Virtual education in a social distancing world is episode 2 in the new GCSP Podcast Series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Ms Alexandra Thiry, Head of Learning Innovation and Impact at the GCSP. They discuss virtual education, trends, innovation and learning methodology. Here are some resources she references in this podcast:
- https://sealifelong.web.app/
- TOPP Competencies for Live Online Trainers Source: LaBorie, K./Stone, T. 2015: Interact and Engage, ATD Press, pp 114-116
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/virtual-leadership-development-1-joel-nielsen/?trk=public_profile_article_view

Dr Paul Vallet: Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy podcast. Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow with the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative. I will accompany you on the next 12 weeks to explain some of the latest global issues affecting peace, security, and international cooperation. Speaking with subject matter experts following with our examination of a year of disruptions caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic after discussing last week, its lessons for sanitary crisis management. Today we'll focus on another aspect that has necessitated the handling not just of immediate effects, but also long-term ones, that of education. Education has been impacted across the globe and for all ages and types of courses, one year on in several countries, much concern has been expressed about the negative impact of the interruption of schooling from the first grade to the university. What if, however, this disruption has been the occasion for new opportunities and methods for education to endure? As international executive education features among the core missions with GCSP, today, I'm talking with Alexandra Thiry, who is the Head of Learning Innovation and Impact at the GCSP. She has held this position since 2016, After joining the GCSP in 2012, to support the senior management's implementation of strategic initiatives and partnerships. She's a certified learning professional with work experience with the International Committee of the Red Cross and then European External Action Service. Welcome to the podcast Alexandra. My first question to you is, are there specific ways in which the pandemic has impacted executive education and called for special solutions?

Ms Alexandra Thiry: Thank you so much for having me. I'm really delighted to be here and to participate in this podcast series about the impact of COVID-19 and specifically talk about executive education. Before coming to your question, let me first of all frame a little bit the context of where we are with executive education and COVID pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis has sustainably impacted literally every aspect of life. First, it has changed the way people connect. So, with all the restrictions on in-person gatherings, the digital tools have to a certain extent replace the human face to face experience in our everyday life. So, second pandemic has impacted how people communicate. And here I'm thinking of wearing masks whenever we are in public, and masking our facial expressions and the effect that this has on comprehending people's emotions and intentions, and specifically the impact this has on building trust, which is so important in the peace and security domain and also in diplomacy. Third, COVID-19 has changed the way people interact. So, the physical distancing, and also seeing people as potential sources of infection is certainly something that is new. And it also to a certain extent, impacts how we see executive education during this crisis. And finally, it has affected how people work. A survey from Deloitte, conducted in April 2020 revealed that the number of people working from home in Switzerland has doubled during the crisis.

Virtual education in a social distancing world

This episode marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the uprising in Syria. This is episode 3 in the new GCSP Podcast Series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews  Mr Kenneth R. Rosen is an award-winning foreign news correspondent, who reports especially from the Middle East for numerous publications, among which the New York Times New Yorker magazine, The Atlantic, VQR, and now Wired. His work has been translated into Arabic, Spanish, German, and Japanese, and he's the author of two books. He is also a digital fellow with the GCSP's Global Fellowship Initiative

Dr Paul Vallet: This week marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the uprising in Syria against the regime of Bashar Al Assad, in what was Syria’s part of what was then called the Arab Spring. The results of that spring have been varied in countries across the Middle East North Africa region. In Syria, Libya and Yemen, a civil war emerged from these initial uprisings in 2011, which, despite the varying levels of foreign involvement, have not died down. In terms of casualties and displaced people, Syria’s perhaps among the most complex one that is most edged on international conscience, especially when seeing from Europe. But how is it that the war is being perceived on the outside? How can the story be told when it has been so dangerous for journalists to cover it? To get an idea today, we're talking with Kenneth R. Rosen, who has recently joined to become a digital fellow for the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative.  This is a great favour in joining us from the region in the Middle East. So welcome to the podcast, Ken. My first question to you, of course, has to do with a bit of your work experience, but probably those of your fellows as well. Can you tell us what has been the experience and the role of foreign correspondents and reporting about the war in Syria?

Mr Kenneth R. Rosen: Sure, the former press corps is given a lot of access to campaigns and military movements and a lot of the upper political parties who are tied into the region and also into these conflicts writ large. If I if I can just go back a little bit in history, you know, the First World War in the Second World War, foreign correspondents on both sides were granted unprecedented access. I mean, you had AP and Reuters correspondents who were embedded with German troops. And there was a lot of transparency on either side there. And I'd like to mention that only because while we do have access to say the SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria or the Peshmerga, in northern Iraq, where I am calling you from today, it's just not the same as it was many years ago, even as even as recent as the invasion of Iraq with US forces, a lot of American media, we're able to embed with the forces and see upfront up close the multiple sides of the conflict. But now it's a little bit more restrained. There's more vetting going on between who's allowed in to report on different campaigns or different situations, such as the internally displaced people's camps within north-eastern Syria, you certainly can't report from regime controlled areas, and it's very difficult to report from Turkish-backed opposition controlled areas. There was a recent report in the New York Times when a correspondent and several other agencies were granted access to the Turkish areas. But generally speaking, it's very difficult. And when you are granted access, you're followed by miner and taken only to areas that are of interest to government agenda. So it's a lot of narratives are coming out of the region. And there are a lot of journalists who are doing really great work. And it's important work. But it's very limited given the situation and the types of parties who are involved with the conflict. You have Russia, you have Iran, you have northern Iraq, you had the autonomous administration in north-eastern Syria, you have the regime controlled areas of the government of Syria in the West.

