About Building Peace

Building Peace: A Forum for Peace and Security in the 21st Century shares stories of people, communities, and organizations that are transforming the face of peace and security around the world. More than 1.5 billion people live in conflict affected and fragile states, and suffer acute levels of violence. Many people do not realize, however, that every day women, men, and children are working to prevent violence and consolidate peace in their local communities and capitals through dialogue, reconciliation, development activities, human rights initiatives, and governance processes. Building Peace offers a window into this dynamic of creating and maintaining vibrant, peaceful, inclusive societies.

Staff

Editor-in-Chief
Jessica Berns has twenty years international experience, primarilyworking on issues of social inclusion, peacebuilding, governance, and anti-corruption. The majority of her work has taken place within the NGO sector. Her areas of expertise include strategic planning, program design and implementation, partnership development, and strategic communications. She has a special interest in civil society network building, which she first developed as a Program Officer working with the Latin American chapters of Transparency International, the anti-corruption NGO in Berlin, Germany. More recently, as Program Director of Coexistence International, she facilitated the creation of a network of coexistence practitioners in West Africa, designed networking and capacity building programs for practitioners, and spearheaded the creation of practitioner and policy-oriented publications.

With an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Spanish, and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, Jessica has spent much of her professional life working and living abroad, in Latin America, Europe, and West Africa.

Since 2011, Jessica has been consulting to universities, donors, and non-profits on program design, implementation, partnership development, and strategic communications. Follow her @jessicabberns.

Alliance for Peacebuilding Senior Manager for Outreach and Organizational Development


Emily A. Mallozzi is the Membership & Outreach Manager at the Alliance for Peacebuilding, where she facilitates high-level substantive engagement with AfP’s 100 member organizations and 1,000 professional peacebuilders, leads strategic planning of the AfP Annual Conference, and contributes to AfP’s online magazine, Building Peace: A Forum for Peace and Security in the 21st Century. Prior to AfP, Emily worked in several development offices in Washington, DC, including the Brookings Institution, where she managed a fundraising database of more than ten thousand donors.

She received her Masters of International Relations with a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Conflict Resolution from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Pursuant to her degree, she spent six weeks in Strasbourg, France, studying international human rights and conflict resolution. Emily received her bachelor’s degree in International Affairs with a concentration in Conflict & Security, and a minor in Italian Language & Literature, from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. She also spent a semester of study at the American University of Rome in Rome, Italy.

With a rich appreciation for diverse cultures, Emily’s interest lies in the role of culture in conflict situations and how it can be used as a tool for peacebuilding. Her research has focused on complex conflict situations spanning the globe, in particular Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Her hobbies include traveling, scrap-booking, singing, and playing the piano. Emily is originally from Syracuse, New York, and holds both US and Italian citizenships.

Alliance for Peacebuilding Communications & Development Manager

Adiel first joined AfP as the Editorial & Marketing Assistant for our semi-annual publication, Building Peace, in January, 2014, bringing with her a decade of experience crafting messages as a freelance editor and writer and a rich understanding of communication from her graduate work in the field at Wake Forest University. As a scholar, Adiel’s research centered on rhetoric, conflict communication, terrorism, and narrative theory, culminating in a thesis on the rhetoric of radicalism. Guided by her passion for language and narrative, Adiel has focused her academic and professional work on the transformational power of messaging.

Adiel also brings fundraising acumen from her experience in development at the Middle East Institute and, in October, joined this expertise with her wordsmith skills in a new position at AfP as Communications & Development Manager. In this role, Adiel looks forward to shaping AfP’s communications by telling the story of peacebuilding in a way that reflects its significance—inspiring the public as well as donors, members, and fellow peacebuilders—sparking a broader constituency for peace.

Editorial & Marketing Assistant

Editorial Board

The Editorial Board serves a critical role in by helping to define the focus of each issue of Building Peace, suggesting authors, providing substantive feedback on articles, and occasionally writing articles. Each member represents a unique perspective that reflects the breadth of the publication itself and peacebuilding as a field.

Executive Director, Peace Appeal Foundation
Derek Brown is Executive Director of the Peace Appeal Foundation. Derek joined the Peace Appeal in 2005 to help build the institutional platform and network that has enabled the institution to help stakeholders in three conflicts launch innovative processes and structures to support comprehensive, multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder peace initiative. A strong internationalist with a deep commitment to social justice, he has nurtured many social and public innovations across the world by enabling innovators and changemakers in diverse societies. Prior to joining the Peace Appeal Foundation, Derek was Vice President and Associate Chair of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, a global institution investing in leading social entrepreneurs in over 50 countries. Derek holds an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a BA in History from Yale College.

