Global Community

Mr David Horobin is Head of the Crisis Management at GCSP. He has more than 25 years operational experience in emergency and crisis management in natural and conflict related contexts in both field and HQ functions.  

As Head of Crisis Management his main tasks are designing, researching and delivering contemporary crisis management courses for decision makers, leaders, researchers and specialists in the government, humanitarian and corporate sectors. 

From 2010- 2017, he held the position of Head of Crisis Management and Security at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) providing policy, training and operational support for 18,000 ICRC staff in 80 countries for all emergency and security related incidents.

From 2006- 2010, he was Head of the Rapid Deployment Unit at the ICRC. He designed, staffed and managed ICRC’s emergency response and surge capacity capability incorporating ICRC’s technical and managerial support internally and through Red Cross/Crescent networks consisting of 190 National Societies with 24 hours deployable expertise and ERU teams.

From 2003-2006, Mr Horobin was Director of the Operations Team (CHASE-OT) at the UK’s Governments Department for International Development (DFID). He lead the UK’s emergency response to major international emergencies and managed a team of 45 experts in technical, operational and advisory roles. During this time he chaired the International Humanitarian Partnership (IHP) and was appointed EU High Level coordinator for Hurricane Katrina. 

Throughout his career, he developed first hand operational experience in natural and complex emergencies; Angola, Ethiopia, Rwanda, DRC, Philippines, Timor, Balkans, Iran, Afghanistan, Liberia, Japan, Asian Tsunami  and global emergencies such as Ebola, H1N1 and NRBC events. Additionally, he was responsible for  high level policy and operational coordination with UN, RCRC, governments and commercial operators.

A logistician by profession he is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics (FCILT), and recently appointed Fellow and Advisory Board Member of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management (ISRM); he holds an MSc in Transport Engineering from Imperial College, London and a BSc in Social Science. He has attained accredited Senior People, Leadership and Management (PLM-CS), Ashridge, UK (2007-2010), and certified EU High Level Coordinator (EU DG ENV-2006). Mr Horobin has advanced kidnap and crisis management training. 

Christian Dussey is the Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP).

Prior to this assignment, he served as Swiss Ambassador and Head of the Crisis Management Centre of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). The Centre coordinates the governmental crisis response system during major incidents affecting Swiss citizens abroad (disasters, political upheavals, terror attacks, hostage-taking).

In 2012, he was selected to serve as a fellow at Harvard University (Weatherhead Center for International Affairs), where he spent the academic year 2012-2013.

Among other postings as a Swiss career diplomat, Christian Dussey headed the International Security Section of the FDFA, served as political counselor at the Embassy of Switzerland in Moscow (Russia) and as diplomatic adviser to the President of the Swiss Confederation.

Prior to joining the diplomatic corps of the FDFA, he served for five years at the Strategic Intelligence Service of the Federal Department of Defense. Christian Dussey is also a general staff officer in the Swiss armed forces. He is regularly invited to give lectures on crisis management at various universities and business schools. He was educated at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (MA), at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland (MA), and at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. (exchange student).

Tobias Vestner leads the Security and Law Programme. He teaches, researches, and organizes dialogue on the intersection between security policy and international law.

He heads the Symposium for Senior NATO/PfP Legal Advisors. Tobias Vestner also leads and teaches in the executive education courses Air and Missile Warfare: Navigating the Legal Dimension (Advanced AMPLE), Legal Dimensions of Contemporary and Future Use of Force, Weapons Law and the Legal Review of Weapons, as well as Negotiations Theory and Practice. He is also responsible for the event series Security and Law: A Reality Check, a public dialogue that explores how international law matters in security affairs.

Tobias Vestner has many years of experience in international law, international relations, and policymaking. Before joining the GCSP, Tobias Vestner was Research Affiliate and Global Futures Fellow at Georgetown University. Prior to that, he was Policy Advisor at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, where he managed political processes with regard to the export of conventional weapons, and participated in the UN negotiations of the Arms Trade Treaty. Previously, while at the Law of Armed Conflict Section at the Swiss Federal Department of Defense, Sports and Civil Protection, he contributed to bilateral negotiations on military cooperation, and trained military officers in international humanitarian law.

