International Task Force on Preventive Diplomacy

Task Force Advisory Board

Martti Ahtisaari (Finland)

Former President of Finland, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate EastWest Institute Board Member

Mr. Ahtisaari was President of Finland from 1994 until 2000. Upon leaving office, he founded the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) where he is the Chairman of the Board. Between 2000 and 2008, he has engaged in various tasks involved in peace mediation and conflict resolution. In 2005, he facilitated the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement. From the end of 2005 to early 2008, Mr. Ahtisaari held the position of Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo.

Mr. Ahtisaari is the laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize 2008, and EWI board member.

Sadig Al-Mahdi (Sudan)

President of Umma Party and Imam of Alansar, Former Prime Minister of Sudan

Mr. Al-Mahdi came into the political limelight in 1964, when he played a significant role in the wide public discussions that led and accompanied the October 1964 popular up-rise in Sudan. He served as the Sudanese Prime Minister in 1966-1967, and again from 1986 to the coup of 1989. In 2002 he was elected as the Imam of Alansar and in 2003 he was re-elected President of Umma Party.

Mr. Al-Mahdi is a member of the Club of Madrid and a Board member of the Arab Democracy Foundation.

Lakhdar Brahimi (Algeria)

Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on Syria

Mr. Brahimi was Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan from January 2004 to December 2005 during which time he advised the Secretary-General on a wide range of issues, including the areas of conflict prevention and conflict resolution. He played instrumental roles for the UN in South Africa (1994), Afghanistan (2001-2004), and Iraq (2004). As Chair of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, established by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, he was a driving force behind attempts to reform UN peacekeeping.

In August 2012, Mr. Brahimi was appointed Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on Syria.

Kim Campbell, PC QC (Canada)

Ms. Campbell served as Canada’s nineteenth and first female Prime Minister in 1993.

She is a founding member of the Club of Madrid. Kim Campbell is Chair of the International Advisory Board of the Foundation for Effective Governance in Kiev, Chair of the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy, and also serves on advisory boards of numerous other international organizations. Ms. Campbell speaks widely on issues related to leadership, international politics, democratization, climate change, gender, and Canadian/American relations, and makes frequent appearances on radio and television.

Jan Eliasson (Sweden)

Mr. Eliasson was appointed the first UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and was involved in operations in Somalia, Sudan, Mozambique and the Balkans. From 1994 to 2000, he served as State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and in 2006 as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden. He then served as Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Darfur, as Chair of Water Aid/Sweden, and he was a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Advocacy Group of the Millennium Development Goals.

Since July 2012, Mr. Eliasson has been Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Gareth Evans, AC QC (Australia)

Mr. Evans spent 21 years in Australian politics, 13 of them as a Cabinet Minister. As Foreign Minister he was best known internationally for his role in developing the UN peace plan for Cambodia, facilitating conclude the Chemical Weapons Convention, and helping initiate the new Asia Pacific regional economic and security architecture. From 2000 to 2009, he served as President of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Since January 2010, Mr. Evans has been Chancellor of the Australian National University.

H.R.H. Prince El Hassan bin Talal (Jordan)

Prince El Hassan bin Talal initiated, founded and is actively involved in a number of Jordanian institutions, including the Arab Thought Forum, the Hashemite Aid and Relief Agency, and the Institute for Diplomacy. He has also chaired and has been a member of a number of international committees and organizations, such as the International Crisis Group, the Club of Rome, the Independent Bureau for Humanitarian Issues, and the Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue.

Prince El Hassan bin Talal has also been a prolific contributor to regional and international issues, and was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2008.

Thorvald Stoltenberg (Norway)

Mr. Stoltenberg was Minister of Defense from 1979 to 1981, and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1987 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1993. In 1990, he became UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and in 1993, he was appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the former Yugoslavia and UN Co-Chairman of the Steering Committee of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia.

After serving as President of the Norwegian Red Cross from 1999 to 2008, Mr. Stoltenberg led a commission for the Norwegian government that delivered a report on new drug policy for Norway.

Task Force Core Group

Dr. Brigalia Bam (South Africa)

Dr. Bam has served on several public bodies, inter alia as a member of the South African Human Rights Commission. She is Founder and President of the Women’s Development Foundation and was awarded the Order of the Baobab in Silver in 2004 for her contributions to the improvement of the status of women and democracy-building in South Africa.

During Dr. Bam’s leadership as Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa from 1999 to 2011, the IEC became one of the most respected institutions within South Africa. Her expertise has been sought across the African continent and beyond.

Gidon Bromberg (Israel)

Mr. Bromberg is the founder and director of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME). With two other co-directors of FoEME, he was granted the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2009 and in 2010, they were awarded both the Euro-Med Award for Dialogue and the Aristotle Onassis Prize for the Protection of the Environment.

Mr. Bromberg has written extensively on the relationship between water issues and Middle East peace and is an alumnus of Yale University’s World Fellows program.

Dr. Scilla Elworthy (United Kingdom)

Dr. Elworthy founded the Oxford Research Group in 1982 and Peace Direct in 2002. She was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003, and nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2005, she was adviser to Sir Richard Branson, Peter Gabriel and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in setting up The Elders initiative.