Ex-Officio, President & CEO, Alliance for Peacebuilding
Melanie Greenberg is President & CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. Before joining the AfP, she was the President and founder of the Cypress Fund for Peace and Security, a foundation making grants in the areas of peacebuilding and nuclear nonproliferation; a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, focusing on issues of justice in post-conflict peacebuilding; and Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. A frequent writer, lecturer, teacher and trainer in a broad range of areas related to international law, international security, and peacebuilding, Melanie has led courses for Congressional staff, scientists at the National Institutes of Health, international lawyers, business executives, and graduate students from around the world. She is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the United States Institute of Peace and is on the board of the Institute for World Affairs. She served as board chair of Women in International Security, and has sat on the boards of Dispute Resolution Magazine, Partners for Democratic Change and the Lawyers Alliance for World Security. Melanie holds an AB from Harvard, and a JD from Stanford Law School.

Senior Fellow for Innovation, Alliance for Peacebuilding
Charles “Chip” Hauss teaches comparative politics and conflict resolution in the Public and International Affairs Department (political science) at George Mason University; a member of the Board of Directors and a staff member of the Alliance for Peace Building where he helps to coordinate relations with the United States government; and, finally, the author of numerous books, including the leading textbook on comparative politics, two tomes on conflict resolution, and three works on French politics. Before beginning at George Mason University, he taught for 17 years at Colby College, Maine and three years at the University of Reading, England.

Since the 1980s conflict resolution has been the focus of his scholarly and political life, including leading several hundred workshops in places as diverse as West Belgrade, Maine and the West Bank in Palestine. In 2000, he joined the staff of Search for Common Ground, the world’s largest conflict resolution NGO, for its project on U.S. domestic politics. Chip holds a BA from Oberlin College, where he serves on the alumni council, and an MA and PhD are from the University of Michigan.

Research Director, Igarapé Institute
Robert Muggah, Ph.D. is the co-founder and Research Director of the Igarapé Institute, a Brazilan-based think tank that works on development and security issues. He is also a director of policy and research at the SecDev Foundation, and works as an affiliate at Oxford University, The Center for Conflict, Development, and Peace in Switzerland, and the Instituto de Relações Internacionais in Rio de Janeiro. An active voice in the fields of security and human rights, he focuses his research, writing and policy work on issues of violence prevention, humanitarian action, and development, primarily in the Americas and Africa. In addition, Robert also works as an advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations, and the World Bank, and is a co-founder of the Journal of Stability. In 2013, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world on armed violence reduction by Action on Armed Violence. Robert holds a Master of Philosophy from University of Sussex, and a PhD in International Development, Economics and Political Science from Oxford.

Project Manager, Head of Asia Programmes, Peace Direct
Ruairi Nolan is manages the Asia Programs for Peace Direct and is a Project Manager for Peace Direct’s Insight on Conflict website. He has worked in rural development in Central America, at Irish Aid and at the UNESCO Centre at the University of Ulster. Ruairi holds an MSc in Latin American Studies.

Advocate, Women for Peace
An anthropologist and community health specialist by training, Sofi Ospina became an advocate for social justice at an early age when she accompanied her older sister, who taught migrant children in the slums of Cali, Colombia, their hometown. But she also traces her current dedication as a peace and gender activist and local Green Party politician in Colombia to the insights she gained living abroad. While pursuing advanced studies in France and working in Switzerland to combat HIV/AIDS, she heard horrific stories from refugees and ex-combatants fleeing gender-based violence and armed conflict in Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan, as well as her native country. Ms. Ospina participated in peace conversations between the Colombian government, the insurgency, and members of the diaspora during the 1990s, and later worked with the gender unit of the post-conflict UN transitional administration in East Timor. She coordinated a 10-year review of UN Security Council Resolution 1325’s implementation for the UN’s peacekeeping department, explaining its effects on the lives of women from 11 countries – Cambodia to Congo, and Liberia to Nepal. Currently, Ms. Ospina is involved with two women’s groups seeking an end to 50 years of armed conflict: the National Women’s Network (Red Nacional de Mujeres – Cali) and Women for Peace (Mujeres por la Paz). She advocates for the inclusion of civil society representatives and women in peace talks between the national government and the insurgents, known by their Spanish acronym, FARC. She holds master’s degrees in development studies, public health, and management.