Tobias Vestner holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, a Master of Laws in International and European Law from the University of Geneva, and a Bachelor degree in Swiss law from the University of Lausanne. Tobias Vestner has Swiss and German nationality, and is fluent in English, French, and German. A former reserve member of the Swiss Special Forces Command, he serves as reserve Legal Advisor at the Swiss Armed Forces Staff. He is member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War and the International Institute of Humanitarian Law.

Emily Munro is the Deputy Head and Strategic Anticipation Cluster Leader in the Emerging Security Challenges Programme (ESCP) at the GCSP.  In this role Emily leads projects and contributes to courses, in particular in the area of strategic foresight and international security and on initiatives seeking to foster dialogue on cybersecurity and arms proliferation. She is Course Director of the New Issues in Security Course (NISC), is a term facilitator and module responsible in the Leadership in International Security Course (LISC), and she directs an annual short course on strategic foresight.

Emily has been with the GCSP since 2003, in functions related to partnership development and governance issues, training and academic affairs, and courses and projects on peacebuilding and new issues in security.

She has previous professional experience at the International Organization for Migration (Geneva), the Global Forum for Health Research (Geneva) and the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada).

Emily holds a Master’s Degree in international relations from the Graduate Institute in Geneva and a Bachelor’s Degree in international relations and political science from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Emily is a Canadian and Swiss citizen and she speaks English (native language) and French.

Publications

• Security in a World without Nuclear Weapons: Visions and Challenges, (co-editor, with David Atwood), GCSP, Geneva, December 2013.
• Multidimensional and Integrated Peace Operations: Trends and Challenges, Geneva Paper 1 (Conference Series), Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and GCSP, Geneva, January 2008.
• “Natural Disasters, Globalization, and the Implications for Global Security”, in Policy Briefs on the Transnational Aspects of Security and Stability, edited by Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhan, pp. 149-162, Zurich, LIT Verlag, 2007.
• Challenges to Neutral and Non-Aligned Countries in Europe and Beyond, (editor), GCSP, Geneva, 2005.

Dr. Jean-Marc Rickli is the Head of Global Risk and Resilience at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) in Geneva, Switzerland. He is also a research fellow at King’s College London and a non-resident fellow in modern warfare and security at TRENDS Research and Advisory in Abu Dhabi. He is a senior advisor for the AI (Artificial Intelligence) Initiative at the Future Society at Harvard Kennedy School and an expert on autonomous weapons systems for the United Nations in the framework of the Governmental Group of Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS). He is also a member of The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems and the co-chair of the NATO Partnership for Peace Consortium on Emerging Security Challenges Working Group.

Prior to these appointments, Dr. Rickli was an assistant professor at the Department of Defence Studies of King’s College London and at the Joint Command and Staff College in Doha. He was also an assistant professor at the Institute for International and Civil Security at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. Dr. Rickli received his PhD and MPhil in International Relations from Oxford University, UK, where he was also a Berrow scholar at Lincoln College.

Ms Fleur Heyworth leads the GCSP's executive education, dialogue and policy analysis on gender and inclusive security.  Working closely with the GCSP's Leadership Alliance, she designs and facilitates courses on leadership for women, and for male and female leaders to create more inclusive working environments.  She also delivers modules on gender and inclusive security to the multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural participants on GCSP's core courses, incorporating the frameworks of the Women Peace and Security Agenda, and the Sustainable Development Goals. 

The GCSP is also an incubator for collaboration with academics and practitioners, diplomats, NGOs and businesses, enabling Fleur to work across sectors to identify tools and strategies to promote greater senior level representation of women, and more equality in society, the economy and politics.  In August 2017 she worked with Dr Catherine Turner to publish a policy paper 'Women in Mediation: Connecting the Local and the Global'; she is currently working on nudge theory and the relationship between gendered leadership styles and security outcomes.

Fleur began her professional career as a Barrister and spent 5 years advocating in court, representing government and private clients in family law proceedings in England and Wales.  In Geneva, she worked at the UK Mission to the UN where she represented the UK government in negotiations in International Humanitarian Law at the Red Cross Conference 2015, and on a range of thematic topics during three Human Rights Council sessions.  She organised events on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, Disasters and Emergencies, and on gender equality.  She also worked with NGOs during UPR sessions and drafted recommendations to CEDAW.  Fleur has a Geography Degree from Cambridge University, and took her post-graduate studies in law at Nottingham Law School..

