THE BRIEF by Maya Plentz

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Mr Møller spent over 40 years as an international civil servant in the United Nations. He was appointed Chairman of the Diplomacy Forum of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator, GESDA, in 2020. 

From 2013 to 2019, Mr Møller served as Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva as well as Personal Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to the Conference of Disarmament.

He worked closely with the late UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, as Director for Political, Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs in the Office of the Secretary-General between 2001 and 2006, while serving concurrently as Deputy Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary-General for the last two years of that period. 

Mr Møller also served as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Cyprus from 2006 to 2008 and was the Executive Director of the Kofi Annan Foundation from 2008 to 2011. 

He began his career in 1979 with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and worked for the United Nations in New York, Mexico, Iran, Haiti, Cyprus and Geneva. 

A Danish citizen, Mr Møller earned a Master’s degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University, in its Italy’s Campus, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Sussex, in the United Kingdom.

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Jenna Russo is the Director of Research and Head of the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations at the International Peace Institute in New York. 

Dr. Russo completed her PhD in Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center, with a focus on the protection of civilians in armed conflict settings. 

Her dissertation analyzes UN protection of civilians activities and their contribution to the broader peace process, with case studies on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. 

Her other research considers the normative development of the human protection regime, in particular how member states conceive of and implement their protection responsibilities. Her research has been published in Third World Quarterly, Journal of International Peacekeeping, Global R2P, and featured on Africa at LSE.

Prior to joining IPI, Dr. Russo spent more than ten years working as a consultant to the United Nations, with a focus on disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants; peacekeeping training; and as a project manager in the Office of the Secretary-General. She also spent time with the Global Centre for R2P as a senior fellow in peacekeeping.

Dr. Russo teaches at Baruch and Hunter Colleges, including courses on international conflict; the UN and world politics; and women, war, and peace. In addition to her Ph.D., she also holds an M.Phil. in political science, an M.A. in international relations, and a B.A. in music. Prior to her time working in the field of international relations, she taught music at a performing arts high school in New York City.

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Elena Hernandez has worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross, and at the UN in New York, during the 73rd General Assembly, in their media department, supporting the relationship with international correspondents.

Now she is a Media and Communications Officer at the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, where she manages and produces social media content, analyses statistics on their website and social media channels, produces news releases and reports, as well as manages the relationship with the international press. 

She had an early start with her father being a journalist, and also living with a war correspondent in Washington and a journalist in Algeria, and has a degree in Journalism, Communication in Media Studies, from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, a B.A. in International Law and Legal Studies, and a B.B.A. in Marketing and Communications from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, and has participated twice in the European Union Erasmus Program, in Germany and in Switzerland, as well as studied International Law and Human Rights at the American University in Washington, DC. 

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We interviewed Carla Canales, who was just appointed Professor of Practice in Cultural Diplomacy and Senior Fellow at The Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World, based at the Fletcher Graduate School of Global Affairs, at Tufts University. 

Ms. Canales leads the inaugural Program on Cultural Diplomacy, an initiative examining the ways in which arts and culture can advance US foreign policy objectives.

Ms. Canales has served as an Arts Envoy of the U.S. Department of State to foster cross-cultural understanding and collaboration and advance foreign policy goals.

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Malene Nielsen is with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is Deputy, Permanent Delegation of Denmark to UNESCO. She has a M.A. in International Relations and Development Studies from Roskilde University, and a B.A. in International Marketing from Copenhagen Business School, and has done an internship with UNESCO while finishing her Masters. We spoke about the recent research she has conducted with UNESCO on Freedom of Expression and how COVID-19 has weakened human rights protection around the globe, with a focus on artists, scientists, and journalists, and how aware they are of their rights under international law. 

They published their findings in 2021, in a special report called Critical Voices.