BULAN INSTITUTE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director
- Analyst and Terrorism Expert
Cholpon Orozobekova is a conflict analyst and terrorism expert. She is the author of the book "Foreign Fighters and International Peace". Before joining the Bulan Institute, she worked with UN OHCHR, ISHR, and Foundation Au Coeur des Grottes in Geneva. Cholpon worked for 17 years in international media and her analyses appeared in the Diplomate Magazine, Jamestown Foundation, RFE/RL, and IWPR. Cholpon holds three Master's degrees from Geneva-based public universities. Cholpon also lectures at the GCSP for Preventing Violent Extremism course as a guest speaker.
Job Titles:
- Senior Researcher
- Law Researcher
Cyprien Fluzin is an international law researcher specializing in the study of conflict, terrorism, and other contemporary security challenges, with a specific focus on foreign fighters. Cyprien is currently a Ph.D. researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute, an adjunct lecturer at Sciences Po (Paris), and was recently a visiting fellow at the International Center for Counter-Terrorism (The Hague). Cyprien previously worked with the ICRC in Geneva. He is a graduate of the University of Strasbourg (France), the Geneva Graduate Institute, and Harvard Law School (USA) where he was a Fulbright scholar.
Dr. Caty Clément has a dual-track work experience both as a practitioner and an academic focusing on RBM, peace (conflict sensitivity sustainable peace, peacebuilding), facilitation and DDR/SSR. Dr Clement worked and lived in the Sahel, the Great Lakes, and East Africa. She is currently a member of the Board of the Prize Henry Dunant Foundation, the Bulan Institute, and an Associate Fellow of the GCSP. As a practitioner, Dr Clément has been an expert at the UN Security Council Group of Experts on DRC Arms Embargo. She led multiple conflict sensitive processes in the Sahel for the Small Arms Survey, Interpeace, MINUSMA and the PBF, directed the Great Lakes Project for the International Crisis Group, and was team leader for the World Bank on DDR. As an academic, Dr Clement was a fellow at the Harvard University Kennedy School and taught both at the University of Geneva and Louvain. She also led the peacebuilding and mediation activities, was a Founding and Management Board member of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. Caty Clément holds a PhD International Relations and Comparative Politics.
Dr. Christina Liang is a Head of Terrorism and Preventing Violent Extremism Department at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). Dr. Liang designs and directs courses on Preventing Violent Extremism and New Issues in Security Course. Dr. Liang edited a book on the European far right entitled: Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right and has contributed to the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Global Terrorism Index Reports. Liang is an active member of the UN's Global Counter Terrorism Research Network and advises the UN Security Council's 1267 Committee on terrorist financing. Dr Liang is a Steering Group Member of the RESOLVE Network, a member of the Global Solutions Exchange (GSX), and a global expert for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Dr. Liang was an Adjunct Faculty member for Boston University from 2008-2013 and is currently a Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po, Paris.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Edward Lemon is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of International Affairs of the Bush School of Governance and Public Service in Washington DC. He was previously an Assistant Professor at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School, a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Columbia University. Dr. Lemon received his PhD in political science from the University of Exeter (2016). He is editor of the book Critical Approaches to Security in Central Asia (Routledge, 2018). His research has been published in Democratization, Central Asian Affairs, Caucasus Survey, Journal of Democracy, Foreign Affairs, Central Asian Survey, the Review of Middle Eastern Studies, and The RUSI Journal. Dr. Lemon is a President of the OXUS Society for Central Asian Affairs.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at the Centre for EU Studies
Dr. Fabienne Bossuyt is Assistant Professor at the Centre for EU Studies at the Department of Political Science at Ghent University. In addition, she is co-director of the Russia Platform of Ghent University. She is also a Professorial Fellow at the United Nations University, and is active as an affiliated researcher of EUCAM and a member of the Academic Board of the European Neighbourhood Council. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Aston University and a PhD in EU Studies from Ghent University. Her main area of expertise is the EU's foreign policy and in particular the EU's relations with the post-Soviet space. Her recent research projects focus on various aspects of the EU's relations with and policies towards Central Asia and other post-Soviet countries, including democracy promotion, development policy and human rights promotion.
Dr. Pál Dunay (Ph.D., dr. habil, 1957) is professor of NATO and European Security Issues at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. He is also associate professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest, where he has been teaching since 2008. Between 2014 and 2016, he was director of the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Between 1996 and 2014 he was working at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy with a three years interval (2004-7) when he was senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Between 1982 and 1996 Pál Dunay worked at the International Law Department of Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest as post-graduate fellow, and later as assistant professor. Dr. Dunay contributes to the Bulan Institute in his private capacity.
