Our Experts
Meet our passionate and creative multi-disciplinary team of experts. We are ready to listen, share and engage with you. In addition, through our Global Fellowship Initiative, we also have Fellows in residence and many Associate Fellows based outside of the Centre who share their expertise and experience with our community on regular basis.
Dr Jean-Marc Rickli is the Head of Global and Emerging Risks and the Founder and Director of the Polymath Initiative at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) in Geneva, Switzerland. He is also the co-chair of the NATO Partnership for Peace Consortium (PfPC) Emerging Security Challenges Working Group and a senior advisor for the Artificial Intelligence Initiative at the Future Society. He represents the GCSP in the United Nations in the framework of the Governmental Group of Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS). He is the co-curator of the International Security Map of the Strategic Intelligence Platform of the World Economic Forum. He is also a member of the Geneva University Committee for Ethical Research and of the advisory board of Tech4Trust, the first Swiss startup acceleration program in the field of digital trust and cybersecurity. He is an advisor at Gulf State Analytics in Washington and a non-resident fellow in emerging and disruptive technologies and future warfare at TRENDS Research and Advisory in Abu Dhabi. Prior to these appointments, Dr. Rickli was an assistant professor at the Department of Defence Studies of King’s College London and at the Institute for International and Civil Security at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. In 2020, he was nominated as one of the 100 most influential French-speaking Swiss by the Swiss newspaper Le Temps. Dr. Rickli received his PhD in International Relations from Oxford University. His latest book published by Georgetown University is entitled Surrogate Warfare: The Transformation of War in the Twenty-first Century.
Dr Christina Schori Liang is Head of Counterterrorism and Preventing Violent Extremism at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Geneva, Switzerland. At the GCSP, she designs and directs courses on Preventing Violent Extremism and on Transnational Organised Crime and Security. She leads GCSP’s Geneva Security Debates and offers academic and policy guidance for global security actors worldwide.
She is the editor of Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right and has contributed to the 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023 Global Terrorism Index. She has recently co-edited a Handbook on Security Science published by Springer Verlag.
Dr Liang has given over a 100 academic and policy-related presentations in 32 countries. Dr Liang testified for the US National Intelligence Council, the US State Department, the European Commission, and the European Forum for Urban Security and has given multiple presentations for the Munich Security Conference, the NATO Defense College in Rome and the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna.
She is on the advisory board of the RESOLVE Network Research Advisory Council of the US Institute for Peace and an expert for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
Dr Liang has taught University courses since 2002. Most recently she was an Adjunct Faculty member for Boston University from 2008-2013. Since 2016, she has been an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po, Paris where she teaches courses within the Global Risks and Intelligence Studies departments.
She holds a doctorate in International Relations and an MA in History and International Politics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland.
Select Publications
- Liang, Christina Schori, Building Resilience Against Uncrewed Aerial Systems, GCSP Policy Brief, April 2023.
- Liang, Christina Schori, Growing Nexus of Terrorism and Organized Crime in Masys, Anthony, Handbook of Security Science, Springer Verlag, 2022.
- Liang, Christina Schori, Technology and Terror: The New Arsenal of Anarchy, in Masys, Anthony, Handbook of Security Science, Springer Verlag, 2022.
- Liang, Christina Schori, Far-Right Contagion: The Global Challenge of Transnational Extremist Networks, Masys, Anthony, Handbook of Security Science, Springer Verlag, 2022.
- Liang, Christina Schori, "Terrorist Digitalis: Preventing Terrorists from Using Emerging Technologies", Institute for Economics and Peace, in the Global Terrorism Index 2023.
- Liang, Christina Schori, "The Technology of Terror: From Dynamite to the Metaverse", Institute for Economics and Peace, in the Global Terrorism Index 2022, Institute for Economics and Peace, March 2022.
- Liang, Christina Schori and Matthew John Cross, White-Crusade: How to Prevent Right-Wing Extremists from Exploiting the Internet, Strategic Security Analysis, July 2020.
- Liang, Christina Schori, “Hydra: The Evolving Anatomy of Extremism”, in the “2019 Global Terrorism Index: Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism.” Institute for Economics and Peace. 2019 p. 82-85.