10th anniversary of the beginning of the uprising in Syria

"Leadership and diversity in the workplace" is episode 5 in the new GCSP Podcast Series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Ingrid Gazquez, Leadership Portfolio Manager for the Geneva Leadership Alliance, the partnership between the GCSP and the Center for Creative Leadership. A Spanish lawyer by profession actively engaged in advancing individual rights and sustainable development, Ingrid has built this expertise through work in the private sector for the Mondelez Group's corporate life, the Sustainability Cocoa Program, but also in the non-profit sector, as a founder of the NGO Mundoz, and as a learning and development specialist supporting developing activities to strengthen developing countries to strengthen their health supply chains, with the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Malaria and tuberculosis. Ingrid is the course director for the April virtual edition of the “Lead and Influence with Impact” or LIMPACT Course (Register here: https://bit.ly/3lwtXXS)

Leadership and diversity in the workplace

A new Tropical Industrial Revolution in Latin America is episode 4 in this new GCSP Podcast Series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Mr Alvaro Cedeno Molinari, Narratives Futurist and Co-Founder at Perfectible.io and former Ambassador of Costa Rica to the World Trade Organisation.

Dr Paul Vallet: Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow with the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative. For the next week, I will be talking with the subject matter experts to explain issues regarding peace, security and international cooperation. Thanks for tuning in once again. In following issues of international security and cooperation to GCSP shows a has a keen interest in diverse regions of the international community. And today we're focused our eye on Latin America from which several personalities and practitioners have contributed to our activities, both in training and reflection. Of course, being joined by such personality today is Mr Alvaro Cedeno Molinari, Co-founder of perfectible.io, who is speaking to us from Costa Rica. While today, he works as a narrative futurist and I'm sure we'll all be very interested in discovering what this new activity is like, keeping watch on current issues, and especially those that surround climate change on which he focused while an Executive in Residence at the GCSP in 2019. Alvaro worked for over 10 years for the Costa Rican trade and diplomatic service, rising in the ranks to where reached out of Ambassador with service respectively in Beijing, Tokyo, the OECD, and finally as the Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the WTO in Geneva. So welcome to the podcast Alvaro. It's very nice to see you again.

Mr Alvaro Cedeno Molinari: Thank you, Paul, it's great to talk to you again and to see you again. It's unbelievable that it's been almost a year since we met last.

Dr Paul Vallet: Indeed. So of course, we're going to be keenly interested in seeing what your eye from your home country is like on several the events that have touched us all. So of course, my first question to you would be, of course, as a narrative futurist, but also in your identity as a Latin American, what are the principal human and environmental security challenges that you would identify as our priority concerns today? 

Mr Alvaro Cedeno Molinari: The first thing I would say is that Latin America was not very well prepared for pandemic. And the most striking fact about that unpreparedness is that less than 50% of Latin American citizens have access to universal health care or to healthcare in any way. So, when you have such levels of widespread vulnerability, a pandemic can do much harm, let alone talk about the economic vulnerabilities that are part of the system as well. So, the impact of COVID-19 has probably pushed Latin America in developmental terms a couple of decades back. So, I would say that's definitely a challenge. But beyond COVID, I would say that Latin America has, ill preparedness for climate shocks for the climate crisis that we're in. And this is something that we are still very, very good on time in order to prepare better because Latin America possesses probably 40% of all of the Earth's freshwater, about 50% of all of the world's rain forests, sufficient arable land to feed the entire planet. So, it's easy to argue that Latin America could very well be the future of human life on Earth. But on top of that, challenge, slash opportunity, there is a severe security challenge that we've been facing for the last 40 years, which is drug trafficking. And it's only getting worse. It doesn't matter how you call it, how you finance it. Drug trafficking is the nuclear bomb that detonated in Latin America, and this is killing our youth. This is destroying our families and our communities. This is infiltrating our public institutions.

A new Tropical Industrial Revolution in Latin America

Security of the mind is episode 7 in the new GCSP Podcast Series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Dr Hani Dabbagh, Digital Strategist.

Dr Paul Vallet: I'm joined by Dr Hani Dabbagh. But to Hani Dabbagh, was an Executive in Residence at the GCSP in 2019 and is now an Alumnus Fellow is a digital strategist. After his PhD in information engineering and electronics, he began a lengthy career with Hewlett Packard rising from system engineer to digital business development manager. He then became an independent consultant and senior advisor to companies. As an early adopter of web 2.0 for marketing campaigns, he has focused his attention on the impact of disruptive digital technology on customer behaviour, and how to harness it for business benefit. This comes with an increased attention to what he calls “Cyber security of the mind"

Dr Hani Dabbagh: Thanks very much for the invitation.

Dr Paul Vallet: Well, to begin our conversation, my first question to you is what is the state of cyber security of the mind today for individuals, cooperation’s, or organisations? Do you think the basic problem have been given solutions? Or are you concerned with a newer generation of issues?

Dr Hani Dabbagh: Thanks Paul. I mean, first of all, I think there is a serious security breach of our minds that I don't believe has really been fully grasped by the population, I use that term a little bit tongue in cheek, I like to use the term cyber security because it catches the attention of so many today. But I'm not really talking about cyber security of systems, of IT systems, I really am talking about a security breach of our minds. It's really a breach that's hiding in plain sight. And I think it has serious, far reaching consequences to our democracy, and to our society as a whole. So, I don't really believe that this is really fully under control today. The whole things really started around 2007, when there was a kind of coming together, alignment of the of the planets, as it were, with the introduction of the iPhone, Android, Kindle, Twitter, Facebook started opening up. And in those days, we went from the dial up connection to the “always connected”. And then for people a lot younger than me, this might sound a little bit strange. But there was a time when we were not always connected, we actually had to have a modem and plug it in the wall like we hear that noise connecting us to the internet. This we take for granted today. But we were not always connected. Once we're always connected, it then becomes very easily, always trackable. And once we were always trackable, then we're always profiled. And we really then go from one stage to the next to become predictive, predictable, we are able to predict, very accurately when you will change back, you will able to predict when you will stop your subscription, it's actually predictable. And Amazon can ship your product before you even order it. And from there, we became manipulable. All that really has come from that large amounts of data collection that has been going on, and we get raw data. And in get out of that, deduce from that really a lot of behavioural knowledge and inferences about us is what we sometimes call the attention economy. Or I like to call it the “no free lunch economy”, whereby we're getting these so called free products free for us to use but come at a very big cost and what I call a kind of a Faustian deal, where we're selling our souls for something that has a huge cost to us. And whereas a lot of people today are aware of micro targeting of advertising advertisements, people are aware that it was nice to have an ad of a product that I enjoy or will enjoy.