Peacebuilding and Development Consultant
Nat B. Walker is a Liberian and a permanent resident of the United States. He is currently an independent peacebuilding and development consultant with over twelve years of experience working in Liberia with local and international organizations including the Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, Conservation International and United Nations Development Program. He was hired in 2011 by Humanity United as a long term consultant to provide support to the development of a network of conflict early warning and early response actors and to help the LPBO develop a conflict EWER system in Liberia. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the Kofi Anan Institute of Conflict Transformation at the University of Liberia. He is a graduate of the Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding where he earned his Masters of Arts degree in conflict transformation with dual concentrations in international development and organizational leadership.

Advisory Committee

Our Advisory Committee members are individuals with substantive expertise across a range of fields that lend their perspectives and insights to each issue of Building Peace. Committee members promote Building Peace within their sectors, communities, and networks.

Colonel, US Army (ret.) Trinity Strategic Planning
John Agoglia is Vice President for Government Services for IDS International. John leads and oversees the current programs and operations of IDS International.

John was a career officer in the US Army and retired on January 31, 2011. His recent experience has focused on all aspects of counterinsurgency, stability operations, and civil-military relations. He served as the Director of the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul Afghanistan and directed the U.S. Army’s Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute at the U.S. Army War College. John was also assigned to serve as US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) liaison officer to US Civil Ambassador in Iraq, Paul Bremer, in addition to being part of the planning group that initiated the campaign plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom and CENTCOM’s earlier plans for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

John is a 1980 graduate of the US Military Academy and holds an MA in military arts and sciences from the US Army School of Advance Military Studies. (IDS)

John contributed the article “The Need for Better Military and Civilian Cooperation in Conflict Zones: The First Step- Developing Effective Interagency Education and Training Programs for Conflict Prevention, Stabilization and Resolution” to the inaugural issue of Building Peace.

Associate Director of Peacebuilding, Strategy & Innovation at World Vision International
Michelle has been promoting peace in the civil society sector for over 13 years. As a facilitator and action researcher in the field, she focuses her work on participatory context analysis and the transformation of ethnic and religious conflict with a focus on identity-based conflict issues. Michelle has also worked as an international peacebuilding consultant across the globe and was involved in the Asia Tsunami response as a Conflict Sensitivity and Peacebuilding Manager with World Vision Asia in Manila, Philippines. Prior to that, Michelle also worked in Kosovo as a Regional Peacebuilding Coordinator and Civil Society Development Officer. She holds a PhD in Peace Studies from Lancaster University and publishes regularly on issues relating to conflict and peacebuilding, both domestically and globally.

President, Institute for World Affairs
Hrach Gregorian is President of the Institute of World Affairs (IWA), a Washington DC-based research organization. He is also an Associate Professor for the Graduate Program in Conflict Management at Royal Roads University; an Associate Professor for the Centre for Strategic and Military Studies, at the University of Calgary; an Adjunct Professorial Lecturer at the School of International Service at American University; a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Studies at University of Victoria; and a ResearchFellow at the Canadian Defense & Foreign Affairs Institute. For over three decades Gregorian has been active in deep cultural and risk analysis in fragile states, with field experience in Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, Central and East Asia. Gregorian served as one of the founding directors of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). He is the recipient of American University’s Capital Area Peacemaker Award, and a Boston University Distinguished Alumni Award. Hrach holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Brandeis University, and an undergraduate degree from Boston University.

Special Advisor, ICT4Peace Foundation
Sanjana Hattotuwa is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives (www.cpalanka.org). He is the founder and currently co-curator of Groundviews (www.groundviews.org), an award winning citizen journalism initiative. A TED Fellow, Sanjana uses and highlights the growing importance of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to strengthen reconciliation, a just peace, human rights and democratic governance. He blogs at ict4peace.wordpress.com and sanjanah.wordpress.com. As Special Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation since 2006, Sanjana works with the UN and other leading governmental and non-governmental institutions around the world to strengthen capacities in order to engage and leverage new and social media for crisis information management, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

Director, Policy, Research and Knowledge, Transparency International
Robin Hodes is the Director of Policy, Research and Knowledge for Transparency International, which sees her lead their global research and the promotion of learning and knowledge exchange both within Transparency International and beyond. She joined the organization in 2000 and was appointed to her present role in 2011.