- Bak, Mathias, Kristoffer Nilaus Tarp and Christina Schori Liang, Defining the Concept of ‘Violent Extremism’: Delineating the attributes and phenomenon of violent extremism, Geneva Paper 24/19, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, August 2019.
- Liang, Christina Schori, “Unveiling the “United Cyber Caliphate” and the Birth of the E-Terrorist” in Georgetown Journal of International Affairs International Engagement on Cyber VII, Fall 2017, Volume 18, No. 3. p. 11-20.
- Liang, Christina Schori, “Leaderless Jihad in a Leaderless World: The Future of Terrorism”, in the “2017 Global Terrorism Index: Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism.” Institute for Economics and Peace. 2017 p. 88-91.
- Liang, Christina Schori, “Mapping the New Global Criminal-Terrorist Networks,” in the “2016 Global Terrorism Index: Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism.” Institute for Economics and Peace. 2016 p. 84-88.
- Liang, Christina Schori, “The Criminal-Jihadist: Insights into Modern Terrorist Financing,” Strategic Security Analysis – 2016 n°10, August 2016.
- Liang, Christina Schori, “ISIL Inc: A Portrait of a Modern Terrorist Enterprise,” in the “2015 Global Terrorism Index: Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism.” Institute for Economics and Peace. 2015 p. 76-80
- Liang, Christina Schori, “Cyber Jihad: Understanding and Countering Islamic State Propaganda.” GCSP Policy Paper 2015/2
- Liang, Christina Schori, “Shadow Networks: The Growing Nexus of Terrorism and Organised Crime.” GCSP Policy Paper 20, November, 2011.
- Liang, Christina Schori, “Schattennetzwerke: Der Wachsende Nexus von Terrorismus und Organisierter Kriminalität, GCSP Policy Paper 20, November, 2011. GCSP Policy Paper 20 – Deutsch.pdf (952.2 kB)
- Liang, Christina Schori (ed.) Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right (London: Ashgate Publishing, 2007), 318 p.
Mr William Tavelli is the Director of GCSP Marketing & Communications. In this role, he leads his department by leveraging three decades of unique international expertise to define, implement, analyze and drive the Centre’s MARCOM strategy. He and his team successfully build upon and reinforce our mandate of promoting peace, security and international cooperation through executive education, applied policy research and impartial & inclusive dialogue.
Prior to joining GCSP, William piloted Private Equity firm Kharis Capital Partners' Ecosystem Development Strategy uniting Family Office principals, businesses, investors and customers for nearly a decade. He most recently headed Group Communications for their Quick Service Restaurant Platform (QSRP) of over 1,000 Europe-wide restaurants including Burger King, NORDSEE, O’Tacos & Quick Burger encompassing 6,000 employees who welcome over 100 million guests annually.
William served for seven years as Country Marketing Officer at Citigroup's Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) Private Bank offices in Zürich & Geneva providing tailored Wealth Management relationship services to over 4,000 of Europe's most prominent residents. He subsequently joined Swiss Red Cross International Events to coordinate their fundraising efforts through Corporate & Private Donor Partnerships; ultimately raising over CHF 15 million for their global “Victims of Forgotten Disasters” Projects.
A decorated military veteran and graduate of Georgia’s U.S. Army Signal Cyber Center of Excellence, William served as Communications & Electronics (C&E) Office Head under the auspices of U.S. Armored III Corps Command Headquarters HHC at Ft. Hood, Texas. While stationed there, his mandate included directing Department of Defense Command & Control Communications Policy. He held a specialist supervisory lead in the qualified technical intelligence execution of unit-level battalion maintenance programs and SIGINT transmissions encryption for maneuvers Operation Warfighter, Phantom Saber & United Endeavor.
William is a cum laude alumnus of the American University of Applied Sciences Institute (AUS) in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland from where he holds dual Bachelor of Business Administration (BSBA) and Master of International Business Administration (MIBA) degrees. He is a certified IPMA Project Management Associate, holds an Associate of General Studies Degree (AGS) with honors from Central Texas College (CTC) and is B1 Secrétariat d'Etat aux migrations (SEM) certified in German & French.