Security of the mind

"We each at a credit card amount of microplastics every week" is episode 9 in the new GCSP Podcast Series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Mr Alexander Verbeeek, climate and environment expert and Associate Fellow with the GCSP's Global Fellowship Initiative

Dr Paul Vallet: Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy weekly podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow with the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative. For the next few weeks, I'm talking with subject matter experts explain issues of peace, security, and international cooperation. Thanks for tuning in. This past week, we marked Earth Day and the US President Joe Biden convened the virtual summit of 40 leaders to underscore the renewed participation of the United States in international environmental and climate change negotiations. The environment is a global cause that historically has been marked both by raising awareness and concrete action. To discuss this, I'm joined today by Mr. Alexander Verbeek. As well as being an Associate Fellow in the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative. He led the virtual journey in Addressing Challenges in Global Health Security earlier this month. Alexander for bake is a Dutch environmentalist, writer, public speaker, diplomat, and former strategic policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1992 to 2016. Over the past 30 years, he has worked on international security, humanitarian and geopolitical risk issues and the linkage to the years accelerating environmental crisis. Currently, Alexander is writer-editor of the planet, a newsletter about threats to our environment, as well as the beauty of nature. He is Policy Director of the Environment and Development Resource Center in Brussels, and also an independent advisor on climate security, water, food, energy and resources for governments, businesses, think tanks and civil society agencies. Alexander founded the Institute for Planetary Security and developed the Planetary Security Initiative, leading the team that prepared the first planetary security conference in the Hague’s Peace Palace in November of 2015. He is a world Fellow at Yale University and has been a fellow and associate of the Stockholm Environment Institute, the Stockholm International water Institute, a visiting fellow at Uppsala University, and on the board of advisors of several international environmental initiatives with an online following on all social media of more than 400,000. We're fortunate to have him with us despite his busy schedule. Welcome to the podcast. Alexander.

Mr Alexander Verbeek: Thank you.

Dr Paul Vallet: My first question to you relating to indeed this activity, as a great communicator for all things, environmental, I was going to ask you, if I could, you know, use quotation marks around the term influencing and we talked about this before, but I wanted to ask you whether influencing represents for you a new form of international advocacy for the environment. 

Mr Alexander Verbeek: I don't think it's new. I think environmentalism has always been about influencing. So, you should start with the first environmentalist, but John Muir is the first name that that comes up because… I wrote about it a couple of days ago. I mean, if you look at John Muir, we talked them about, you know, late 19th century, activism to preserve the environment. So, you know, he couldn't send out tweets, but he wrote books and poems, and he was writing to the people in Washington to preserve nature. And he actually, well it was actually Teddy Roosevelt's idea. He contacted him to actually go out there in nature together, or think about, let's say, Rachel Carson with Silent Spring, I mean, that was still the days of, you know, book writing for influencing and activism. So, I think the causes may that we fight for may have changed in the methodology, but the basic principle of that you have to influence I think that's still there.

"We each eat a credit card amount of microplastics every week"

European approaches to internatiolnal security and defence is episode 10 in the new GCSP Podcast Series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Colonel Markus Schneider of Germany and Senior Defence Advisor to the GCSP,

Dr Paul Vallet: Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy weekly podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow with the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative. For the next few weeks, I'm talking with subject matter experts to explain issues of peace, security, and international cooperation. Thanks for tuning in. This coming week, May 9 is marked as Europe Day, 71st anniversary of the presentation by French Foreign Minister and “Father of Europe”, Robert Schuman of the draft Schuman Plan, which sealed post-war European reconciliation, reconstruction, and integration. In 76 years since the end of the Second World War, Europe has evolved to become a more peaceful and secure region and aspires also to provide more security for itself and its partners. To discuss this, I'm pleased to be joined today by Colonel Markus Schneider. Colonel Schneider is currently the Senior Defence Advisor to the GCSP, where he was seconded by the German Armed Forces the Bundeswehr in June 2020. Colonel Schneider is a graduate of the German Armed Forces, Command and Staff College in Hamburg, and comes to us after completing his latest command of the Logistics Department of the Rapid Forces Division in Stadenhoff. He's exercised an impressive number of command positions in operations abroad as well, in Kosovo, in Iraq, in representation at NATO, the EU and also in Israel, where he attended the National Staff College. And of course, as an instructor at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Hamburg, the Bundeswehr University in Munich, and , I believe all of this has been quite a fitting preparation for you for your tasks now at the GCSP. So, it's a real pleasure to have you for your insights here today. Welcome to the podcast.

European approaches to international security and defence

"A Yazidi woman's survival story" is episode 11 in the new GCSP Podcast Series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Ms Adiba Qasim, Yazidi genocide survivor, asylum seeker and Young Leader in Foreign and Security Policy at the GCSP.

Dr Paul Vallet: Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy weekly podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow in the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative. For the next few weeks, I'm talking with subject matter experts to explain issues of peace, security and international cooperation. Thank you, listeners, for tuning in. A few weeks from now, we'll be seeing an anniversary of an event that stunned the Middle East and the wider world, when jihadist fighters of ISIS overran Mosul and much of northern Iraq upending the lives of millions among which the Yazidi people living around Mount Sinjar this event began the odyssey of the guest. I'm very pleased to welcome on this week's podcast Ms Adiba Qasim. Adiba Qasim is one of the Global Fellowship Initiative’s “Young Leaders in Foreign and Security Policy”. Born into a Yazidi family of the Sinjar district in northern Iraq, she was about to begin her university studies in Mosul in 2014 when ISIS captured the area, forcing her to flee alongside members of her family. Undaunted by her displacement, she then became a freelance journalist as well as assistant to foreign media covering the Kurdish, Iraq government and coalition forces counter-offensive that resulted in the retrieval of Mosul in 2016 and 2017. She also worked with the Yazidi survivors who were held in captivity by Islamic state, as well as forcefully recruited child soldiers of ISIS. She is an asylum seeker in Switzerland she has been sponsored and arrived at the GCSP in the autumn of 2018. She has since enrolled at the University of Geneva and continues to testify on behalf of her community. She has been profiled by both Swiss television and print media, most recently the Tribune de Genève. Adiba Qasim’s story and accomplishments have mightily impressed us all at the GCSP. And it is the further this that I'm very pleased to speak with you this week. So welcome again, Adiba, welcome to the podcast.