Prior to joining Transparency International, Robin developed a program on economic globalization for the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. She has taught Media and Politics at the Free University Berlin and University of Leipzig, as well as serving as Assistant Director for international security program at the Center for War, Peace and the News Media at New York University.

Robin holds a PhD and MPhil in International Relations from Cambridge University and a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania.

Senior Fellow, Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP)
Christopher Holshek is an international peace & and security consultant focusing on civil-military relations in policy and practice as well as peace operations related civil-military training and education. A Senior Fellow with the Alliance for Peacebuilding and a civil-military strategic analyst with Wikistrat, he was recently a Senior Associate with the Project on National Security Reform as well as Country Project Manager in Liberia for DoD’s Defense Institutional Reform Initiative working in Africa on defense ministerial capacity development in order to promote civilian oversight of the military. A retired U.S. Army (Reserve) Civil Affairs (CA) officer, he has three decades of civil-military experience at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels in joint, interagency, and multinational settings across the full range of operations, among them command of the first CA battalion to deploy to Iraq in support of Army, Marine and British forces, as well as Senior U.S. Military Observer and Chief of Civil-Military Coordination for the UN Mission in Liberia and the European Command’s Military Representative at USAID. He has published extensively on national security strategy and civil-military, stability, and peace operations, including blogs for the Huffington Post.

Fellow, Center for Global Health and Peacebuilding
Victor Ochen, a second born twin to his peasant parents of Lango ethnic tribe, from Lira district in northern Uganda. Born and raised in his village of Abia, like most of the children there, Victor spent his childhood in the conflicts. He is one of the success stories of the most resilient young man who took upon his childhood challenges as an opportunity that reshaped him to bring positive change. Instead of picking up a gun to avenge his lost family members, being paralyzed by grief or feeling hopelessly disadvantaged by the destitution of growing up in the refugee camp, he rose to these challenges and crafted an alternative vision of hope in the face of overwhelming despair. For his commendable work of supporting the victims of war from greater northern Uganda, he demonstrated and inspirational leadership in helping his fellow war survivors to prove that “they are stronger than their sufferings”. His efforts were recognized by His Grace Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and he was awarded the prestigious Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu’s African Leadership Institute’s Fellowship in 2011. He has spoken about and advocated on behalf of war victims and human rights for several years around the world.

Programme Manager of Policy and Advocacy, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict
Darynell Rodriguez Torres is the Programme Manager Policy and Advocacy, at the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC). His work is focused on strengthening cooperation between GPPAC members and policy makers from governments, regional international organisations, and the United Nations to provide inputs for shaping conflict prevention and peace building strategies. He has held different positions in the public, private and non for profit sectors including government, regional organisations and private firms specialised in political risk and public affairs. Darynell’s academic background includes a degree in International Studies and Political Science from West Virginia University, a Masters in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and other postgraduate studies in the field of public policy and political management.

Director, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Dan has been the Secretary General of International Alert since 2003. Having graduated in 1973 from Cambridge University where he read English Literature, Dan’s work on peace issues started when he began research on UK defence policies in 1976.

Prior to joining Alert Dan held a number of senior positions, most notably as Director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo from 1993 to 2001. He also held fellowships at the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Hellenic Foundation for Foreign and European Policy and was for over a decade the Chair of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

Dan is a prolific author and since arriving at Alert he has continued to publish widely. All told he has authored, co-authored and edited sixteen books including successive editions of The Atlas of War and Peace. Responsible for over 100 journal articles and chapters in anthologies he is also regularly invited to advise governments and international organisations on policies and structures for peacebuilding, including through his membership of the Advisory Group for the UN Peacebuilding Fund, of which he was Chair until 2011. At Alert he produced the path breaking A Climate of Conflict (2007) report on the links between climate change, peace and war and continues to lead the organisation’s advocacy on a range of issues critical to the reduction of conflict and building of peace.

He was awarded the OBE in 2002 and blogs on international politics at www.dansmithsblog.com.

General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations
Paul B. 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). Besides overseeing the center’s series of Contingency Planning Memoranda and Council Special Reports on potential sources of instability and conflict, he is currently writing a book on how the United States can make preventive action the centerpiece of a new security strategy for the 21st century.

Prior to joining CFR, Dr. Stares was the vice president and director of the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention at the United States Institute of Peace. He worked as an associate director and senior research scholar at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation from 2000 to 2002 and was a senior research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs and then director of studies at the Japan Center for International Exchange from 1996 to 2000. From 1984 to 1996, he was a research associate and later a senior fellow in the foreign policy studies program at the Brookings Institution. He has also been a NATO fellow and a scholar-in-residence at the MacArthur Foundation’s Moscow office.

