Larry Minear was co-founder of the Humanitarianism and War Project in 1991 and its director at the Feinstein International Center in Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy from September 2000 until the program’s closing in June 2006. He has worked on humanitarian and development issues since 1972, managing a post-conflict reconstruction program in the Sudan for an NGO, conducting advocacy activities in Washington DC, and serving as a consultant to NGOs, governments, and UN organizations. He has conducted research on many humanitarian emergencies and has written extensively for specialized and general audiences. His most recent books are The Humanitarian Enterprise: Dilemmas and Discoveries (Kumarian, 2002), a review of the work of the Humanitarianism and War Project, and, with Ian Smillie, The Charity of Nations: Humanitarian Action in a Calculating World (Kumarian, 2004), a study of the political economy of international assistance and protection activities.
Antonio Donini is Senior Researcher at the Feinstein International Center (FIC) at Tufts University, USA. He previously worked for 26 years in the United Nations in research, evaluation and humanitarian capacities. His last post was as Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to Afghanistan (199-2002). Before going to Afghanistan, he was Chief of the Lessons Learned Unit at OCHA, where he managed a programme of independent studies on the effectiveness of relief efforts. He has published widely on evaluation, humanitarian and UN reform issues. In 2004 he co-edited a volume on Nation-Building Unraveled? Aid, Peace and Justice in Afghanistan (Kumarian Press) and he has written several articles exploring the implications of the crises in Afghanistan and Iraq for the future of humanitarian action.
Masood Hyder worked for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) from 1984 to 2006. He was WFP Representative and deputy Humanitarian Coordinator, Sudan, 200-2002; UN Resident Coordinator, UN Humanitarian Coordinator and WFP Representative, North Korea, 2002-2004; and WFP Representative to the Bretton Woods Institutions, 2004-2006.
Terje Rod-Larsen has been President of the International Peace Academy (IPA) since January 2005. He serves concurrently as the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Implementation of the Security Council Resolution 1559. Mr. Rød-Larsen began his career as an academic, teaching sociology, political science and philosophy at the Universities of Bergen and Oslo, before establishing the Fafo Institute for Applied Sciences in Oslo in 1981. As Director of Fafo, Mr. Rød-Larsen initiated a research project into the living conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which led to a request by the PLO in 1992 that he help establish a secret channel for negotiations between the PLO and the Government of Israel. In 1993, Mr. Rød-Larsen was appointed Ambassador and Special Adviser for the Middle East Peace process to the Norwegian Foreign Minister. In mid-1994, he was appointed United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories at the rank of Under-Secretary-General. In 1996, Mr. Rød-Larsen became Norwegian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Planning and Cooperation, before re-joining the United Nations. From 1999 to December 2004, he served as UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, holding the rank of Under-Secretary-General.
.Jean-Marc Coicaud heads the United Nations University Office at the United Nations in New York. He was Senior Academic Officer in the Peace and Governance Programme at UNU in Tokyo from 1996 to 2003. Before joining UNU, he served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992-1996). A fellow at Harvard University from 1986to 1992 (Harvard Law School and Department of philosophy), Mr. Coicaud has held appointments such as Cultural Attaché with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Legislative Aide with the European Parliament (Financial Committee), Associate Professor at the University of Paris, and Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. He has been a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, and a Global Research Fellow at New York University School of Law. He is the author of a number of books, including L’introuvable démocratie autoritaire (1996), Politics and Legitimacy (2002). In 2006, he published a co-edited volume, with Daniel A. Bell, Ethics in Action. In 2007, he published Beyond the National Interest and, in Japanese, The Politics of International Solidarity. Coicaud holds a Ph.D. in Political Science-Law from the Sorbonne and a Doctorat d'Etat in philosophy from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Paris.
