I am a tenured Associate Professor of International Relations based in Tokyo, Japan. I am also the Deputy-Director of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), Tokyo Liaison Office, as well as the Deputy Secretary-General of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan (GPAJ).
I was educated at the Universities of Trento (Italy), Auckland (New Zealand), Wales/Aberystwyth (UK), and Oxford (UK), and I hold two doctoral degrees, one in International Law and the other in International Relations.
Because of my double doctorate, my areas of specialization are broad and include international politics, diplomacy and international history, the United Nations and international organizations, ethics in international affairs, Africa's international relations, and the links between art, archaeology, and international relations.
My latest book on the role of the United Nations in Rwanda, titled 'Dangerous Diplomacy', was published by Oxford University Press in 2017, and won the ISA's Chadwick Alger Prize as the best book on international organization and multilateralism for 2018, as well as the ACUNS Biennial Book Award for 2017-19.
Before moving to Tokyo, I was a visiting scholar at Sciences-Po in Paris, France; an officer at the Icelandic Human Rights Centre in Reykjavik, Iceland; an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) at the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chittagong, Bangladesh; and briefly an Associate with the Under-Secretary-General's Office at UN Headquarters in New York.
I have also been a Secretary-Treasurer of the International Studies Association, Asia-Pacific (ISA-AP); a Senior Adviser to the South Asian Foundation for Academic Research (SAFAR) and to the Center for Advanced Studies in South Asia (CASSA) in Kathmandu, Nepal; and a Visiting Professor at the School of International Studies of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, People's Republic of China.
A cosmopolitan by vocation, I am fluent in English, Italian, French, and Spanish; I am a life-long enthusiast of history and archaeology; and I am a passionate collector of ancient art, especially as it relates to diplomacy and global politics.