Dr. Stares has participated in various high-level studies, including leading the expert working group on preventive diplomacy for the Genocide Prevention Task Force co-chaired by Madeleine Albright and William Cohen as well as the expert working group on the strategic environment for the Iraq Study Group co-chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton. He is the author or editor of numerous books, articles, and reports, including most recently the CFR publications Partners in Preventive Action (Council Special Report No. 62), Managing Instability on China’s Periphery (Asia Security Memoranda), Enhancing U.S Crisis Preparedness (Policy Innovation Memorandum No. 4), Military Escalation in Korea (Contingency Planning Memorandum No. 10), Enhancing U.S. Preventive Action (Council Special Report No. 48), and Preparing for Sudden Change in North Korea (Council Special Report No. 42).

He has a BA from North Staffordshire Polytechnic and received both his MA and PhD from Lancaster University.

Senior Writer and Program Officer, The Institute for Inclusive Security
Kristin Williams is Senior Writer and Program Officer at Inclusive Security, where she tells stories of women’s courageous leadership and brings to light their innovative approaches to creating and sustaining peace. To amplify this message, she develops strategies to engage new and existing audiences via traditional, social, and digital media platforms. Previously, Ms. Williams was Program Coordinator for Coexistence International at Brandeis University, where she was responsible for research, events, and other programs connecting practitioners in peacebuilding and related fields. She is completing her MALD in human security and NGO management at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and holds a bachelor’s in international affairs from Northeastern University.

Independent Consultant
Catherine Woollard has been Executive Director of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO) since October 2008. EPLO is the platform of not-for-profit organisations working on conflict prevention and peacebuilding. EPLO brings together over 30 organisations, including NGOs, think-tanks and NGO networks; its objective is influence the European Union to be more active and more effective at preventing conflict and building peace.

Immediately prior to joining EPLO, Catherine worked as a consultant advising on anti-corruption and governance reform. She previously held the positions of Director of Policy, Communications and Comparative Learning at Conciliation Resources, Senior Programme Coordinator (South East Europe/CIS/Turkey) at Transparency International and Europe/Central Asia Programme Coordinator at Minority Rights Group International. She has also worked as a lecturer in political science, teaching and researching on the EU and international politics, and for the UK civil service.

Associate Director, MA in Conflict Resolution, Department of Government, Georgetown University; Founder, Peace and Collaborative Development Network
Dr. Zelizer’s areas of expertise include working with youth from violent conflict regions, civil society development and capacity building in transitional societies, program evaluation and design, conflict sensitivity and conflict mainstreaming, the connection between trauma and conflict, the role of the private sector in peacebuilding, and arts and peacebuilding. He has published several articles, and co-edited the book Building Peace, Practical Reflections from the Field (Kumarian Press, 2009). His latest publication, Integrated Peacebuilding: Innovative Approaches to Transforming Conflict, was published in 2013 by Westview Press, and addresses the importance of weaving peacebuilding methods into diverse sectors, including development, humanitarian assistance, gender, business, media, health, and the environment—areas where such work is needed the most.

He was one of the co-founders and a senior partner in the Alliance for Conflict Transformation, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to building peace through innovative research and practice. He has worked for/or served as a consultant with many leading development and peacebuilding organizations including the United States Institute of Peace, Rotary International, and USAID. He has received a number of fellowships and awards, including serving as a Fulbright Junior Scholar in Hungary for two years and as a National Security Education Program Fellow in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the African Peace and Conflict Journal, Journal of Conflictology and the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development and is the founder of the Peace and Collaborative Development Network an online network connecting 25,000 professionals in the fields of peacebuilding and development.

He also serves on the boards/advisory boards of several organizations including: Alliance for Conflict Transformation, Masterpeace, TechChange, International Peace and Security Institute, and Dance4Peace.

Employment Opportunities

Building Peace hosts interns year-round on a semester basis. Internships provide a wonderful opportunity to learn about the peacebuilding field from the inside, with broad exposure to a variety of civil society organizations, government and military partners, and representatives from fields closely related to peacebuilding. Internships (part-time or full-time) accommodate a flexible schedule and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Internships are located at the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s Washington, DC headquarters. Note: Many of AfP’s internships are unpaid. Learn about funding opportunities here.

Editorial and Marketing Assistant (Internship)

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