Dr Elena Zhirukhina holds a PhD from the University of St Andrews. Currently she is a Senior Lecturer at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Prior to joining the OSCE Academy she had been a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of St Andrews, a Lecturer at the Academy of Public Administration in Kazakhstan, and a Researcher at the Institute of International Relations in Prague. She had lectured and presented her work at the Webster Vienna Private University, the University of Oxford, Columbia University, and the University of St Andrews. Elena has a subject matter expertise in countering terrorism, transnational organized crime, border management & technology and a hands-on experience in open-source intelligence, data management with geographical focus on Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
The Bulan Institute for Peace Innovations is a research institute and non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Our mission is to promote human rights and peace through research and advocacy. In a world of emerging security threats, human rights and security are indivisible and inalienable. Each individual has a right to both security and human rights and the two should be guaranteed and secured to maintain and promote peace.
Hafizullah Nadiri holds a Bachelor in Law and Political Science from Kabul University and an LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the Geneva Academy in Geneva. He also holds MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Geneva. His research interests focus on peacebuilding, terrorism studies, and human rights advocacy. Hafizullah previously worked as a lawyer at the Ministry of Justice in Afghanistan and with the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, and Fight for Humanity in Geneva.
Mr. Marc Finaud is a former French diplomat who has been seconded to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) between 2004 and 2013 and now works for this institution in training diplomats and military officers in international and human security and conducting research in those fields. During his 30-year career as a diplomat, he served in several bilateral postings (in the Soviet Union, Poland, Israel, Australia) as well as in multilateral missions (to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Conference on Disarmament, the United Nations). He holds Master's degrees in International Law and Political Science. He was also Senior Resident Fellow (WMD Programme) at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) between 2013 and 2015. He is now also a Swiss citizen.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Nordic Center for Conflict Transformation
Mr. Noufal Abboud is the Executive Director of the Nordic Center for Conflict Transformation, with the main office in Stockholm, Sweden. Noufal has over 15 years of high level supervisory and managerial work experience in peacebuilding, conflict transformation, democracy processes and human rights. He is specialist in transforming violent extremism, transitional justice and security processes. He directed work in conflict transformation in communities and in prisons in Morocco, Mali and Niger. He led teams on the design, monitoring, and evaluation of capacity building programs in CVE in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, as well as researches in Yemen, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon on the nexus of conflict and democratization, and on decreasing violence and increasing women's empowerment and community resilience. Mr. Abboud holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in international law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, and an International Master of Arts (MA) in Human Rights from Mahidol University in Thailand.
Mrs Elisabeth Decrey Warner was a member of the Parliament of the Republic and Canton of Geneva from 1989-2001 and she was elected its rotating President in 2000. Founder of the NGO Geneva Call and its executive president during 20 years, she led negotiations for over two decades with armed non-State actors on the protection of civilians in armed conflict by respecting humanitarian and human rights laws. Mrs. Decrey Warner was the President of the Board of Trustees of the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and has been a Board member of Interdisciplinary Program in Humanitarian Action of the University of Geneva; the Board of the Graduate Institute of Development Studies in Geneva, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD). Mrs Elisabeth Decrey Warner is currently Associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), member of the board of "Leaders pour la Paix" and vice-president of Terre des hommes.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant
- Muska Karimi
Ms. Muska Karimi has more than eight years of professional experience developing and reviewing human rights and gender strategies, legal frameworks, policies, reports, and work plans. She worked as a Human Rights and Gender Director at the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan from 2018 to 2021. She also worked as a Project Manager at USAID and as a National Advisor at Aga Khan Foundation. Ms. Karimi served as a National Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum of Afghanistan from 2012 to 2013. She holds three MA degrees from Ohio Northern University, the University of Geneva, and the International Anti-Corruption Academy.
Sara joined the Bulan Institute in December 2020. She is a PhD candidate in the International History Department at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. Her doctoral research problematizes the intersection of caste and Cow Protection within the ambit of British colonial rule in nineteenth century Western India. Apart from a Master in International History at the Graduate Institute, Sara also holds a Master in History and Bachelor of Education from University of Mumbai, with a professional experience as an educator in History and English for about a decade in Mumbai. She is interested in conducting research on issues of colonization, caste, political violence and violent extremism.
Sarah is a clinical psychologist and researcher who has been involved in the Prevention of Violent Extremism project with a specific focus on the rehabilitation and reintegration of foreign fighters. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, both from the University of Liverpool, UK. Sarah's clinical specialties are complex trauma and rights-based approaches to care in the context of children's safeguarding, fostering, and adoption. Sarah's doctoral thesis informed rights-based approaches to dementia care by generating new understandings of the concept of autonomy according to people living with dementia.
Tristan joined the Bulan Institute in October 2022. He is a recent graduate of University College Dublin and the University of Potsdam where he received two master's degrees in the field of International War Studies. Tristan's research is mainly aimed at studying U.S. counterinsurgency operational doctrines, specifically relating to the field of counternarcotics. Apart from these degrees, Tristan also holds a Bachelor's in Political Science and International Studies from Thomas More University (KY). Tristan speaks Spanish, German, French, and English.
Zachary is pursuing a Master's degree in International Relations and Political Science at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Prior to joining the Bulan Institute, Zachary worked as a research assistant with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. His research examines issues related to international security, political violence, and violent extremism.