The Director

Yiorghos Leventis, Ph.D.

Executive Director of the International Security Forum since its establishment in 2009. The ISF is an independent think tank based in Λευκωσία (Lefkosia/Nicosia), the capital of Cyprus.

Dr Leventis studied in the U.K, where he conducted extensive research in The National Archives producing his doctoral thesis on the Political Struggle for Self-Determination in Cyprus under British colonial rule (1940s).

Dr Leventis read B.A. in Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester (1990), M.A. in Peace Studies (1992) and Ph.D. in European Studies, University of Bradford (1998). He had been a Visiting Research Associate, King’s College, University of London (1999-2000) and an External Research Associate of the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (1999-2000). In the years 2004-06 he was based in Tokyo sponsored by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for a Visiting Scholarship at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). Simultaneously, JSPS-UNU Postdoctoral Fellow, Peace & Governance Programme, United Nations University, HQ, Tokyo. Selective landmarks in his international career include the following:

Associate Professor, Faculty of International Relations & Politics Politics, New York University Skopje, North Macedonia (2006-08)

Honoris Causa Member: Working Group: Security & Guarantees, Talks for Comprehensive Settlement of the Cyprus Problem 2008-2012

Council Member, World Federalist Movement, Buenos Aires, Oct 2010.

Participant of the IISS Global Strategic Review, Stockholm, Sept 2013.

Member of the EU Non-Proliferation & Disarmament Independent Think Tanks Network (2011 – to date)

Lecturing and publishing worldwide on: foreign & security policy, governance, power sharing, geopolitics and geostrategy (1995 – to date)

Mission Statement

The International Security Forum is an independent non-profit global think tank established in Lefkosia (Nicosia), Republic of Cyprus in 2009. It studies and publishes on regional and global peace, security and governance issues. The ISF-Cyprus is a full member of the EU Network of Independent Think Tanks on Disarmament & Non-Proliferation Studies participating in its annual European Disarmament Conference taking place in Brussels in December.

Furthermore, the ISF Director has been a delegate to the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (Nobel Peace Prize 1995) participating in its landmark events in Hiroshima (2005) and Nagasaki (2015). Since its launch, the International Security Forum has been organising seminars, lectures and round table discussions on regional and global affairs in Lefkosia. A landmark event was the closed doors round-table of experts on regional MENA security challenges co-organised with IISS London at Hilton Park Nicosia, 20th October 2015.

Continuing the expansion of its activities, the ISF-Cyprus joined the international network of think tanks and other security studies scholars which under the leadership of the Institute for National & International Security (INIS) Belgrade, publishes the ‘Security Science Journal’, a new quarterly publication, launched in 2022.

 

  Senior Research Associates

Ion Craciunel

A Romanian national, Ion has accumulated vast experience as an International Development Consultant. He has a track record of working in the development program industry over the past thirty years. Ion is a strong business development professional skilled in International Project Management, Sustainable Development, Government, Rural Development, and International Relations. In the 1990s, seconded by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, he worked successfully in OSCE field missions in former Yugoslavia easing tensions and building peace in conflict ridden regions.

Elias Hadjikoumis

Brussels based Cypriot, is a foreign, security and defence policy expert with a long experience in defence planning and cooperation. He is also a member to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. For many years he had represented Cyprus in numerous meetings of EU bodies and institutions and participated in both high policy and expert level discussions. He had also worked as a defence counsellor at the Repubic of Cyprus Permanent Representation to the EU. Currently, he works for the EU.

Sigrid Lipott

Security expert with ten years of experience in think tanks and international organizations. Till recently, for the last four years, she worked at the Small Arms Survey in Geneva engaging in research and coordinated projects on illicit arms trafficking, UN arms embargoes, non-proliferation and peacekeeping. Sigrid holds a doctorate in Trans-Border Policies (International University Institute of European Studies) and two Masters in International & Diplomatic Science (University of Trieste & Institute for Research on Negotiation, Italy); she is also a holder of a postgraduate certificate in Border Studies from Canada (Victoria University). Earlier, Sigrid worked at the European Projects Association as well as with the European External Action Service (EEAS) in Brussels, where she contributed to the European Neighbourhood Policy programmes in the MENA region and the Eastern Partnership.