A Yazidi woman's survival story

"Weapons negotiations in the midst of global conflict" is episode 12 in this GCSP Podcast Series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Mr Marc Finaud, Head of Arms Proliferation at the GCSP and former French diplomat.

Dr Paul Vallet: Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy weekly podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow with the GCSP’s Global Fellowship Initiative. For the next few weeks, I'm talking with subject- matter experts to explain issues of peace, security, and international cooperation. Thanks for tuning in. Current tensions and flashpoints across the globe remind us not only that escalations into armed confrontations are possible, they also feed the technological development of weapons. And the recent years have also shown that negotiations and efforts at arms control can stall or even suffer setbacks, yet the crises are also the reason that they need to be kept going or to resume. To discuss the situation, I'm joined this week by Marc Finaud. Marc Finaud is the Head of Arms Proliferation activities on the staff of the GCSP. He is a former French diplomat, who was seconded to the GCSP from 2004 to 2013. Mr Marc Finaud joined the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs back in 1977. And along with postings in Leningrad, as was then, Warsaw, Tel Aviv and Sydney, much of his career was connected to the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and also the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, as well as to the French delegation to the United Nations. As well as a diplomat and practitioner Marc Finaud was a lecturer on arms control and disarmament for a postgraduate course at Marne-la-Vallée University. And along with frequent media appearances, he is a very prolific author of numerous articles chapters of books on arms control and disarmament, as well as on the Middle East and International Humanitarian Law. In addition, from August 2013 to May 2015, Marc Finaud was a senior resident fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). Throughout this year, Marc Finaud is leading the July and November courses on Building Arms control capacities in the Middle East and North Africa region, and two in April and December on building capacities for effective implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty. So, you see, we have here a very knowledgeable person on the issues of arms control. So, thank you very much for taking time to join us. And welcome to the podcast Marc.

Weapons negotiations in the midst of global conflict

"Governance and international influence of Africa" is episode 13 in this GCSP podcast series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Dr Delidji Eric Degila Senior Researcher, Global Migration Centre; Visiting Lecturer, International Relations/Political Science; Research Associate, Centre on Conflict, Development And Peacebuilding

Dr Paul Vallet: Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy weekly podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow in the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative. For the next few weeks, I'm talking with subject matter experts on issues of peace, security, and international cooperation. Thanks for tuning in. For observers of international relations and development, Africa is never out of the news. The recent past has been rich with more developments from several presidential elections to the offensive of jihadist fighters reaching Mozambique, Ethiopia's dispute with neighbouring countries or on the Nile basin water management, are among many issues affecting human security. I'm joined today by Dr Delidji Eric Degila who has been one of the experts on Africa addressing the Leadership and International Security Course this year at the GCSP. Dr Degila is with the Geneva Graduate Institute of International Relations and Development, where he's a visiting lecturer in the Department of International Relations and Political Science, a senior researcher with the Global Migration Center, and a research associate with the Center on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding. He focuses his work on state building, on armed conflicts, religion and politics, migration, foreign policies and international organisations and on global health and development. His academic career spans both Africa as an associate professor at the École Nationale d'Administration et de Magistrature du Benin, but also here in Geneva, also in France, in Morocco, in Mexico, and also two distinguished universities in Japan, Waseda and Sophia. He also advised several international organisations including the African Union. Welcome to the podcast Dr Degila and thank you for joining us today.

Governance and international influence of Africa

International Geneva and the Biden-Putin Summit is episode 14 in this GCSP podcast series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Ms Alexandra Matas, Head of Effective Governance at the GCSP.

Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy weekly podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow in the Global Fellowship Initiative. For the next few weeks, I'm talking with subject matter experts to discuss issues of peace, security and international cooperation. Thanks for tuning in. Early last week, it was confirmed that the presidents of the United States and of the Russian Federation Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will hold their first summit meeting since Biden's inauguration here in Geneva on June 16. This has been hailed in Switzerland as a new occasion for Geneva to play an important role in US-Russian relations, as it often has in the past. The current state of tension between the two powers and the many issues of global scale, which they need to discuss, especially on arms control and counter proliferation, also mean that the Geneva Summit will be closely watched by international observers. It is also worth recalling that the 1985 Summit held also in Geneva between Mikael Gorbachev for the USSR and Ronald Reagan for the United States, served as another epiphany for Swiss diplomacy, and was the origins of the launch of the International Training Course around which the GCSP itself would be formed a decade later. Our podcast will discuss this in a forthcoming edition. To discuss the importance of this forthcoming summit. I'm joined today by Ms Alexandra Matas, the Head of the Effective Governance cluster at the GCSP. Alexandra Matas, who is originally Russian, trained in both Public Relations and International Affairs at the Russian State University of Physical Education, Sports and Tourism and at the Geneva Graduawte Institute of International and Development Studies, and she joined the GCSP staff full time in 2011. She has coordinated the activities of the programmes on Security and Law and WMD and disarmament respectively. She's been a short course coordinator, and more recently, the course director in Effective Governance in either English or French language courses for state officials from different countries. She also designs dialogue events in Geneva and internationally on the topic of European Security, OSCE conflict prevention mechanisms, and post war reconstruction in Syria. Her research interests include the European security architecture, Russia and the post-Soviet states. She joins us in the midst of a busy agenda this week. So we're very fortunate to have her as a guest. Welcome to the podcast, Alexandra.

International Geneva and the Biden-Putin Summit

"GCSP & Swiss Security Policy: Building Expertise, Confidence and Communities" is episode 15 in the 2021 GCSP Podcast Series. Col Christian Bühlmann interviews Ambassador Teddy Winkler.

