Editors

• Jack Hamilton is a Northern Irish journalist and researcher based in Washington, D.C. and London.  He reports on energy, security and African politics for Sky News in addition to his research on West African security and conflict resolution.  He can be followed on Twitter @jmhamilton Email: jack [at] inpec.in

 

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Siddharth Singh is a researcher of macroeconomics, international relations, politics and policy based in New Delhi. He founded InPEC in August 2011 and was joined by Jack and David in October 2011. His photography website is available at www.sidi.me and he can be followed on Twitter @siddharth3Email: s_singh [at] inpec.in

 

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Previous Editors

• David J. Franco was editor at InPEC from October 2011 to May 2012. David qualified as a lawyer in 2005 and has since worked as a solicitor, consultant, and researcher in various firms and organisations. He joined InPEC in October 2011 and left it in May 2012 to pursue a career as a political risk analyst.

Email: david_francopascual [at] hotmail.com

Designers

The designers who have worked on InPEC in the past. 

• Akshan Ish is a computer science engineer and currently a graphic design student at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. Some of his work can be found at www.akshanish.wordpress.com

Email: akshan.ish [at] gmail.com

• Dani Pagans is a Bologna-based Catalan designer with more than 10 years work experience. After working for several studios and agencies based in Barcelona, London, and Bologna, Dani is now a freelance designer. His work can be seen at www.danipagans.com

Email: mail [at] danipagans.com

Contributing Analysts and Photographers

The past and present contributors on InPEC. 

• Abd Al-Aziz Abu Al-Huda is a Middle East and North Africa expert analyst and researcher whose work has covered a variety of topics such as state formation, Security and Energy Policy.  His specialization focuses on Water Security and Hydropolitics in the Middle East, as well as the role of Virtual Water in mitigating conflict and aiding socioeconomic development.

• Abdulaziz Al-Mossalem is an international relations scholar who has worked as a journalist in Kuwait. He is currently based in the Middle East and continues to research the politics of the region.

• Abhishek Srivastava is a journalist and photographer who has worked extensively in India and briefly in Afghanistan. He is now keenly following developments in the Af-Pak region. Click on http://about.me/aabhisheks to learn more about his work.

• Aditya Sakorkar is a researcher in International Relations. His main interests are identity politics, psychological aspects of terrorism, security issues, and International Relations’ theory. He holds a Master’s in History and Diploma in Journalism, and has worked as a Content Writer.

• Alastair Stewart is an International Relations graduate of the University of Edinburgh.  His main areas of interest are the history of the Conservative Party, Scottish political history, British imperial history and contemporary British politics.

• Alba Franco is a Barcelona-based journalist. She obtained a BA in Journalism in 2010 and is currently completing an MA in Communications in Social and International Conflicts at the Barcelona Universitat Autónoma where she is specialising in photo journalism. In July Alba will spend a month reporting on the Western Sahara conflict from the refugee camps in Algeria.

• Alejandro Marx is a graduate from University College of London-School of Slavonic and East European Studies. He worked at the Prague Office of the OSCE Secretariat and will start a research fellowship at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is also a contributor to the French publication “Regard sur l’Est”.

• Alireza Ahmadian is an Iranian Canadian writer living in London. Ahmadian holds a history BA from the University of British Columbia and is currently completing his postgraduate studies at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

• Anna Rabin is an Australian political science and international relations scholar. She holds a Masters in African politics and has a particular interest in East Africa and demography.

• Arushi Sharma is a journalist currently based in Washington D.C. Her areas of interest include international politics, terrorism, nuclear policy, and the impact of religion, specifically on the United States, Iran and Brazil. Her website is available at www.sayarushi.com and she can be followed on Twitter @sayarushi

• Arvind Iyer is a doctoral student researcher at the University of Southern California working in the broad areas of Computational Neuroscience and biological visual processing. His interests include science popularization, continuing education, secular philanthropy and freethought blogging. He is originally from Mumbai, India.

• Aryaman Bhatnagar is an International Politics researcher currently based in New Delhi. His areas of interest are South Asia and the Middle East, and in particular, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Arab-Israel conflicts.

