Security and Disarmament in the Asia Pacific Presenters (2002)
The following brief biographies relate only to the members of the Monash Asia Institute team visiting Prato and London. For other participants in the seminars see Resumés.
Dr Gareth Evans QC former Foreign Minister of Australia (1988-1996) and currently President and Chief Executive of the International Crisis Group (ICG) based in Brussels; Co-Chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty; author of book on UN Reform - Cooperating for Peace; initiator of the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
Dr NN Vohra Currently Director of the India International Centre; long history of service in the internal and international security of India including work during the Sino-Indian conflict (1962); Home Secretary Punjab in 1984-1985; Secretary of Defence and Defence Production; Union Home Secretary 1993-1994; important role in various security dialogues; Principal Secretary to Indian PM 1997-1998; Member National Security Advisory Board (1998-01); Chairman, National Task Force on Internal Security (2000); Co-Chairman India-EU Round Table (2001-); Chairman, Military History Review Committee (2001-).
Senior Professor Cheng Bifang of the Research Institute of Asia & Pacific Studies (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences/CASS, Beijing); Head Dept of Postwar History of International Relations, CASS, Beijing 1978-81; Deputy Head Department of Asia & Pacific Studies/Member of Academic Committee Institute of World Economics & Politics and Professor, Graduate School, CASS 1981-88; Professorial Fellow, Institute of Asia & Pacific Studies CASS, Member Academic Committees IWEP & IAPS 1989-95; Coordinator ASEAN-China Economic Relations and International Joint Research Project 1985-1991; Professorial Fellow Hong Kong Centre for International Studies 1996--; author of major policy reports on various aspects of China's security.
Professor S D Muni, Jawarhalal Nehru University, author of many books on regional security, participant in regional security delegations and Indian Ambassador to Laos 1997-1998.
Mr Farhan Bokhari, Pakistan Correspondent, Financial Times (London)
Professor Gary Bouma Research Professor in Sociology, Monash University; trained at Calvin College in Classics, Princeton in Theology and Cornell University in Sociology; author of 20 books and over a hundred refereed articles specialising in the management of religious diversity in plural multicultural societies, religion and terror and inter-cultural communication.
Dr Chen Jie, Fellow Monash Asia Institute & Lecturer in Politics, University of Adelaide; author of Foreign Policy of the New Taiwan: Pragmatic Diplomacy in Southeast Asia (Edward Elgar, 2002)
Professor Marika Vicziany, Director Monash Asia Institute and a specialist on South Asian security and development; initiator of security dialogues on South Asia in Melbourne, Washington and New York (see archive at: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/mai/virtualforum/index.html ); recent fieldwork in western China.
Dr David Wright-Neville, Senior Researcher with the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University where his current research focuses on cultural conflict and political violence in Asia. Until recently Dr. Wright-Neville was a senior intelligence analyst with the Australian government, specialising on insurgency and terrorist networks in Southeast Asia. Prior to this position he held positions at both Monash University and the University of Melbourne.
Dr Dennis Woodward is Head of the Department of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University. He is a China specialist having written mainly about the People's Liberation Army in China and published that work in various collections by A Watson, G Young and B Bugger.
Dr Pete Lentini heads up a multidisciplinary research unit in the Department of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, on politics, religion, culture and terrorism. He taught at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies (Birmingham) and the Central European University, Prague. He specialises on the contemporary Russian and US politics and a co-editor of the Journal of Intercultural Studies.