To mark the 35th anniversary of the GCSPs flagship course – founded as SIPOLEX, later the International Training Course in Security Policy (ITC), and now the Leadership in International Security Course (LISC) - we spoke with Ambassador Theodore Winkler, the GCSP’s first Director, whose role was crucial in founding the course. Ambassador Winkler shared his insights on the origins of the course, in the wake of the 1985 Geneva Summit, its role in contributing to Swiss Foreign policy, as well as expectations for the upcoming summit between Presidents Biden and Putin.

GCSP & Swiss Security Policy: Building Expertise, Confidence and Communities

"Latin America and transnational organised crime" is episode 17 in the 2021 GCSP Podcast Series where Dr Paul Vallet interviews Professor Realuyo is Professor of Practice at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies at the National Defense University in the United States

Dr Paul Vallet: Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy weekly podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow with the Global Fellowship Initiative. For the next few weeks, I'm talking with subject matter experts to discuss issues of peace, security and international cooperation. Thank you, listeners for tuning in. As you may have heard, a successful law enforcement operation led worldwide by the US, European, Australian and New Zealand police forces has just concluded against international organised crime and drug trafficking networks, reminding us that the global importance of allied forces in fighting transnational crime. So, to discuss this I'm joined today by one of our guest speakers at this year's recently concluded Leadership in International Security Course, Professor Celina Realuyo. Professor Realuyo is Professor of Practice at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies at the National Defense University in the United States, where she focuses on US national security, illicit networks, transnational organised crime, counterterrorism, and threat finance issues in the Americas. She's a former US diplomat, also an international banker with Goldman Sachs, US counterterrorism official, and Professor of International Security Affairs at the National Defense Georgetown, George Washington, and Joint Special Operations Universities. Professor Realuyo has over two decades of experience in international public, private and academic sectors. She's a regular commentator in the international media, including CNN en Espanol, Deutsche Welle, Foreign Policy, Reuters and Univision and has testified before the US Congress on national security, terrorism and crime issues. Professor Realuyo is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, International Institute for Strategic Studies and women in international security. She has travelled to over 70 countries, she speaks English, French, Spanish, and is convergent in Italian, German, Filipino and Arabic. So, with all that combined knowledge, I think you will give us some fabulous insight into transnational crime. So welcome to the podcast, professor. And thank you for joining us today.

Latin America and transnational organised crime

Listen to this special edition podcast with multiple experts providing analyses on the Biden-Putin Summt in Geneva on 16 June 2021. This is episode 16 in the 2021 GCSP Podcast Series.

Dr Paul Vallet: Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy weekly podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow in the Global Fellowship Initiative. As you all know, on the 16th of June 2021, Geneva hosted the first in person meeting of President of the United States Joe Biden, and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. This was the first in person meeting of the two leaders since Biden's election to the presidency of the US. It was a Summit which had generated a lot of interest a lot of coverage, over 3,000 journalists converged on Geneva for what was billed as an important and historical landmark meeting that was in line with previous US-Soviet meetings in Geneva, in 1955, and 1985. Much was expected and much was on the agenda for this meeting for which the Swiss government played host. During the day, the GCSP joined the array of commentators for this event, by constituting a specially dedicated newsroom in which we coordinated a lot of the views of our different experts and relayed also interviews given to the local and international press. We've also produced a series of video commentaries virtually live to offer on-the-moment comment, especially following the two press conferences that the leaders held separately in the evening of June 16, before they returned to their respective countries. So, today's podcast is a little bit because we've decided to rebroadcast some of these views to give you of course, what our experts see as the important takeaways from the Summit.

Experts analyse the Biden-Putin Summit in Geneva

"Peacebuilding through arts and culture" is episode 18 in the 2021 GCSP Podcast Series where Dr Paul Vallet interviews Dr Rama Mani Convenor, Enacting Global Transformation, Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford; Founder, Theatre of Transformation Academy; Co-Founder, Home for Humanity; Founding Councilor, World Future Council.

Advancing global security through arts and culture

"Global health security: COVID-19 and beyond" is the final episode in this podcast series where Dr Paul Vallet interviews Dr Johanna Ralston, CEO; World Obesity Foundation.

Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy weekly podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, Associate Fellow in the Global Fellowship Initiative. For the past weeks this spring, I've been talking with subject matter experts to discuss issues of peace, security and international cooperation. Thanks for tuning in. In recent days, since this spring and the beginning of our weekly podcast, the rollout of vaccinations, however unequal in different parts of the world, has given us hope about the COVID 19 pandemic. It is also the time to reckon with other major public health questions that were side-lined by our preoccupations with the pandemic. As some of these concerns our everyday lives and can easily affect each of us and to remind us there are other ways to take care of ourselves, my guest today is Johanna Ralston, Johanna Ralston, who is currently the CEO of the World Obesity Foundation since 2017, has over 25 years’ experience in global health and development. She is a global leader in advocating for non-communicable diseases and a dual Swedish and US citizen. After training at the Harvard Business School and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her career took her  to the American Cancer Society, they were set up global programs on cancer and tobacco control projects in more than 30 countries. she proceeded on to the World Heart Foundation based in Geneva, which was appointed CEO in 2011. Working closely with the World Health Organization and other UN agencies tackling cardiovascular diseases. She was instrumental in implementing the Non-Communicable Diseases Declaration adopted that year and worked to place strong targets on cardiovascular disease mortality reduction in the WHO Global Action Plan, and the Sustainable Development Goals. She has worked and published with many institutions devoted to medicine and public health. And at least she's been a member of the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative, for a few years now. So, it's nice to welcome you, Johanna, to the podcast. And thank you for speaking with us today.

Global health security: COVID-19 and beyond

What are frozen conflicts? Did you know that over 3 million people living in Eurasia today are affected by frozen conflicts? Their lives have been frozen in these conditions of political uncertainty and insecurity because while these armed conflicts have been suspended, no peace treaties have been agreed upon to permanently end them.

