Participants and Biographies

Christopher Paine (US) is a Senior Analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Director of its Nuclear Program in Washington, D.C., which he joined in June 1991. Recent areas of work include: the comparative benefits, costs, and security risks of alternative nuclear fuel cycles as a means of stabilizing carbon concentration in the atmosphere; the implications of the Bush Administration’s nuclear preemption strategy for the future of nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation; the technical and strategic case for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and strict limits on U.S. nuclear weapon research activities; the problem of technical fraud in the U.S. missile defense program; and researching the technical verification and institutional arrangements needed to reduce nuclear risks and lay the ground work for transition to a nuclear-weapons-free world. Long associated with congressional and public efforts to end nuclear testing and production of weapon-usable nuclear materials, from February 1987 to May 1991 Mr. Paine was a staff consultant and legislative assistant for nuclear weapons issues to Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he led the successful effort to end US production of plutonium for weapons and laid the groundwork for a legislated end to nuclear testing in 1992. From 1985-1987 he was a consultant to the Project on Nuclear Policy Alternatives, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies (CEES), Princeton University, and a Research Fellow-in-residence at the Federation of American Scientists, Washington, D.C. From 75 1985 through 1986, he also served as staff consultant for nuclear nonproliferation policy with the Subcommittee on Energy, Conservation & Power, U.S. House of Representatives, where, among other tasks, he drafted the amendment that initiated the ultimately successful series of legislative efforts to end U.S. nuclear test explosions, and pioneered the concept of legislating arms control measures contingent upon the reciprocity of other nations. Paine was a member of the first western delegations to visit the secret Soviet atomic city, Chelyabinsk-65 in 1989 and the controversial Soviet early warning radar at Krasnoyarsk in 1987. He was part of the U.S. nongovernmental technical team that in May 1986 negotiated installation of the first joint USSoviet seismic monitoring network in the vicinity of the nuclear test site in Kazakhstan; and he was in Kiev discussing nuclear warhead monitoring issues with Russian and Ukrainian military officials the week the Soviet Union formally dissolved. From 1993-1996, while the CTBT was under negotiation in Geneva, Paine met with nuclear scientists in France, China, India, Pakistan, Russia, and Japan to discuss the technical impact and benefits of the treaty, and make the case for its adoption. Paine was a founding member of both the National Campaign to Stop the MX Missile and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, two major public mobilization efforts to blunt the nuclear weapons buildup of the Reagan Administration in the early 1980’s. Paine is the author or co-author of numerous reports, as well as some 70 articles on arms control, defense, and foreign policy subjects. In the mid 1990’s he served as both technical consultant and member of the Carnegie Endowment’s U.S. - Japan Study Group on Arms Control and Nonproliferation After the Cold War, and as a consultant to the multinational Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Paine is a past president of the Los Alamos Study Group, Santa Fe, N.M., and a 1974 graduate of Harvard University.

Tony Pfaff (US) is a Colonel and a US Army Foreign Area Officer for the Middle East and North Africa. He is a former Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point and has a Masters degree in Philosophy from Stanford University, where he was also a graduate fellow at the Center for Conflict and Negotiation. Beginning in the Fall of 2009, he will be assigned to the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, DC. He has published widely in the field of military and intelligence ethics.

Andrew Proudlove (UK, NATO) is a Wing Commander MBA MCMI RAF. He was commissioned into the RAF Regiment in 1979. He has been employed on Counter Terrorist, CBRN Specialist and Force Protection appointments at home and abroad at tactical, operational and strategic levels. He commanded a NATO Surface to Air Missile Squadron In Germany before returning to the United Kingdom to teach leadership at the RAF College. He then commanded the UK MOD Nuclear Accident Response Organisation’s Field Teams before moving to Whitehall where he was responsible for UK military policy on non-conventional Arms Control. He is currently serving in the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) centre, HQ NATO, Brussels, where he contributes to Alliance CBRN defence strategies, policies and capabilities

Pierre Razoux (France, NATO) is a French Senior Civil Servant and a Doctor of Military History currently working in the Research Division of the NATO Defense College in Rome. He served previously in the Delegation for Strategic Affairs of the French Ministry of Defence and he got a three years appointment in the Policy Division of the British Ministry of Defence as an exchange officer. A specialist on the Middle East, he is a well-known lecturer and researcher who published 7 books and more than 70 academic articles (last book published: History of Georgia – The Key of the Caucasus, Paris, Perrin, 2009). He has practical experience in the field of international affairs and defence, particularly on Middle Eastern, Caucasian, NATO and European matters. He lectures regularly in the field of international affairs, contemporary defence and conflict issues, particularly regarding the Middle East. He gives regular interviews in the media (newspapers, radios, TV).

