The Nagulendran Philanthropy Alliance, a Swiss-based private philanthropic fund founded by Singaporeans Dorothy and John Nagulendran, is funding the Nagulendran Chair in Peace Mediation as the first-ever chair in peace mediation in Switzerland to promote a more peaceful world.
The chair seeks to promote peace by stimulating, in the words of Marie-Laure Salles, Director of the Institute, “reflection and practice about how the conflict resolution and peace mediation field can offer responses and new approaches to re-establish dialogue and negotiations as the primary avenue for preventing and resolving violent conflicts and building new futures.”
Dr Achim Wennmann holds the chair with effect from 1 April 2024 for a term of five years.
Achim Wennmann
As Professor of Practice and Nagulendran Chair in Peace Mediation, Achim Wennmann works on the political economy of violent conflict, peace processes and political transitions. He holds a long publication record on these issues for both academic and policy audiences. His academic work has been published in journals such as Third World Quarterly; Global Governance; Security Dialogue; the International Review of the Red Cross; and Conflict, Security and Development; and in edited volumes published by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press or Routledge. He teaches the course Conflict Resolution and Peace Mediation in Times of Radical Uncertainty and directs the Summer School Module on The UN in a Changing World. He is also a regular contributor to the Institute’s Executive Education courses.
Achim currently also serves as the Institute’s Director of Strategic Partnerships, and as a Faculty Associate at the Institute's Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP). He is also a Member of the Advisory Board of the Geneva Water Hub (a joint Centre between the Institute and the University of Geneva) and of the Board of Trustees of the Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries (KFPE).