William’s public engagement extends to his selection as international special panel correspondent for TV5 Monde & Télévision Suisse Romande’s 2012 U.S. Presidential Election coverage. Being a California native and 9th generation Pobladores City of Los Angeles founding family, William sits on the Board of several charitable & non-profit humanitarian foundations. As such, he continues to serve the wider community through his highly respected volunteer work mirroring the GCSP’s mission of advancing peace & international cooperation.
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Tobias Vestner is the Director of the Research and Policy Advice Department as well as the Head of the Security and Law Programme. He oversees and manages GCSP’s analysis and advice activities as well as researches and teaches on the intersection between security policy and international law. Tobias Vestner regularly advises governments, international organizations, and private firms on global security and legal issues. He has published several books and papers (see below) and provided insights to various media outlets, including the U.S. National Public Radio, NBC News, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Le Temps, and RTS Geopolitis.
Tobias Vestner is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University. He was a Visiting Lecturer at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Exeter University, a Fellow at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (NATO), and a Non-Resident Fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). 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 Steering Committee of the Processes of International Negotiations Program (PIN), member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War (ISMLLW) and member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL).
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 Defence, Civil Protection and Sports, he contributed to bilateral negotiations on military cooperation, and trained military officers in international humanitarian law.
Tobias Vestner holds a PhD from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), 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.
Books
- 'Ethical Dilemmas of the Global Defense Industry’, Oxford University Press, April 2023 (co-edited with Daniel Schoeni)
- 'International Law and Policy on the Protection of Civilians’, Cambridge University Press, August 2022 (co-authored with Stuart Casey-Maslen)
Select Papers
- ‘The Law of Targeting’s Mechanisation and Objectivisation through the Use of Artificial Intelligence’, in Irene Couzigou and Edouard Fromageau (eds), ‘Technological Change and International Law: Testing the Adaptability of International Law’, Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming
- ‘From Strategy to Orders: Preparing and Conducting Military Operations with Artificial Intelligence’, in Robin Geiß and Henning Lahmann (eds), ‘Research Handbook on Warfare and Artificial Intelligence’, Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming
- ‘The Divide between War and Peace’, in Mitt Regan and Aurel Sari (eds), ‘Hybrid Threats and Grey Zone Conflict: The Challenge to Liberal Democracies’, Oxford University Press, May 2024
- ‘The Defense Industry’s Contribution to National Security’, in Daniel Schoeni and Tobias Vestner (eds), ‘Ethical Dilemmas of the Global Defense Industry’, Oxford University Press, April 2023
- ‘Engaging Both Horns of the Ethical Dilemma (Introduction)’, in Daniel Schoeni and Tobias Vestner (eds), ‘Ethical Dilemmas of the Global Defense Industry’, Oxford University Press, April 2023 (co-authored with Daniel Schoeni)
- ‘The Russia-Ukraine War’s Implications for Global Security: A First Multi-issue Analysis’, GCSP Tailored Study, August 2022 (co-edited with Thomas Greminger)
- ‘Revisiting the Law on UN Peace Operations Support to Partner Forces’, Journal of Conflict and Security Law, August 2022 (co-authored with Ralph Mamiya)
- ‘Treaty Law to Signal to Outsiders: The Case of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’, Washington International Law Journal, June 2022
- ‘Legal Reviews of War Algorithms’, International Law Studies, February 2021 (co-authored with Altea Rossi)
- ‘Trends in Global Disarmament Treaties’, Journal of Conflict and Security Law, December 2020 (co-authored with Stuart Casey-Maslen)
- ‘The New Geopolitics of the Arms Trade Treaty’, Arms Control Today, December 2020
- ‘Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space: Multilateral Negotiations’ Effects on International Law’, Moscow Journal of International Law, November 2020
- ‘Targeting Private Military and Security Companies’, Military Law and the Law of War Review, March 2020
- ‘Addressing the Use of Human Shields’, Strategic Security Analysis, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, December 2019
- ‘Book Review of the Leuven Manual on the International Law Applicable to Peace Operations’, International Review of the Red Cross, September 2019 (co-authored)
- ‘Synergies between the Arms Trade Treaty and the Wassenaar Arrangement’, Strategic Security Analysis, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, May 2019