Celia Reynolds (US) is a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and a graduate student affiliate of the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies (CGPACS) at UCI. She conducted her undergraduate studies at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia where she received a B.A. in Economics. In her graduate studies, Celia’s research agenda is focused on nuclear proliferation and the political economy of the Middle East.

Suleyman Rustamov (Azerbaijan) is chief of the Middle East Research Department at the NATO International School of Azerbaijan. He has attended defense conferences in Italy, Lithuania, and Georgia. Mr. Rustamov has published articles in Azeri and English, including “European Neighborhood Policy and Azerbaijan,” and “Europe Plurality of Identities.” He holds a B.A. in International Relations and an M.A. in International Affairs from Baku State University, Azerbaijan.

Mutasem Sa’edan (Jordan) is a Ph.D qualified researcher working at the Royal Scientific Society’ based Center of Industrial Chemistry.

Isam Safadi (Jordan) works for the Jordanian Interior Ministry.

Nasser Saghafi-Ameri (Iran) is a diplomat by profession. He retired from the Iranian Foreign Service in September 2000 after 32 years of service. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic Research in Tehran. His scholarly activity and research work is mostly focused on the Iranian Foreign Policy, International Security and Nuclear Disarmament. He has authored several publications including five books, several book chapters and nearly 100 articles published in the Iranian and international journals. His latest book (in Persian with a short English abstract) is “Iran and Look to the East Policy” (CSR publications, Tehran, 2008).

Mohamed Ibrahim Shaker (Egypt) is Vice Chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA), a position he has held since 2003, after having served as the Council’s Chairman since its inception in 1999. In 2002, Dr Shaker became Chairman of the Board of the Regional Information Technology Institute (RITI), an affiliate of the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Centre (RITSEC), Cairo. In 2006, he was chosen Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Center for Middle East Studies, Cairo. As of 2009 , Ambassador Shaker was designated member of the Board of The Diplomatic Institute, Egyptian Foreign Ministry. Ambassador Shaker is also a member of the Egyptian International Law Society. Ambassador Shaker was elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development in 2001, a charity organization. As of the outset of 2008 , he was also elected as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Magdi Yacoub Foundation for Heart Research. In 2002, he became a member of the Higher Council for Policies of Egypt’s National Democratic Party (NDP). He is a member of the Party’s Energy and Egypt and the World Committees. Ambassador Shaker was also selected in October 2004 as a member of the Court on Values for a two-year period. Ambassador Shaker held the position of Egypt’s ambassador to the United Kingdom (1988-1997); to Austria and Egypt’s Governor on the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna (1986-1988); and to the United Nations in New York as Deputy Permanent Representative of Egypt (1984-1986), and Deputy Representative of Egypt to the United Nations Security Council (1984-1985). Ambassador Shaker completed his studies as Docteur es Sciences Politiques at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva, in 1975, after having acquired the Licence en Droit (LLB) from Cairo University in 1955. On 22 August 1982, Ambassador Shaker was appointed Representative of the Director-General of the IAEA to the UN in New York, a post he relinquished on 31 December 1983. Ambassador Shaker was the President of the Third 77 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons held in Geneva in August-September 1985. He was also President of the UN Conference for the Promotion of International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy held in Geneva in March-April 1987. He was a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters from January 1993 to December 1998 and Chairman of the Board for 1995 and member of the UN Expert Group on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education (2001-2002). Two of Dr Shaker’s works are The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: Origin and Implementation 1959-1979 (3 volumes), New York :Oceana Publications, Dobbs Ferry, 1980. and The Evolving International Regime of Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Leiden/ Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers,2007 , The Hague Academy of International Law , Recueil des Cours, Vol. 321, 2006.

Guilherme Santana (Brazil) holds a PhD in Risk and Crisis Management from Bournemouth University, England, a MSc. in Management Studies from the University of Surrey, England, and also a Post Graduate Degree on Management from the University of Surrey, England. With an undergraduate degree on management studies from a leading Brazilian university, he has also studied music at the Music Conservatory of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and at the Royal Academy of Music, England. He is the Director of Logistics at STR Energia, Brazil. STR is the largest onshore acreage holder in Brazil, with over 130.000 square kilometers of area under concession. He is also the President of All Hazards Management – Brasil, a leading risk and crisis management consulting firm, and a senior board member of Cowan Petroleo.