In this episode, we are honoured to have Ambassador Thomas Greminger, Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and former Secretary General of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from 2017 to 2020, to shed light on how to harness the potential of trade for peace in frozen conflicts.



With a lifelong career in peace and security, Ambassador Greminger shares with us his views on frozen conflicts in Eurasia and how trade can be used as a confidence-building measure (CBM) in peacebuilding.



Guest: Ambassador Thomas Greminger, Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and former Secretary General of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Host: Mr. Axel M. Addy, Former Minister of Commerce and Industry and Chief Negotiator of Liberia's accession to the WTO.

Ambassador Greminger interviewed on Trade for Peace Podcast: Season 2, Episode 1

GCSP insights: the secret war on fake medicine as well as Pakistan's foreign policy. 

The counterfeit drug market is worth around $200 billion according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Ambassador Jean-David Levitte who has recently been appointed the new President of GCSP’s Foundation Council  discusses the secret war on counterfeit medicine.

Also in this episode, His Excellency Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, shares with the GCSP about Pakistan's regional challenges including in the Kashmir region.

Episode 1: The secret war on fake medicine and other stories

GCSP insights: This man ran a secret blog while hiding from ISIS and the question do nuclear weapons really keep us safe? 

Omar Mohammed might be the bravest historian alive today. For more than two years, Mohammed lived in his home city of Mosul, Iraq, secretly documenting the occupation by Islamic State militants. However, rather than just collecting intelligence, Mohammed risked his life to write an anonymous online blog, Mosul Eye, that became one of the main sources of information for the outside world about life inside the city, including for foreign journalists.

Ray Acheson is the Director of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom’s (WILPF) Disarmament Programme. Speaking with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Acheson said the notion of nuclear deterrence is outdated and dangerous.

Episode 2: This man ran a secret blog while hiding from ISIS and other stories

We hear the terms “Cyber 9-11” and “Digital Pearl Harbor” but what do policy makers actually do the day after a crisis? The Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge is an annual cyber policy competition for students to compete in developing national security policy recommendations, tackling a fictional cyber incident. We had the chance to speak to Chelsey Slack, Deputy Head of the Cyber Defence Unit at NATO. And as the global security environment is changing at a fast pace, actors need to move from spending too much time reacting to more proactively identifying the emerging security issues that may affect them. We spoke to Dr Wendy Schulz, who is the Director at Infinite Futures on issues surrounding international security policy also Dr Bastian Geigrich Director of Defence and Military Analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Episode 11: Cyber security, strategic foresight and other stories

The smuggling of migrants is a global concern, with a large number of countries affected by it as origin, transit or destination points. Profit seeking criminals smuggle migrants across borders. Assessing the real size of this crime is a complex matter. We discussed this issue with Tuesday Reitano, Deputy Director of a Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, and as there are current challenges to European security and the rise of populist political movements, we spoke to Professor René Schowk, University of Geneva and Director of the Master of Advanced Studies in International and European studies at the Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva in partnership with the GCSP’s Leadership in International Security Course.

Episode 14 - Transnational organised crime and other stories

The Wassenaar Arrangement was created to promote regional and international security and stability by adding export controls on conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies. We discuss its functions with Ambassador Philipp Griffiths, Head of the Secretariat of The Wassenaar Arrangement.  And as decisions by global leaders have the potential to leave us questioning legal dimensions, we discuss the role of a legal adviser with former Judge Advocate General of the Candian Armed Forces, Maj General (retired) Blaise Cathcart.

Episode 23: Wassenaar Arrangement and Legal Advisors

As‌ ‌the‌ ‌global‌ ‌arms‌ ‌trade‌ ‌continues‌ ‌to‌ ‌soar,‌ ‌efforts‌ ‌towards‌ ‌disarmament‌ ‌
have‌ ‌become‌ ‌more‌ ‌urgent.‌ ‌We‌ ‌speak‌ ‌with‌ ‌‌Brian‌ ‌Wood,‌ ‌Manager‌ ‌of‌ ‌Arms‌ ‌Control,‌ ‌Security‌ ‌Trade‌ ‌and‌ ‌Human‌ ‌Rights‌ ‌with‌ ‌Amnesty‌ ‌International.‌ ‌We‌ ‌discuss‌ ‌the‌ ‌creation‌ ‌and‌ ‌evolution‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌Arms‌ ‌Trade‌ ‌Treaty.‌ ‌

Episode 28: Creating the Arms Trade Treaty

Discover our 25th anniversary celebrations: https://bit.ly/34EJdel

Welcome‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌Geneva‌ ‌Centre‌ ‌for‌ ‌Security‌ ‌Policy‌ ‌Podcast.‌ ‌I’m‌ ‌Ashley‌ ‌Muller,‌ ‌host‌ ‌of‌ ‌this‌ ‌Podcast,‌ ‌thank‌ ‌you‌ ‌for‌ ‌tuning‌ ‌in!‌ ‌25‌ ‌years‌ ‌ago,‌ ‌we‌ ‌began‌ ‌our‌ ‌journey‌ ‌promoting‌ ‌peace‌ ‌and‌ ‌security‌ ‌around‌ ‌the‌ ‌world.‌ ‌Much‌ ‌has‌ ‌happened‌ ‌over‌ ‌the‌ ‌last‌ ‌25‌ ‌years,‌ ‌and‌ ‌in‌ ‌2020‌ ‌it‌ ‌is‌ ‌even‌ ‌more‌ ‌obvious‌ ‌as‌ ‌we‌ ‌face‌ ‌The‌ ‌New‌ ‌Normal.‌ ‌It's‌ ‌Anything‌ ‌But.‌ ‌I‌ ‌am‌ ‌happy‌ ‌to‌ ‌present‌ ‌to‌ ‌you‌ ‌this‌ ‌brand-new‌ ‌podcast‌ ‌series‌ ‌that‌ ‌we‌ ‌have‌ ‌developed,‌ ‌which‌ ‌is‌ ‌a‌ ‌special‌ ‌anniversary‌ ‌series‌ ‌
highlighting‌ ‌25‌ ‌years‌ ‌of‌ ‌peace‌ ‌and‌ ‌security‌ ‌in‌ ‌our‌ ‌world.‌ ‌My‌ ‌hope‌ ‌for‌ ‌you‌ ‌is‌ ‌that‌ ‌the‌ ‌topics‌ ‌covered,‌ ‌and‌ ‌the‌ ‌experts‌ ‌consulted,‌ ‌shed‌ ‌light‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌reality‌ ‌that‌ ‌only‌ ‌together‌ ‌can‌ ‌we‌ ‌create‌ ‌a‌ ‌safer‌ ‌world.‌ ‌ ‌

