On the occasion of International Day of Peacekeepers on 6th June 2016, I had the pleasure and honour to co-organize with the United Nations Regional Information Centre, the UN Liaison Office for Peace and Security (UNLOPS) and the European External Action Service a debate on the Past, present and future of UN Peacekeeping. The debate was based on the findings of our Oxford Handbook of UN Peacekeeping Operations and drew an active crowd of diplomats, policy-makers, academics, students and the general public. ​Co-panelists included Rory Keane (Head of UN Liaison Office for Peace and Security in Brussels) and Clara Ganslandt (European External Action Service - dealing with UN-EU partnership in peacekeeping).  

From 11 - 12 May 2016, I had the pleasure of co-organizing with Ambassador Ken Yalowitz and Craig Zelizer (Program for Conflict Resolutions, Georgetown University) an intense two-day workshop to bridge perspectives and experiences from practitioners and scholars in the field of peace and security studies. The workshop brought together 40 policy-makers (from NATO, the EU, UN, national ministries, the US , Belgian and Swedish militaries and NGOs) as well as European and US scholars to debate the gaps and communalities in the areas of transatlantic approaches to major security threats, practitioner-scholar dialogue and between the disciplines of peace and security studies. 

The workshop served as a kick-off event for a wider research network co-lead by Vesalius College and Georgetown University on bridging the scholar-practitioner divide.