Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus 

PANEL 13:

Panelists Swadesh M. Rana NGO/ DPI Executive Committee at the United Nations “Deweaponization issues outside of negotiated small arms norms”

Achim Wennmann Small Arms Survey, Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Development. Geneva "Armed violence and development"

Ifti Rashid, Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, Victoria. Australia “The changing face of civil unrest in a developing country”

Irene Martinetti, Director of Programs, World Federation of UN Associations “Transnational civil society and global approaches to violence prevention for regions in harm’s way”

PANELIST BIOGRAPHIES

World Policy Institute Senior Fellow Swadesh M Rana is the Focal Point for Deweaponization and Civil Society and former Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch, United Nations. She will introduce DEWs, highlight its thinking outside the box approach to violence prevention in societies at war with themselves and draw attention to issues not covered by the negotiated global norms on small arms and light weapons.

Achim Wennmann is a Research Associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peace Building at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, and the Small Arms Survey in Geneva. His current research interests include "Armed violence and development” and the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development. His presentation would critically review various indicators of armed violence including direct conflict death, indirect conflict death, homicide, and the cost of armed violence. He will highlight a need to expand the spectrum of armed violence beyond armed conflict with a view to enhance the effectiveness of developmental aid and promote violence prevention and reduction.

Irene Martinetti is the Director of Programs of the World Federation of UN Associations. Her research interests include East Asian politics and foreign policy, with a particular focus on China, human rights and international security policy. A former Senior Research Associate at the Center for UN Reform in New York, she is fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese and French and has a working knowledge of Spanish. Her presentation will project Civil society as a key player in bringing about a paradigm shift from strategies for national and state security to people based civic action for conflict resolution and violence prevention with special attention to youth and women as powerful agents for transformation. She will draw upon the experience of WFUNA’ s global network of civil society organizations.

Ifti Rashid is an Australian Leadership Awards (ALA) scholar at the Monash Asia Institute in Monash University, Victoria. A lecturer on study leave from the Independent University of Bangladesh, he is a former Research Analyst for the Social Development Unit of the World Bank. He is a frequent contributor of articles for major dailies in Bangladesh and writes for the Daily Star in Australia. His presentation will examine the interplay between civil unrest and religious militancy in some of the poorer countries. His current research is the role of madrassas in the education sector of Bangladesh in a country with a history of political disaffection and criminality with more recent exposure to Afghan war veterans, expatriate money/donations and Middle East based charitable funding.