Dear all,
Welcome to the Coordination Team Forum Thread! All Coordination Team related communicates will go here so we can keep everything in one place. I am very excited to share our first minutes from our first meeting, and hope that it is useful to you to see what we're working on to try and strengthen communications and coordination within the Youth Group.
In these minutes one of the most important things in the minutes would be instructions for a "thank you video" project which your regional coordinator has likely contacted you about already. The deadline for this is February 12.
Generally, we will aim to post these meeting minutes about a week after each meeting. Huge thanks to Carlos who drafted the first meeting minutes! If you have any question about these minutes, please contact your regional coordinator, whose bios and contact information is included in the minutes and below. Thank you all!
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Country-Specific Coordinators
China - Amber Qin
[email protected]
Amber Qin is a student at Wellesley College pursuing a BA in Political Science. Her undergraduate studies have focused on international security and nuclear politics. Amber is originally from Hangzhou, China and previously lived in Moscow, Russia for eight months. During the previous summer, she interned for the international security program at the Wilson Center, as well as for the Political and Security Affairs team at the National Bureau of Asian Research. Now in her final year, Amber is currently writing her senior thesis on naval modernization programs in China and Russia.
Egypt - Karim Elbaz
Karim El-Baz is a PhD Candidate at War Studies Department, Royal Military College of Canada. He is currently serving in the Egyptian Armed Force. Karim continues his affiliation as a consultant and a researcher for the American University in Cairo Forum and as a member of the CTBTO Youth Group and the Middle East Next Generation of Arms Control Specialists Network. Identifying the military as a decisive, domestic and foreign, political decision-maker, in the Middle East gave rise to Karim’s interest in testing the variables and givens that a military utilize to formulate its decision-making process, particularly in the absence of a strong civilian regime that tames its military, to assess and forecast their policies. These policies can include: seeking military equipment diversification, nuclear capacity, and developing WMDs means of delivery as means of sustaining regime’s survivability.
India - Aditi Malhotra
Aditi Malhotra is a PhD Candidate at the Graduate School of Politics (GraSP) at the University of Muenster in Germany. She also holds a Master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. Aditi was a Visiting Fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies in Oslo (2017), and the Stimson Center in Washington D.C (2015). Previously, she was a Senior Research Fellow in the International Strategic and Security Studies Programme (ISSSP) at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore. Prior to joining NIAS, Aditi was an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi. She was also the Editor of Scholar Warrior, a bi-annual journal published by CLAWS. Aditi’s areas of interest include nuclear and security issues related to South Asia, India’s foreign policy towards Indo-Pacific region, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear security issues.
Iran - Ali Shahabi
Born in Tehran and has been residing in Austria since 1998. He is currently studying international relations at Webster University Vienna. In this time he attended Vienna international school (VIS), and studied architecture at the Technical University of Vienna (TUW). He has worked for and assisted in a number of architectural offices as well as on design and concept competitions. In 2008 granted an internship at the International Atomic energy Agency (IAEA) in the Division of Conference and Document Services (MTCD), during the 52nd General Conference and was extended to draft floor plans for the then newly built M-building. From 2001 he has assisted the UNWG Vienna in a number of areas.
Israel - Barch Malewich
[email protected]
Baruch (Baruchi/Rookie) Malewich holds an MPhil in International Relations and Politics from the University of Cambridge and a BA in Government from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel. As a former intelligence officer and a current peace activist, he focuses on the intersection of weapon technology and ethics. Baruch’s MPhil dissertation dealt with the moral worlds of nuclear weapon designers, focusing on the work of philosopher Günther Anders. He is currently looking to expand this work under the premise of a PhD program. Additionally, he is the founder and editor-in-chief of Critical Masses, a cross-disciplinary online magazine devoted to the critical conceptualization of the political.
Pakistan - Beenish Pervaiz
Beenish Pervaiz is from Pakistan and is currently working as a Program Associate at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) in Washington DC. She recently completed her Master’s degree in International Policy Studies with a concentration in international security from Stanford University. At Stanford, Beenish worked as a research assistant to Professor Scott Sagan, contributing to his research on public opinion and nuclear weapons use. Prior to Stanford, she also had experience working with the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations as an advisor for the Fourth Committee and the Security Council, as well as the UN Secretariat in the Department of Field Support for the Peacekeeping Missions. Most notably, Beenish has spent 3 years working as an activist for nuclear disarmament as a South Asian regional organizer for Global Zero. She is a strong advocate for mobilizing the younger generation for global peace and security and has been published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist writing on similar issues.