In‌ ‌the‌ ‌meantime,‌ ‌don’t‌ ‌forget‌ ‌to‌ ‌subscribe‌ ‌to‌ ‌us‌ ‌on‌ ‌Apple‌ ‌iTunes,‌ ‌follow‌ ‌us‌ ‌on‌ ‌Spotify‌ ‌and‌ ‌SoundCloud‌ ‌and‌ ‌across‌ ‌all‌ ‌of‌ ‌our‌ ‌social‌ ‌media‌ ‌channels‌ ‌which‌ ‌you‌ ‌can‌ ‌find‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌episode‌ ‌description.‌ ‌I’m‌ ‌Ashley‌ ‌Müller‌ ‌with‌ ‌the‌ ‌Geneva‌ ‌Centre‌ ‌for‌ ‌Security‌ ‌Policy,‌ ‌until‌ ‌next‌ ‌time,‌ ‌bye‌ ‌

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25 years ago, the GCSP began its journey advancing peace and security around the world. Today in 2020, our unique international community of experts, decision-makers and key players is a powerful source of knowledge, innovation and leadership, with a real ability to make a difference.

The New Normal? Let’s think and act, together.

We invite you to start now! Join us for a multitude of entirely customisable digital experiences including webinars, panels, Q&A interactions, discussions and more. Happening across the globe from 25 to 27 November featuring insights from over 50 experts in peace and security. Register here: https://bit.ly/34EJdel

As we learn from the past, navigate the present and prepare for future security challenges, we know that #OnlyTogether we can create a safer world.

25 years GCSP: Special Anniversary Series Trailer

Intro Episode - Health and Inclusion Mini-Series

Discover our 25th anniversary celebrations: bit.ly/34EJdel

Welcome to the introduction episode of this mini-series on Health and Inclusion, part of the GCSP’s 25th-anniversary special podcast series. I’m your host Ashley Müller. In this mini-series, episode one will explore health, COVID-19 and inclusion and episode two discusses diversity and policy.

Also in this mini-series, we have the pleasure of speaking with Johanna Ralston, Associate Fellow with the GCSP's Global Fellowship Initiative, on the topic of health and inclusion. She is joined by Ms Fleur Heyworth, Head of Gender and Inclusive Security at the GCSP, where she is also the Course Director of the Leverage Diversity for Increased Performance and Inspiring Women Leaders executive course and virtual learning journey.

Johanna Ralston brings 25 years of experience in global health and development, most recently as CEO of the World Obesity Foundation, former CEO of World Heart Federation and Vice Chair, NCD Alliance. Johanna is a global leader in noncommunicable disease advocacy, and her accomplishments include launching the first ever capacity building programme for cancer control organizations in low and middle income countries, strategic leadership of the NCD Alliance as Vice Chair and steering group member for six years, elevating CVD on the global agenda as CEO of the World Heart Federation, oversight of global tobacco control efforts at American Cancer Society including the first major initiative to receive BMGF support in Africa, and cofounder of Cervical Cancer Action and RHD Action, both multi-stakeholder alliances which successfully accelerated access and increased prioritization around cervical cancer and rheumatic heart disease.
Join Fleur and Johanna for this important mini-series on health and inclusion.
 
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25 years ago, the GCSP began its journey advancing peace and security around the world. Today in 2020, our unique international community of experts, decision-makers and key players is a powerful source of knowledge, innovation and leadership, with a real ability to make a difference.

The New Normal? Let’s think and act, together.

We invite you to start now! Join us for a multitude of entirely customisable digital experiences including webinars, panels, Q&A interactions, discussions and more. Happening across the globe from 25 to 27 November featuring insights from over 50 experts in peace and security. Register here: bit.ly/34EJdel

As we learn from the past, navigate the present and prepare for future security challenges, we know that #OnlyTogether we can create a safer world.

25 years GCSP: Health and Inclusion - Introduction

Intro episode - Towards an Evidence-Based Arms Control and Disarmament
Discover our 25th anniversary celebrations: bit.ly/34EJdel

Welcome to the introduction episode of this mini-series on Towards Evidence-based Arms Control and Disarmament part of the GCSP’s 25th-anniversary special podcast series, I’m your host Ashley Müller. This mini-series, originally prepared for Geneva Peace Week was made in partnership with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and the Small Arms Survey. 

In this mini-series, episode one will provide an overview of arms control and disarmament and data for arms control & disarmament verification with Marc Finaud, Head of Arms Proliferation at the GCSP

In episode two Laurence Marzal, Programme Officer at the Inter-Parliamentary Union will discuss the role of Parliaments in arms control and disarmament

In episode three we will speak with Matthias Nowak, a Researcher at the Small Arms Survey and he will provide an overview of Small Arms and Light Weapons 

Episode four will feature Honourable Raphael Chegeni, member of Parliament in Tanzania will discuss Parliamentary Work in arms control and disarmament affairs and good practices in Parliament

In episode five we will speak with Anne-Severine Fabre is a Data Expert at the Small Arms Survey and will provide an overview on Sustainable Development Goal 16, targets and indicators.