Alexandra Thiry is GCSP’s Learning Innovation and Impact Lead. She manages projects that aim at enhancing the learning experience of participants to GCSP’s executive education activities. Specifically, she is responsible for streamlining GCSP’s approach to blended learning and building capacity to design and deliver extended learning journeys for impact. 

Alexandra is a Certified Learning Professional from the “Swiss Competence Centre for Innovations in Learning” at the Institute of Business Education and Educational Management, University of St. Gallen. She possesses a passionate curiosity for learning and a strong commitment to advancing continuous learning and professional development at the international level. Alexandra is particularly interested in formats and methods that help learners apply new knowledge, skills and behaviours to their workplaces, as well as in opportunities arising from digitalisation and the possibilities of social learning.

Alexandra holds a Master’s Degree in “Peace and Conflict Studies and International Relations” from the University of Tuebingen (Germany) and a Bachelor’s Degree in “European Studies”. She has completed project management certificates, including in results based management. A German citizen Alexandra speaks English and French in addition to her native German. She is married and the proud mom of a son.
 

Dr Siobhán Martin joined the GCSP in 2006, and has had a range of increasing responsibilities since then. She is currently the Director of the 8-month Leadership in International Security Course, and Co-Director of the Master of Advanced Studies in International and European Security (MAS), jointly run by the GCSP and the Global Studies Institute of the University of Geneva. Her principal focus is on curriculum design, long course development and delivery, in addition to outreach and research activities. 

Siobhán has a PhD in International Relations/Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Her research interests focus on strategic intelligence, international cooperation, ethics, leadership issues, and transnational threats.

She also holds a Master's Degree in International Relations, and a Joint Bachelor's Degree in English and History from University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. Prior to joining the GCSP, she held a number of positions in the private sector. Her native language is English, and she also speaks French.
 

Select Publications

“Spying in a Transparent World”, reprinted as Chapter 20 in Cyber Ethics 4.0: Serving Humanity With Values, edited by Christoph Stükelberger/Pavan Duggal, Globethics.net Global Series No. 17, 2018

“Secret Friends: Intelligence Cooperation and Counterterrorism” (with Carl Ungerer), in Intelligence and the Function of Government, edited by D. Baldino & R. Crawley, Melbourne University Publishers, 2018

“Spying in a Transparent World: Ethics and Intelligence in the 21st Century”, GCSP Geneva Paper – Research Series No. 19, November 2016

Peter is founder and co-director of the Geneva Leadership Alliance, a partnership that combines Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) expertise on peace, security and global governance with leadership development expertise of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). The mission of this Alliance is to advance the understanding, practice and positive impact of leading in public, private, non-profit organizations and civil society: especially those dedicated to advancing peace and security.   

He has worked for over 15 years in organisational & leadership development and executive coaching. He is always seeking new and innovative ways of bridging the study of leadership with the practice of leading, especially in complexity and across cultural, professional and political divides.

Peter is an experienced designer and facilitator of leadership development curricula for both public and private sectors and has a strong interest in creating innovative and transformational learning experiences that enable individuals, teams and organisations to develop the mind-sets and skills they need to excel in their chosen careers.

Peter is a British and Australian national and his mother tongue is English. He is fluent in Dutch and has an intermediate level of French and German.

Ms Annika Hilding Norberg joined the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in 2017 where she is leading the work on peace operations and peacebuilding with a specific focus on dialogue, research and policy development, and education and training. Prior to joining the GCSP, she was the Director of the International Forum for the Challenges of Peace Operations (CF), a joint platform of 22 countries, incl. the 5 Permanent Members of the UNSC for 21 years. The aim of the Forum was to strengthen the planning, conduct, evaluation of and support for UN peace operations. Founded in 1996 as part of her research studies at the London School of Economics and Political Studies (LSE), Ms Norberg coordinated the Forum based at the LSE, the Swedish National Defence College and the Folke Bernadotte Academy, an agency of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ms Norberg is main editor of more than 70 Forum reports and policy briefs. Key focus areas in recent years were the CF contributions to the UN-led development of the Principles and Guidelines for UN Peacekeeping, the Strategic Guidance Framework for International Police Peacekeeping, and the Considerations for Mission Leaders in UN Peacekeeping Study. In 2008, Ms Norberg was awarded the Silver Medal of the Swedish Royal Academy of Military Science for her contributions to strengthening UN peacekeeping.