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Welcome to MAB’s Newsletter |
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Dear Reader,
Our New Year's resolution at the Managing Across Boundaries (MAB) was to increase our public presence through more events coordinated with regional and non-profit organizations, governments, and the United Nations. In the third edition of our newsletter we are pleased to highlight some of the recent events we have held in the last six months that underscore our program's mission and emphasize some of the successes of the past year. From workshops in Kenya, to conferences hosted by partner governments at the UN, to speaking engagements globally, the MAB program continues to advance the committment to synthesizing security and development initiatives and capacity building for a safer world with greater development opportunities. We are especially proud of our most recent event in New York City. Held in collabortion with the Permanent Missions of Japan, Poland, and Turkey, this United Nations' conference promoted a new dialogue on nonproliferation and disarmament in the twenty-first century with distinguished speakers such as United Nations Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-Moon.
For more information about our program and current and future activities please visit:
http://www.stimson.org/programs/managing-across-boundaries.
Brian Finlay,
Senior Associate and Director
The Managing Across Boundaries Program
The Stimson Center
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Promoting the Global Instruments of Nonproliferation and Disarmament
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 May 31, 2011
Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, New York
Durable peace and security cannot be achieved without sustainable development, and lasting development will not take place unless stability through trade and human exchanges are ensured. This full-day meeting considered the linkages between security challenges and development objectives, focused on how disarmament and non-proliferation can reinforce global economic development and endurable growth.
More specifically, it tackled the challenges posed by the threat of proliferation of sensitive WMD technologies by addressing issues such as enhancing the role of the United Nations in the sphere of disarmament and non-proliferation, particularly WMD non-proliferation. Additionally the meeting discussed distinct challenges states face in fully implementing their international commitments, different types of technical assistance that can be provided to address these challenges, and how best to create innovative partnerships between non-proliferation instruments and other international, regional, and sub-regional organizations, as well as with private sector actors.
In his keynote address, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon reiterated his strong commitment to nonproliferation, disarmament, and nuclear safety issues by recalling his latest visits to Chernobyl and Hiroshima as well as the upcoming UN system-wide study on the implications of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis. He emphasized that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and that rule of law is a critical component of the nonproliferation regime.
More information about the event can be found here.
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Conflict, Security, and Development in East Africa
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 May 13, 2011
Consulate General of Finland - 866 UN Plaza, Suite 250, New York
Though the last half century has yielded the most remarkable exodus from poverty in human history, globalization and expanded economic opportunity has also empowered criminal elements from petty street thugs to terrorist organizations to unleash all manner of human security threats and in some cases help propagate economic under-development, small arms and drug trafficking, conflict resources, human slavery, and even WMD proliferation.
Amidst the global financial slowdown, when resources are especially strained, addressing these threats more effectively necessitates the leveraging of existing resources, the identification of innovative new streams of assistance, and ultimately bridging the divide between security and development to implement sustainable solutions over the long term that simultaneously meet multiple needs. This meeting provided a forum to discuss the confluence of these challenges in one geographic context: Eastern Africa focusing on challenges related to small arms, economic development, nonproliferation, and counter-terrorism. Speakers included Ellen Laipson, President and CEO of the Stimson Center, and Ambassador Ochieng Adala, Deputy Director of the Africa Peace Forum and Former Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN.
More information about the event can be found here.
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Coordinating Global Priorities Amidst the Financial Crisis
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April 28, 2011
Stimson Center, 1111 19th Street, NW, Floor 12, Washington, DC, 20036
Achieving national security and global development objectives amidst financial austerity and national budget cuts is rightly at the forefront of our current political discourse. Doing more with less during a time of herculean challenges—realizing the Millennium Development Goals, preventing nuclear materials from falling into terrorist hands, and curbing drug, arms and human trafficking—will require innovative solutions and unprecedented collaboration between disparate and occasionally competing policy interests. Perhaps in no other part of the world is this discussion more relevant than in Eastern Africa, a region plagued by a myriad of security threats and development challenges.