In the years 2011-14, Sigrid was a Teaching Assistant to the Chair of History of International Treaties & International Politics, University of Trieste, Italy. The following year she was awarded the Swiss Government Excellence Postdoctoral Scholarship.

Her main areas of expertise relate to arms trade treaties and illicit trafficking; international and regional security with a focus on the DPRK, the Caucasus, the Gulf, and sub-Saharan Africa; foreign, defense, and security policies (including the European Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy); and sanctions. Sigrid also co-organized capacity building workshops in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America; and contributed to numerous policy and legal expert meetings as a speaker/moderator (EEAS, African Union, NATO HQ, EU Non-Proliferation & Disarmament Conferences). Currently a contributor at Analisi Difesa, she publishes on arms trade, regional security cooperation and related topics.

William Mallinson, Ph.D.

Former British diplomat, is an Athens based scholar of International Relations and Diplomatic History. He is a prolific author and commentator on Anglo-Hellenic relations, the Cyprus conflict and wider security issues in the Eastern Mediterranean – Middle East North Africa region. He teaches at the Ionian University, Corfu, Western Greece. Dr Mallinson has written a fast-moving and incisive narrative history of modern Cyprus (Cyprus: A Modern History, I.B. Tauris, London – New York, 2005). Public Lies and Private Thruths features among his other published works.

Morris Mottale, Ph.D.

Morris received his doctorate from York University Toronto in 1982. He has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University from 1985 to 1996 during summers while teaching during the academic year at Franklin University Switzerland since 1986. He is the chair of the Department of Political Science & International Relations. An American citizen, he is interested in social and economic planning, religious fundamentalism, state security, and the origins of power. He has published extensively on the Middle East and the nature of power within this region and American Foreign Policy.

Kyrillos Nikolaou, Ph.D.

Kyrillos holds a doctorate from the University of Sorbonne. He studied history and international relations, whilst also studying geopolitics at the Institute Francais de Geopolitique. He has many years of experience in diplomacy, serving as a career diplomat of the Republic of Cyprus in various positions. His research interest focus on issues of international relations of Greece and South-Eastern Europe, the Euro-Mediterranean geopolitics. He has conducted research and presented papers at conferences in Greece, the Balkans and the rest of Europe.

Research Associates

 

Alessia Bossi

Italian national, is currently studying for her Master’s degree in International Studies at Roma Tre University. Alessia graduated in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation in Como, studying Chinese language and Asiatic Culture. She specializes in EU relations with East Asian countries. Alessia has also been collaborating with the Vocal Europe think tank producing EU policy papers. She is based in Como, northern Italy.

Atul Menon

Indian national, is graduating in International Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. He specializes on International Security of Conflict. He is currently an editorial assistant with the Canadian Journal of Development Studies (CJDS) and interned with the International Security Forum in the summer of 2012. Additionally, Atul is currently mid-way through his honor’s thesis looking at the Ethico-Legal and Practical Dimensions of NATO’s intervention in Libya, vis-a-vis the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Doctrine. He is interested in strategies by which the gap between the theoretico-normative-discursive progress achieved by the R2P and the problems that surface as a result of implementing R2P in practice. Additionally, his other areas of research interest include the changing nature of the Asia-Pacific Security Paradigm, Arctic Security Issues, the state and security issues related to population management.

Zoran Ristic

Zoran holds a B.Sc. degree in Management and Economics, Empire State College, SUNY and an M.A. degree from King’s College, University of London, U.K. Research interests include political economy of war and conflict, FDI in emerging markets, corporate governance, risk analysis and South East European interstate relations and conflicts. A dual Serbian and North Macedonian citizen, Zoran is based in Skopje. In 2017 he had been a resident associate with our institute.