Laila Bokhari is a non-resident Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a former State Deputy-Minister with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a State Secretary at the Office of the Norwegian Prime Minister. She was a member of the 22 July Commission (Breivik case), tasked with examining the terrorist attacks and their aftermath in Norway. She has worked with the United Nations Security Council al-Qaida/Taliban Monitoring Team and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on counterterrorism and human rights issues. She also served as a diplomat at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. She has a long career as a researcher on security policy, counterterrorism, and violent extremism at institutes including the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, and King’s College London.
Laila Bokhari
Stephen White is a Senior Fellow for the Global Center (UK) and a freelance security sector consultant providing training, research, and consultancy since 2010 for numerous governmental and nongovernmental organizations on a range of subjects, including countering violent extremism, community engagement, conflict resolution, leadership, and security sector reform. Formerly a UK Chief Police Officer with 26 years of experience, primarily in Northern Ireland and with the EU Head of Mission (Iraq) for five years, he has authored and coauthored a number of papers in these areas, including “Police Primacy” (2014) and “Countering Violent Extremism: Community Engagement Programmes in Europe” (2012). He is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and sits on the International Network to Promote the Rule of Law Police Experts Council. He holds an MSc from Queens University Belfast and a master of studies in criminology from Cambridge University. In 2004 he was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for services to policing – domestic and international.
Peter Romaniuk is a Senior Fellow for the Global Center. He is an Associate Professor of Political Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the City University of New York, where he is also Assistant Director of the Center on Terrorism. He is the author of Multilateral Counter-terrorism: The Global Politics of Cooperation and Contestation(2010). His articles have appeared in the Review of International Studies, the International Studies Encyclopedia, and The CPA Journal, as well as in leading volumes on terrorism and counterterrorism, terrorism financing, and multilateral sanctions. He holds a BA (Hons) and LLB (Hons) from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, and an AM and PhD in political science from Brown University.
Mercy Buku is a Senior Fellow at the Global Center and a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and Commissioner for Oaths and Notary Public. She is currently a legal consultant on anti–money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism issues in the mobile payments and banking sector and was previously the Senior Manager in the Money Laundering Reporting Office for Safaricom Limited (Kenya) where she was charged with the responsibility for overseeing AML efforts for M-Pesa. She has extensive experience as a trainer, consultant, and author in compliance and AML issues in the mobile payments and banking sector and has made presentations at various domestic and international AML workshops and conferences. She is also an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (UK). She holds a bachelor of laws honors degree from the University of Nairobi and an LLM in banking and financial law from the University of London.
Eleonore Pauwels is a Senior Fellow for the Global Center. She conducts in-depth research on security, governance, and ethical implications generated by the convergence of artificial intelligence with other dual-use technologies, including cybersecurity, genomics, and genome-editing. She provides expertise to the World Bank and the United Nations, as well as to governments and private sector actors, on AI-cyber prevention, the changing nature of conflict, foresight, and global security and counterterrorism. In 2018 and 2019, She served as Research Fellow on Emerging Cybertechnologies for the United Nations University’s Centre for Policy Research. At the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, she spent ten years within the Science and Technology Innovation Program, leading the Anticipatory Intelligence Lab. She is a former official of the European Commission’s Directorate on Science, Economy and Society. She is the author of a landmark report for the United Nations University, titled The New Geopolitics of Converging Risks: The UN and Prevention in the Era of AI.
Mike Pannek is a Senior Fellow at the Global Center, where he contributes to the implementation of programs on counterterrorism and countering violent extremism. From 2004 to 2015, he was a senior corrections adviser with the U.S. Department of Justice’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program. In this capacity, he directed correctional development projects with a focus on preventing and countering violent extremism in prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Kosovo. Previously, he was a prison warden in Washington state and a career military officer. He graduated from the U.S. Naval War College in 1982.
Christina Nemr is a Senior Fellow to the Global Center. She works on countering violent extremism (CVE) issues including rehabilitation and reintegration, the role of women in CVE, youth empowerment, counter-narratives, and the nexus between development and CVE. She spent five years with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Counterterrorism where she was a founding member of the CVE Program with a portfolio of policy and program development, research, and multilateral initiatives. Previously, she worked in the State Department’s U.S. Middle East Partnership Initiative office. She holds a BA in foreign affairs and history from the University of Virginia and an MA in forensic psychology from Marymount University, where she focused on motivations to commit violence.
Phyllis Muema is a Senior Fellow at the Global Center and the Executive Director of Kenya Community Support Centre. She is a social development expert and local practitioner on countering violent extremism (CVE) issues in Kenya with experience designing projects that respond to violent extremism drivers, building local capacities for community groups and civil society and policy dialogues. She participated in the development of the draft Kenyan National Policy on Peacebuilding and Conflict Management and the draft Kenyan National Strategy to Counter Violent Extremism and is a member of the Global Counterterrorism Forum, where she provided community perspectives on CVE. She is a guest speaker on the role of civil society in confronting terrorism at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies and was a member of the steering committee for the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund. She holds a postgraduate diploma in human and natural resources and in peace-building and conflict management from Danida Fellowship Centre and a senior management certificate from the Kenya School of Government.
Shaun McLeary is a Senior Fellow for the Global Center, working on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) and criminal justice and the rule of law programming. For 37 years he served with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as a detective investigating serious and organized crime, and as a financial investigator. In 2005 Shaun joined the National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit at New Scotland Yard, where he was responsible for financial investigations in support of all major counterterrorism investigations in the UK. He was later posted to Pakistan as the Police Counter-Terrorism and -Extremism Liaison Officer, followed by a secondment to the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office during which he delivered terrorism financing investigation training to Gulf State government officials. Following his retirement from the MPS in 2012, Shaun founded Dorwood Consultancy Ltd., where he has designed and delivered AML/CFT trainings for law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and prosecutors from 37 countries on behalf of national governments and the UN.
Nadine Machikou is a Senior Fellow at the Global Center. She is the Director of the Center for Studies and Research in International and Community Law at University of Yaounde II, and Director of Seminars at the International War School in Cameroon. Her research focuses on political violence and community management of security issues, particularly in the struggle against Boko Haram and in the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon. She also focuses on the political economy of public reforms and the governance of health and environmental policies.