This luncheon event facilitated discussions on identifying nexus points between security, development, and public health capacity-building in this region, as well as an off-the-record discussions with Simon Limage, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Nonproliferation Programs.
More information about the event can be found here.
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MAB program hosted by the Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations
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February 25, 2011
Consulate General of Finland - 866 UN Plaza, Suite 250, New York
At a luncheon hosted by the Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations, Jarmo Viinanen, members from the Stimson Center facilitated a dialogue with Eastern African UN Mission on a joint project to promote the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1540. MAB Program program Director, Brian Finlay, and program Analyst, Johan Bergenas, engaged Eastern African collegues in a discussion on regional security threats and development needs and how to continue forward movement with active partner countries in the region. MAB is currently planning additional travel and programming on the ground in Eastern Africa.
Progress in the region has been successful across several programmatic and political fronts which has fostered confidence in MAB programs from East African partners.
More information about the event can be found here.
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MAB Hosts Roundtable Meeting in East Africa
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 December 6, 2010
Nairobi, Kenya
Under the aegis of the of the Beyond Boundaries Initiative, the MAB program travelled to East Africa during the week of December 6, 2010 to organized a roundtable meeting with governments and the nongovernmental actors. The discussions explored the channels of cooperation related to the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) 1373 (2001) and 1540 (2004), focusing on steps to promote development through assisted security engagement. Such “dual benefit” items included public health, small arms and light weapons proliferation, and trafficking and terrorism. Developing new avenues of international security cooperation in the East African sub-region can provide durable solutions to address regional terrorism and proliferation challenges while mitigating existing security threats and related obstacles to development.
Thirty government officials including representatives of local NGOs attended the roundtable. Opening remarks for session were provided by former Kenyan Permanent Representative to the UN and current Executive Director of Africa Peace Forum, Ambassador Ochieng Adala. While in the region, MAB also met government officials and NGO representatives in Ethiopia and Tanzania.
More information about the event can be found here.
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| Our next steps |
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In the upcoming months, MAB experts will travel to Stockholm, Japan, Kenya, the Andean Region of South America, and Southeast Asia for presentations, workshops, and regional meetings to discuss private sector logistics and the global supply chain.
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| Pathfinder |
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Explore MAB’s latest online resource, the Pathfinder. This interactive tool allows users to examine the overlap between global security priorities, such as WMD nonproliferation, and country-specific priorities in the Global South. Pathfinder is an easy way to conceptualize MAB’s work in bridging the security and development divide, as well as navigate the different security-development assistance programs available for countries.
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MAB Staff:
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Brian Finlay
Brian Finlay is the director of the MAB program at the Stimson Center, a think tank based in Wsshington, DC. Mr. Finlay created the MAB program to focus creatively on bridging the security-development divide, and responding effectively to the challenges of proliferation, illicit trafficking, and other transnational threats.
Prior to joining Stimson in January 2005, Finlay served four years as executive director of a lobbying and media campaign focused on counterterrorism issues; as a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution; and as a program officer at the Century Foundation. Mr. Finlay was a project manager for the Laboratory Center for Disease Control/Health Canada, and worked with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He sits on the advisory board Trojan Defense, LLC, and is a member of the Board of Directors of iMMAP, a pioneering organization leading the way forward in the effective use of information management practices in the service of humanitarian relief and development. Mr. Finlay has authored and co-authored numerous books, monographs, and reports and is widely published in magazines and acadmeic and policy journals.
Johan Bergenas
Johan Bergenas is a research analyst for the MAB program at Stimson. Prior to joining Stimson, Mr. Bergenas held positions with the Monterey Institute and Oxfam America, Mr. Bergenas' work has appeared in numerous policy and academic journals, magazines, and newspapers. He also has covered a wide variety of domestic and foriegn policy issues and a reporter and free lance journalist.
MAB was also joined by research interns Michelle Marais and David Slungaard this summer.
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