Maheshi Jayawardane of BCIS Interviewed Dr. Uttam Sinha of the Manohar Parikkar Institute of Defence Analysis, India on World Water Day (22nd March). The theme for 2024 is Water for Peace.
The Research Division of the Bandaranaike Center for International Studies (BCIS) organized the second episode of the BCIS IR Chats with Ms Bhagya Samarakoon to commemorate the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Day on 8th May 2024. Ms Bhagya is a student at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. She is currently an Intern at ICRC Headquarters. In her discussion she elaborated on how to enhance the research capabilities of young researchers in the field of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. She also shared her experience as a student and as a researcher in the said field. This discussion stimulates the young researchers to achieve their goals in Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
The Research Division of the Bandaranaike Center for International Studies (BCIS) organized the third episode of the BCIS IR Chats with Colonel Dr. Divakaran Padma Kumar Pillay (Retd.) to commemorate the International Day of UN Peacekeepers on 29th May 2024. Col Pillay is a Research Fellow from Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) in New Delhi. Col. Pillay has held several assignments in his 29-year career in the Indian Army. Apart from his vibrant career in the Indian Army, in December 2018, he was also deputed as a Military Advisor with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for After Action Review for the wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. He was the first Indian armed forces officer selected as an Armed Forces Delegate with the ICRC. He re-joined MP-IDSA in May 2019, after his yearlong fellowship at MP-IDSA in 2009. Col. Pillay holds a Ph.D. from the Panjab University and his thesis deals with the debate between human and national security. Besides university courses, he has attended several military training programmes in India and abroad on diverse subjects relating to conflict resolution, human rights, security sector reform, humanitarian civil-military coordination, strategic negotiations, rehabilitation and relief, disaster risk management and environmental law. Some of the courses attended are: New Issues in Security course at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (2007), Switzerland; the UNOCHA course on Civil Military Cooperation at Bangkok (2014); and International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance, Barcelona, Spain (2014). He has been invited to present papers at international conferences, notably at the Martens Reading at St. Petersburg, Russia in May 2019 and at the ICRC South Asia in July 2017. He regularly conducts international humanitarian law (IHL) training for the UN missions at courses conducted by the Centre for UN Peacekeeping in New Delhi.
The Research Division of Bandaranaike Center for International Studies organized the fourth episode of the BCIS IR Chats on11th September 2024, with Dr. Karl Kaltenthaler to discuss about emerging threats of global terrorism and its impact to international security, despite counterterrorism efforts. Dr. Karl Kaltenthaler is the Director of the Michael J. Morell Center for Intelligence and Security Studies, Professor and Fellow in Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics in the University of Akron, USA. Dr Kaltenthaler’s research and teaching focuses on security policy, political violence, political psychology, public opinion and political behavior, terrorism, counterterrorism, and xenophobia. He has been part of or completed multiple research studies in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, and the United States. He is currently researching the radicalization process and recruitment into violent political extremism as well as ways to counter this process (Countering Violent Extremism). This work has resulted in academic publications and presentations as well as reports and briefings for the U.S. government. His research has been published in three books, multiple book chapters, as well as articles in International Studies Quarterly, Political Science Quarterly, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, as well as other journals.