United States - Carlos Rodriguez-Cruz y Celis
Carlos Rodriguez-Cruz y Celis is a fourth-year honors student and BSc candidate in Global Business and Marketing at The University of Texas at Dallas. Previously, he interned with the United Nations Information Center in Washington, DC, and with the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Carlos is a passionate about nonproliferation education, and has organized seminars and events related to nuclear security for Texas university students. He is interested in using new digital tools to connect youth advocates.
Regional Coordinators (excluding non-ratifying Annex 2 States)
Africa - Magdalene “Maggie” Wanyaga, (Kenya)
[email protected] , [email protected]
Magdalene (Maggie) Wanyaga is an MSc student at the School of Physical Sciences at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. She also holds a BSc in Geology from the University of Nairobi. Magdalene is currently assisting in seismic analysis at the Kenya National Data Centre in Nairobi. She is interested in using science communication as an advocacy tool and urges the youth in the region to support the CTBT.
Eastern Europe - Anastasia “Asya” Shavrova, (Russia)
Anastasia (Asya) Shavrova is a PhD candidate at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). She also holds an MA in International Relations and BA in Political Science from MGIMO. Asya is one of the founding members of the CTBTO Youth Group (CYG), and has previously interned at the Department of Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. She currently works as Research Associate at the Center for Energy and Security Studies (CENESS) in Moscow, Russia. Apart from issues related to the CTBT, Asya’s professional interests in arms control/nonproliferation include nuclear weapon-free zones and regional security in the Middle East.
Latin/Caribbean - Zachary Berenson Barros, (Chile*)
Zachary Berenson-Barros is an MEng student in Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge, where he also completed a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. Zachary’s research focuses on hydrogen fuel cells, namely to circumvent the problems associated with storing hydrogen by using ammonia as a feedstock and converting it to hydrogen in situ. Although Zachary’s main focus thus far has been on his scientific work and political advocacy surrounding climate change, he became interested in nuclear security after participating in the 2017 World Science Forum with the CTBTO Youth Group. Zachary is interested in how Latin America and the Caribbean can work to promote constructive engagement on disarmament, nonproliferation, and a general reduction of threats derived from WMDs and emerging technologies.
Middle East/South Asia - Rana Hameed Al-Abboodi (Iraq)
[email protected], [email protected]
Rana Hameed Al-abboodi is an Iraqi Information Engineer and has been working in Iraq’s National Monitoring Authority for Nonproliferation (INMA)/Nuclear Department since 2011. She earned a Masters degree in Information Engineering in 2009, focusing on network management. Rana is a seismic analyst at the Iraq National Data Center (NDC). She previously participated on NDC capacity building training courses at the CTBTO, and is currently participating in the third On-Site Inspection (OSI) training cycle.
North America/Western Europe - Sahil V. Shah (United Kingdom)
Sahil V. Shah is one of the founding members of the CTBTO Youth Group (CYG) and has helped build the organization since raising the issue of youth inclusion at the 2015 CTBT: Science and Technology Conference. Sahil recently completed an MPhil in International Relations and Politics at the University of Cambridge (UK) where he researched the “spirit” of arms control agreements, namely the Iran Deal. Sahil began his work on creating more robust nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation agendas as a researcher for 19th U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry. Since then, he has pursued bilateral work between the US and Russia as the Director of Research of the Stanford US-Russia Forum (SURF), as well as multilateral work through the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and European Leadership Network (ELN), and Technology for Global Security (T4GS).
Southeast Asia & Pacific - Shunji Fueki, (Japan)
Shunji Fueki is a first-year undergraduate student at Soka University of America in California, US. He grew up in Japan for 18 years, and is now studying abroad in the US for a 4-year undergraduate program. Shunji’s interest in nuclear issues started in high school when he attended the Critical Issues Forum at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California as a “Youth Communicator for a World without Nuclear Weapons”, appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
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