, India, and “Peace and security studies in Africa” from Uppsala University, Sweden.

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He joined the Canadian Navy in 1975 and graduated from the Royal Military College in 1980 and served in numerous staff, command, exchange, training and operational positions onboard ship and ashore. In 1991 he went as a UN peacekeeper to El Salvador which changed his life’s focus from the Navy to peacekeeping and DDR.

Seconded to the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre (PPC) in 1997 he co-created the first formal DDR course which was eventually taught around the world. When he retired from the Navy he continued as Director of DDR Programmes at the PPC, further developing DDR and co-authoring the DDR Handbook – A Field and Classroom Guide and initiated the Integrated DDR Training Group which brought together like minded DDR training Centres to help advance and standardize global DDR Training.

Kees was selected to be the Senior Advisor DDR at the Swedish National Defence College from 2004 to 2008, where his duties included DDR Training and DDR-related advice to Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He helped initiate and worked with the Stockholm Initiative on DDR (SIDDR) which looked at the issues of DDR and peace negotiations, DDR financing and improving reintegration. He was an integral part of the development of the UN Integrated DDR Standards, the first significant multi-agency UN DDR guidance document which will helps standardize terminology, policy and procedures for DDR throughout the UN.

From 2008-12, Kees was the first Coordinator of the UN Inter-Agency Working Group on DDR where he helped to coordinate 17 UN agencies working with the IDDRS and DDR at both the policy and field levels. Together they collected field lessons, develop knowledge management, training and advance DDR policy, training and knowledge from around the world. Together with UNITAR he helped create the first online training program which continues to expand.

As a consultant Kees continues to work in/on most conflict countries with a DDR element. His work has taken him to global hotspots such as Libya, Lake Chad basin, Mali, Philippines, DRC, Burundi, Colombia and Yemen just to mention a few, while working for a host of countries, different UN Agencies as well as members of the IDDRTG and other training institutes.

Fluent in English, Spanish and French, Kees strongly believes in cooperation and coordination between all DDR actors.

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His other areas of expertise and research interests include UN peace operations, UN arms embargoes, prevention of diversion, illicit arms and ammunition flows, counter-terrorism, and conflict prevention. Prior to re-joining UNIDIR, Hardy worked for the Arms Embargo Cell of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO), UNMAS, MONUSCO, Geneva Call and the Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs.

He holds a master’s degree in International Relations, Peace and Security Studies from the Institute for International Studies in Barcelona, as well as a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Geneva.

Hardy has authored, co-authored, and contributed to numerous publications on conventional arms control. He speaks English, French, Spanish and (Swiss) German.

To read more about Hardy Giesendanner, kindly visit: https://www.unidir.org/staff/hardy-giezendanner

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Mary Beth has over ten years’ experience researching the disengagement and reintegration of violent extremists. She has compiled and analyzed large scale datasets on violent extremist disengagement and re-engagement and conducted in-depth interviews with violent extremists representing a range of ideologies. She recently authored a report for the RESOLVE Network on lessons from over 382 studies of DDR for the reintegration of violent extremists and is working on studies that examine how information about rehabilitation and the framing of programming influence community acceptance of ex-combatants.  Her other research focuses on the social bases of support for political violence, and armed parties in particular, in developed and developing democracies.

Mary Beth’s research has been published in a number of journals including the Journal of Peace Research, Security Studies, Terrorism and Political Violence, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, and International Studies Quarterly. She serves on the Editorial Board of Terrorism and Political Violence, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Perspectives on Terrorism, Journal of Deradicalization, and Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression. Mary Beth is a member of the RESOLVE Network’s Research Advisory Council and AVERT Research Network. 

She received her PhD and MA in Politics from Princeton University and BAs in Mathematics and History from Drew University.