• Bastiaan Huesken  is currently conducting an impact assessment of Projet Riz, a development project by Heineken International NV and the European Cooperative for Rural Development (Eucord) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

• Ben Mann is a London-based documentary filmmaker. He also works on City Harvest, a project that is part of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, which aims to promote urban agriculture across Europe. He has previously worked as a research assistant and project worker on agricultural development projects in Vietnam and Guatemala.

• Camille Maubert is an international security researcher based in London. Her work focuses on security, intelligence and counter-insurgency, with a specific interest in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She is currently completing a Masters degree at King’s College War Studies Department.

• Gowri Thampi is pursuing her Master’s degree in economics at Georgia Tech, Atlanta. Her interests include environmental and international economics. Gowri is also an amateur etymologist and a very amateur cartoonist.

• Farid Marjai is a columnist to the Reformist newspapers in Iran.

• Gulshan Roy has pursued economics and international studies in university, most recently at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He regularly writes for publications in Mauritius, which is his country of origin. He can be followed on twitter here.

• Hemley Gonzalez is a Cuban-American activist who runs ‘Responsible Charity’ in the city of Kolkata, India. Find more about Responsible Charity here and feel free to donate here. You can also get regular updates on their Facebook page.

• Kanchi Gupta is an economics and politics graduate from University of Bath, UK. She is currently pursuing postgraduate studies in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, London. Her interests include political research, freelance travel writing and amateur poetry.

• Karina Reigstad is a lecturer in Norway and a freelance writer on energy and climate politics

• Matthias Pauwels is an International Politics scholar from Belgium. With degrees in Middle Eastern Studies and International Relations, his research interests encompass an eclectic variety of topics, ranging from the politics of the Middle East to the global LGBT rights movement.

• Mehrnaz Shahabi is an anti-war activist and independent researcher. She lives in the UK. She can be reached on mshahabi@blueyonder.co.uk

• Mikael Santelli-Bensouda is a researcher based in London. He is currently exploring the relationship between the emerging powerhouses of China and India. He is focussing on mutual perceptions and identifying economic, energy, political and security trends, from climate negotiations to maritime disputes. He also holds a personal interest in social movements, indigenous rights and global civil society.

• Natalie Muallem is a professional freelance photographer. She started her career in Madrid and now is based between London and Tel Aviv.  You can see more of her work at www.nataliemuallem.com

• Peter Jenkins is a career diplomat, born in 1950. He was the UK ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna from 2001 to 2006. At present Peter Jenkins is working on energy issues, encouraging moves towards a low carbon global economy. He is a member of ADRg Ambassadors, a group of former British Ambassadors working together to offer strategic advice, dispute resolution services and specialised training

• Paul Ingram is Executive Director of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) where he develops BASIC’s long-term strategy to help reduce global nuclear dangers through disarmament and collaborative non-proliferation, coordinating operations in London and Washington. He is also a weekly talk-show host on Iranian TV.

• Raghu Kalra is a Photographer doing his Masters in Convergent Journalism from Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi. He has been a photographer for over 8 years and specialises in Wide Field Astrophotography. He can be contacted at raghukalra@aaadelhi.org

• Rebecca Aranha is a development studies scholar and has worked in rural Karnataka, India in the past. She has extensively researched and written on the agrarian crisis in India.

• Rithika Nair is a Human Rights researcher based in New Delhi. Her primary areas of interest are child rights, children involved in armed conflict, and the conflict zones in Africa.

• Roberto Valussi is an Italian freelance journalist and documentary maker based in London. After a long period of infatuation with the Balkan politics, he now covers the the socio-economic developments of the Portoguese speaking countries in Africa.

• Sabina Yasmin Rahman is a research student of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. She completed her Master’s in Social Work (Field of Practice Concentration in Criminology and Justice), TISS, Mumbai. Her areas of interest are Urban Poverty and Begging, Institutions, Ethnicity, Otherness, Prejudice and Discrimination, Juvenile Delinquency (including Child Welfare), Symbolic Interactionism and Qualitative Social Research Methods.

• Samuel Kornstein is a Boston-based researcher writing on international development, food security, technology, economics, and commerce. He is a graduate student at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and has experience working in the financial markets.

• Sualeh Keen is a Kashmiri writer, poet, graphic artist, and cultural critic. He works as a marketing communications professional. He created the Facebook group “Moderate Voice Of Jammu, Kashmir And Ladakh” as a platform to promote dialogue between various stakeholders of the State.