- ’Prohibitions and Export Assessment: Tracking Implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty’, Geneva Paper 19/23, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, March 2019
- ‘Weapons Systems Supply and Operational or Logistical Support under the PSSA’, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, March 2019 (co-authored)
Select Op-eds & Blogs
- ‘Globalizing Responsible AI in the Military Domain by the REAIM Summit’, Just Security, March 2023 (co-authored Juliette François-Blouin)
- ‘Responsible AI Symposium - The Nexus between Responsible Military AI and International Law’, Articles of War, November 2022
- ‘Responsible AI Symposium - Introduction’, Articles of War, November 2022 (co-authored with Sean Watts)
- ‘The Future of Peace and War: Warfare at the Technological Edge’, GESDA Science Breakthrough Radar, October 2022 (co-authored with Thomas Greminger, Nayef Al-Rodhan, and Jean-Marc Rickli)
- ’Can the TPNW Serve Ukraine?’, Opinio Juris, April 2022 (co-authored with Juliette François-Blouin)
- ‘Die Schweiz hat durchaus das Zeug zur Grossmacht in der Uno’, NZZ am Sonntag, February 2022
- ‘Wenn der Terminator plötzlich zur Realität der modernen Kriegsführung wird’, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, August 2021
- ‘Quo Vadis, Abrüstung?’, Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften, October 2020
Digital Tool
- DisarmApp, ACW - Artifex Creative Webnet, January 2020 (co-created)
Talks at the GCSP
- Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire
- International Disarmament Treaties: Trends and Lessons Learned
- War Algorithms: Who Will Decide in Future Conflicts?
- Bye-Bye, International Order?
- Do the Geneva Conventions Matter?
- Dear Geneva: Let's Talk Hybrid Warfare
- Responsibility to Protect Revisited
- Arms Transfer to Conflict-prone Regions
- Russia and Europe: International Law as Bone of Contention or Common Denominator?
- Does Law Contribute to Peace Operations' Success?
- The Trump Administration and International Law
- Special Panel on Libya
- Expert Seminar on Enforced Disappearances
- Writing on the Wall: Redefining Security and Law
- The Worth of the Arms Trade Treaty? Let’s debate!
For speaking engagements, please contact :
Colonel (GS) Gerhard Weber was seconded to the GCSP from the German Armed Forces in April 2024. At the GCSP he is serving as a Senior Defence Advisor and as the German Senior National Representative.
Prior to joining the GCSP, Col. Weber was performing the duties of the Deputy Director of Nuclear Policy at NATO HQ in Brussels, Belgium from 2020 to 2024. The Directorate provides policy support to the Secretary General and Allies. It organizes the work of NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group, develops and implements nuclear policy, and organizes and leads HQ exercises, policy symposiums as well as education and training programs. From 2013 until 2020, Col. Weber was working in the field of security policy at the German Ministry of Defence as well as for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the German Delegation to NATO, representing Germany in various NATO committees.
His military career started in 1985 when he joined the German Air Force. Since then, Col. Weber has held various positions, including operational, academic, staff, and leadership at national and international level. This included an assignment as an Assistant Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy and multiple combat tours in various functions under U.N. and NATO command in Former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. He was a squadron commander of a German tactical squadron and is a command fighter pilot with over 2.500 hours on fighter and trainer aircraft.
Col. Weber is a graduate of the U.S. Air Command and Staff College. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations and a second Master’s Degree in Military Operational Art and Science.
Ran Zhao is the Learning Innovation and Impact Lead at the GCSP, having joined the GCSP in 2019. Charged with steering transformative educational strategies and initiatives, Ran is instrumental in driving the development and execution of innovative learning solutions. Her efforts not only enhance the learning experience but also contribute significantly to the broader impact of the organization.
In her capacity, Ran collaborates closely with internal experts and external speakers to craft engaging approaches across our diverse learning offerings. She is dedicated to supporting the professional development of colleagues, empowering them to deliver enriching learning experiences that prepare participants for their future careers. Moreover, she works in tandem with course directors to foster a culture of sharing best practices within the faculty community.
Driven by a profound passion for adult education and innovative learning methodologies, Ran holds a Master’s Degree in Adult Education from the University of Geneva, complemented by a second Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Teaching Method from Sichuan International Studies University in China. Proficient in Mandarin, English, and French, Ran brings a wealth of multicultural expertise to her role.