To read more about Mary Beth Altier, kindly visit: https://www.sps.nyu.edu/homepage/academics/faculty-directory/16202-mary-beth-altier.html

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Nadine’s research focuses in institutional reform in post-conflict societies, in particular security sector reform, the role of international state and non-state actors in these reform processes, and the conditions for establishing peace in divided and post-conflict societies. She is particularly interested in alternative modes of political order beyond the European nation-state.

In her research, Nadine uses a mixed-methods approach to explore dynamics and conditions of peacebuilding in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. In her work, she cooperates with civil society organisations in post-conflict countries as well as international donor agencies.

To read more about Nadine Ansorg, kindly visit: https://www.kent.ac.uk/politics-international-relations/people/504/ansorg-nadine

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Bloom conducts research in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia and speaks eight languages. She is the author of six books and over 80 articles on violent extremism including Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (Columbia 2005), Bombshell: Women and Terror (University of Pennsylvania 2011), Small Arms: Children and Terror (Cornell 2019) and Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon with Sophia Moskalenko (Stanford 2021). Her next book, Veiled Threats: Women and Jihad in expected in 2024 with Cornell University Press. 

Bloom was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and has held research or teaching positions at Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, and McGill Universities. She advises national and international human rights organizations and serves on the Counter-Radicalization working group of the Anti-Defamation League, the UN Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UNCTED), and on the board of Women Without Borders.

Bloom has a PhD in political science from Columbia University, Masters in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and Bachelors in Russian, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from McGill University.

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An Eisenhower Global Fellow and a TED Senior Fellow, in the past decade Benedetta has held research and teaching positions at West Point, The Institute for National Security Studies and Tel Aviv University, among others. Her research focuses on armed groups, internal wars, and protection of civilians.

Dr. Berti is the author of four books, including “Armed Political Organizations. From Conflict to Integration” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013). Her work and research have appeared, among others, in Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, the National Interest, the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times; as well as in Civil Wars, Democratization, Government & Opposition, Mediterranean Politics, the Middle East Journal, Parameters, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Politica Violence.

She holds a BA in Oriental Studies from the University of Bologna, an MA and PhD in International Relations from The Fletcher School (Tufts University), and two post-doctorates in International Relations and Political Science, from Hebrew University and Ben Gurion University.

To read more about Benedetta Berti, kindly visit: http://www.benedettaberti.com/ or @benedettabertiw on social media.

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Prior to joining BKHS, she was, amongst others, Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (2012-2017), Doctoral Candidate at the University of Heidelberg (2013-2016) and Visiting Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (2013) and worked in international development in Kosovo and Vietnam following her Masters in Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University (2009-2011).

Both in her studies and her professional career, she has always focused on questions of conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and democratization, with a particular focus on Nepal, where she conducted extensive field work in 2015 and 2017. For her research, she was awarded the dissertation awards by the German Koerber Foundation and Leibniz Association.

To read more about Julia Strasheim, kindly visit: https://www.helmut-schmidt.de/stiftung/kuratorium-mitarbeiterinnen/dr-julia-strasheim

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Mr. Diagne has in the last 20 years gained extensive experience in the field of DDR, and is adept in political and military dynamics of conflict given his background and work in MINUSMA combined with the expertise gained in ONUCI, MONUC and MONUSCO. During his time with the UN, Mr. Diagne has collected, analyzed and shared critical insights that facilitated the leadership’s decision on strategy and approaches to SSR/DDR.

As an active member of the implementation of the defense and security provisions of the Peace Agreement in Mali, which include SSR and DDR aspects, Mr. Diagne is attending and charing many different fora, including among others the SSR-DDR working group and secretary/focal point of the SSR-DDR strategic committee headed by the SRSG and attended by the ambassadors in the country.

In addition, Mr. Diagne has contributed to the drafting and finalizing of the accelerated DDR program to facilitate the disarmament and demobilization of 2200 combatants of signatories armed groups and the integration of 1765 of them into the Malian defense and security forces, the Community Rehabilitation Program designed for the Center of Mali, and the National DDR Strategy and program in Mali.

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