• Ugo Ribet is a Paris/London based researcher who focuses on EU and Latin American politics, energy and climate change policy, and international security . He was previously a consultant for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) for the Peace, Security and Diplomacy Unit, and now works for the Climate Change and Security Program at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

• William Cloweswas formerly a researcher in the Security Unit of the London-based thinktank Policy Exchange. He has written and blogged in a freelance capacity for Think Africa Press and Index On Censorship.

• Yayaati Joshi is a freelance writer, who dabbles in writing about cinema, culture and occasionally fiction. For InPEC, he has provided inputs on topics as diverse as the adaptation of a novel into a film, and the effect of liberalization on Indian economy. He can be followed on Twitter @YayaatiJoshi

Interviewees 

• Carmen Gallano studied medicine and psychiatry and worked several years in hospitals and mental institutions before training in psychoanalysis at the Paris School of Jacques Lacan. She is a member of the International School of Psychoanalysis of the Forums of the Lacanian Field (EPFCL), and she has worked many years in her private practice in Madrid. Ms Gallano further combines her work with teaching and she has published extensively in Spain and abroad including two books titled “The feminine alterity” and “Desire, texts and conferences” (available only in Spanish: “La Alteridad Femenina” and “Deseo, textos y conferencias”). Her interview on the relevance of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical philosophy in contemporary politics and culture can be found here.

• Dan Plesch read History in Nottingham and worked for several NGOs focusing on the abolition of nuclear weapons. In 1986, Dr Dan Plesch founded the British American Security Information Council (BASIC), which he directed from Washington DC until 2001. After leaving DC, he was appointed Senior Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in Whitehall and worked with various TV and print media from 2001-2007 when he was appointed Director of the SOAS Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy where he set up the Disarmament and Globalisation Research Programme. The programme seeks to break assumptions of security based on a pre-atomic and pre-globalised era. In 2011 the CISD formally launched SCRAP, a holistic approach to global disarmament that proposes the adoption of an international legally binding agreement for complete and general disarmament. SCRAP was originally developed in Dr Plesch’s book, the Beauty Queen’s Guide to World Peace. He has given InPEC two interviews. Click on the links for Part 1 and Part 2 of his interviews on disarmament.

• Nnimmo Bassey was awarded the Rafto Prize of 2012 for his longstanding commitment to the environment and human rights in Nigeria. Bassey is also chairman of the organization Friends of the Earth International. He believes renewable energy in small-scale energy systems will play an important role in Africa – and is strongly opposed to oil exploration in the Arctic.

• Peter Jenkins is a career diplomat, born in 1950. He was the UK ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna from 2001 to 2006. He was prominent in the preparation of several Resolutions on Iran’s nuclear program passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors during this period. He featured in media reporting on this subject in August and November 2005 and February 2006.Earlier in his career Jenkins served in Washington, Paris, Brasilia, and Geneva, where he devoted much of his time to WTO affairs. He is working on energy issues, encouraging moves towards a low carbon global economy. He is a member of ADRg Ambassadors, a group of former British Ambassadors working together to offer strategic advice, dispute resolution services and specialised training. His interview with InPEC is available here.

• Shirin Shafaie is an Iranian researcher and PhD candidate at School of Oriental and African Studies, London.  She was educated in Iran (BA in Philosophy and MA in Philosophy of Art) and in the UK (MSc in Middle East Politics). The core of her research is critical war studies in general and the Iran-Iraq War in particular. Her interview on tensions and failure of diplomacy between Iran and the West can be found here.

• Talyn Rahman-Figueroa is a young policy leader and enthusiastic entrepreneur with a clear goal: to bridge the existing gap between civil society and leaders. With an impressive academic and practical background in diplomacy, Ms Rahman-Figueroa set up the first Diplomatic Business Consulting firm of its kind. Five months later, Grassroot Diplomat has grown to include a team of six experts in their respective fields as projects proliferate rapidly in all continents. Despite her young age, Ms Rahman-Figueroa is determined to tear down traditional barriers and work towards moving from a culture of national interests to a culture of people interests. ‘Success depends on one thing’, she argues, and that thing is the ‘power of relationships’. Her interview can be found here.