Dr. Elworthy is, amongst others, a Councilor to the World Future Council, patron of the Gender Rights and Equality Action Trust, and a member of the International Advisory Council of the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Gernot Erler (Germany)

Mr. Erler has been a member of the German Bundestag since 1987. From 2005 until 2009, he served as the Minister of State in the Federal Foreign Office. From 1998 until 2005, he served as Deputy Chairman of his parliamentary group in the Bundestag, responsible for foreign, defense, development policy and human rights. He was reappointed to this post in 2009.

Mr. Erler’s political focus lies on peace and security policy, Russia and CIS, Southeast Europe and the Balkans.

Ambassador Carmen Maria Gallardo Hernández (El Salvador)

Ambassador Gallardo Hernández served as Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the United Nations and Vice-Chairperson of the UN Peacebuilding Commission. Prior to that, she worked as Coordinator for International Cooperation for El Salvador’s Supreme Court. Between 1995 and 1996, she was Executive Director of the Salvadoran Foundation for Peace.

Since 2012, Ambassador Gallardo Hernández has been serving on the Municipal Council of San Salvador.

Peter Gastrow (South Africa)

Mr. Gastrow participated in the establishment of the National Peace Accord in 1991 and then became a member of the National Peace Committee and of the National Peace Secretariat. In 1994, he was appointed Special Adviser to South Africa’s Minister for Safety and Security with the main focus on police transformation.

After working for the Institute for Security Studies as Cape Town Director from 1998 to 2009, Mr. Gastrow joined the International Peace Institute in New York where he is Senior Adviser and focuses his research and policy work on transnational organized crime and related threats.

Ambassador Thomas Greminger (Switzerland)

Ambassador Greminger joined the diplomatic service of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 1990. After working several years at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), he became deputy-head of Political Affairs Division IV of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, in charge of the Peace Policy and Human Security Section in 2002, then Head of Political Affairs Division IV in 2004.

Since September 2010, Ambassador Greminger has been Head of the Swiss Delegation to the OSCE, of the Swiss Mission to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Vienna.

Ambassador Ortwin Hennig (Germany)

Ambassador Hennig was a Vice President at the EastWest Institute (EWI) until July 2009 and instrumental in establishing the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention. Before joining EWI, he was Commissioner for Commissioner for Civilian Crisis Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Peace Building for the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.

Ambassador Hennig has published extensively on the subjects of arms control, the OSCE and conflict prevention. He is now Germany's ambassador to Georgia.

Mahmoud Labadi (Palestine Territories)

Mr. Labadi was formerly the spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization and Editor-in-Chief of “Palestine Bulletin”. He also worked for the Palestinian Authority as Director General in the Ministry of Economy and Trade in Ramallah.

Mr. Labadi is now member of the Council for Foreign Relations of Fatah.

Nick Mabey (United Kingdom)

Mr. Mabey was formerly a senior advisor in the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit leading work on a variety of policy areas, including energy, fisheries, unstable states and organized crime. Before he joined the government sector, he was Head of Economics and Development at WWF-UK.

Mr. Mabey is Founder Director and Chief Executive of E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism) a non-profit international organization dedicated to accelerating the transition to sustainable development.

Ahmet M. Oren (Turkey)

Mr. Oren began working as General Manager and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ihlas Holding A.S. in 1993 and has served in various IT and media related positions within the group. In 2005, he was appointed as the Honorary Consul of Republic of Latvia in New York State.

A member of various domestic and international, industrial and business associations, societies and foundations, Mr. Oren serves on the board of the US Baltic Foundation and was EastWest Institute Board Member from 2006 to 2009.

Dr. Paul B. Stares (United States)

Dr. Stares is the General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Before joining the CFR, he worked as senior research fellow and director at various research centers, such as the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention at the United States Institute of Peace, Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation, the Japan Institute of International Affairs and the Japan Center for International Exchange.

Paul van Tongeren (Netherlands)

Mr. van Tongeren worked many years as a program manager for the Dutch National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO) and has been involved in the activities of numerous Dutch NGOs in the field of development cooperation, peace and the environment.

He founded the European Centre for Conflict Prevention and facilitated the establishment of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, for which he served as Secretary-General until 2010.

Dr. Dmitri Trenin (Russia)

Dr. Trenin has been with the Carnegie Moscow Center since its inception in 1993. He also chairs the research council and the Foreign and Security Policy Program.

Prior to that, he served in the Soviet and Russian armed forces from 1972-1993. During this time, Dr. Trenin worked, amongst others, as a staff member of the delegation to the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms talks in Geneva from 1985 to 1991. He also held posts as senior research fellow at the Institute of Europe in Moscow and at the NATO Defense College in Rome and taught at the War Studies Department of the Military Institute.

Sundeep Waslekar (India)

Since the mid-1990s, Mr. Waslekar has facilitated dialogue between Indian and Pakistani decision makers and Kashmiri leaders, heads of Nepalese political parties, and post 9/11 between the leaders of Western and Islamic countries.

Mr. Waslekar is President of the Strategic Foresight Group, a think-tank based in India that advises governments and institutions around the world on managing future challenges.

Dr. Zhou Xingbao (China)

Dr. Zhou is Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the Chinese National Committee of the Council on Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific.

He joined the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) in 1973 where he has been Senior Research Fellow. Prior to that, he worked at the Department of Translation and Interpretation of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1988 to 1992, he served as first secretary and Deputy Director of the political section in the Chinese Embassy in the UK and from 1998 to 2001 he was Chinese Consul-General in Toronto.