Episode six, our bonus episode, we have the pleasure to speak with Senator Marilou McPhedron, with the Senate of Canada as she discussed Parliamentary Work in arms control, disarmament affairs and good practices in Parliament

Our world is severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic. In this context, emotions, fake news and post-truth have gained traction. This is why it is important that policy-makers resort to the best available evidence to make the right policy decisions. This also applies to the field of arms control and disarmament. Evidence can be scientific research, but also statistical data, citizen voices, and evaluation evidence. Policy includes legislation but also oversight, resource allocation, regulations and strategies. All of these are of the utmost importance to design an arms control and disarmament policy followed by effective action and positive outcomes for people or for strengthening confidence in compliance with international obligations.
To ensure that the use of evidence is embedded into a “business-as-usual” routine, several components need to be in place: First, Good quality, well-designed, and robust research evidence; Transparency and easy access to the data; A rationalised agenda, shifting from emotion-based to evidence-informed decisions for action

For these steps to materialize, researchers and policymakers need to cooperate and make the most out of what they can provide. Examples can include: data on illicit arms trafficking to reach SDG16 targets; multi-stakeholder approaches to the biological risk; work on the verification of nuclear disarmament; research on potential new chemical weapons, etc. Our experts will now address how this requirement for evidence is relevant to various arms control and disarmament frameworks regarding both weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, biological and chemical), and conventional weapons. 

Follow along on this mini-series and join these experts in our studio.

25 years GCSP: Towards an Evidence-Based Arms Control and Disarmament - Introduction

Welcome to this mini-series ‘Tea at 1325’ to explore the Women Peace and Security Agenda (WPS), twenty years after the United Nations Security Council passed the landmark resolution, 1325.  The series is hosted by Lisa Larson, Women Peace and Security Fellow.  Lisa has the pleasure of speaking with a number of experts who have been advancing the agenda within international organisations and civil society, as well as youth.
Lisa has extensive experience in leadership development and is participating in GCSP activities and research to contribute to the empowerment of women and more inclusive peace, security and international cooperation.  Through these interviews, she introduces different personal experiences and perspectives on the WPS agenda, from peacekeeping operations to peace movements, and asks experts ‘what next?’ at a time when we know we cannot wait for change.  We hope that you will find the series informative and inspiring. 
Mr Serge Stroobants is the Director of Operations for Europe & MENA, Institute for Economics and Peace

https://www.economicsandpeace.org/
http://visionofhumanity.org/reports/
https://positivepeace.academy/

“Tea at 1325”:  IEP’s Serge Stroobants discusses the data: What we know about peace and gender

Welcome to this mini-series ‘Tea at 1325’ to explore the Women Peace and Security Agenda (WPS), twenty years after the United Nations Security Council passed the landmark resolution, 1325.  The series is hosted by Lisa Larson, Women Peace and Security Fellow.  Lisa has the pleasure of speaking with a number of experts who have been advancing the agenda within international organisations and civil society, as well as youth.
Lisa has extensive experience in leadership development and is participating in GCSP activities and research to contribute to the empowerment of women and more inclusive peace, security and international cooperation.  Through these interviews, she introduces different personal experiences and perspectives on the WPS agenda, from peacekeeping operations to peace movements, and asks experts ‘what next?’ at a time when we know we cannot wait for change.  We hope that you will find the series informative and inspiring.
Ms. Fleur Heyworth, Head of Gender and Inclusive Security at the GCSP, gives an overview of the women’s rights agenda and discusses how to move it forward.

“Tea at 1325”: Fleur Heyworth discusses paths to gender equality

Welcome to this mini-series ‘Tea at 1325’ to explore the Women Peace and Security Agenda (WPS), twenty years after the United Nations Security Council passed the landmark resolution, 1325.  The series is hosted by Lisa Larson, Women Peace and Security Fellow.  Lisa has the pleasure of speaking with a number of experts who have been advancing the agenda within international organisations and civil society, as well as youth.
Lisa has extensive experience in leadership development and is participating in GCSP activities and research to contribute to the empowerment of women and more inclusive peace, security and international cooperation.  Through these interviews, she introduces different personal experiences and perspectives on the WPS agenda, from peacekeeping operations to peace movements, and asks experts ‘what next?’ at a time when we know we cannot wait for change.  We hope that you will find the series informative and inspiring.

Tea at 1325 Introduction Podcast

Lessons in pandemic crisis management one year is episode 1 in this new GCSP Podcast Series. Dr Paul Vallet interviews Mr David Horobin, Head of Crisis Management at the GCSP. 

Paul Vallet: Welcome to the Geneva Centre for Security Policy podcast. I'm your host, Dr Paul Vallet, and I am an Associate Fellow with the GCSP’s Global Fellowship Initiative. Thank you for tuning into our podcast. I look forward to exploring some of the latest global issues affecting peace, security and international cooperation with you over the next 13 weeks as we make this podcast a weekly event speaking with subject matter experts. In this week's episode, our first, we will speak with David Horobin. David Horobin is the Head of the Crisis Management cluster at the GCSP. With more than 25 years of operational experience in particular as the Director of the Operations Team, for the UK Department for International developments from  2003-2006. And then heading the rapid deployment unit and later the crisis management and security department for the International Committee of the Red Cross between 2006 and 2017 when he joined the GCSP. And I'd also like to point out that David will be participating in two forthcoming crisis management courses at the GCSP in March (Crisis Management: Navigating the Storm - A Virtual Learning Journey) and in May (Critical Incident Management 2021 - A Virtual Learning Journey) of this year, 2021. So, thank you very much, David, for agreeing to appear on our show. We're looking forward to talking to you about what has been quite momentous year, I think for all experienced crisis management professionals. As you know, we're marking almost the first anniversary these few days and coming weeks of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, in Europe, especially in the start of the lockdown regimes and most of the European countries. And so, of course, we're looking forward to we're using this perhaps one year's worth of lessons that you may be able to talk to us about. So, my first question to you was about precisely what lessons have been learned in matters of sanitary early warning and first response?

David Horobin: Thank you very much, Paul. And a pleasure to be here and to talk about, probably the biggest crisis that any of us have had to deal with, in certainly a generation, probably 100 years. And I think everybody has been suffering from this in one form or shape or another. And indeed, we have been very busy at GCSP talking to and reviewing and researching the crisis management aspects of COVID for the last 12 months.

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