№ 38, 2024. PIR Center concludes a new round of expanding PIR Center Advisory Board

MOSCOW. SEPTEMBER 24, 2024. PIR PRESS. «The excellent dynamic of our expert capital is the key to our projects’ success. We invest in the development of the PIR Center Advisory Board. I am sincerely glad that in July 2024, the year of the PIR Center’s 30th Anniversary, people who have been close to our team for so many years (sometimes even being a part of it) and made a significant contribution to our work – both educational and academic – are joining it. Jackpot!», – Dr. Vladimir Orlov, Founding Director of PIR Center.

PIR Center is pleased to announce the expansion of its Advisory Board in the second half of 2024. Among the new members are leading Russian practitioners working in diplomacy, business, academia, research, and analytics, who have been collaborating with PIR Center on a wide range of issues for several years.

Some of them once even held full-time positions in PIR Center. In particular, Mr. Andrey Baklitskiy, a Senior Researcher in the WMD Programme at UNIDIR, joined the PIR Center Advisory Board in 2024. Previously, he held various positions in PIR Center, such as a Program Director. Similarly, among the PIR Community members, Ms. Yulia Tseshkovskaya, previously an Assistant to the PIR Center Founding Director, Project Coordinator, and PIR Center Consultant (2017-2020), joined the organization’s Advisory Board this summer.

Renewed PIR Center Advisory Board also traditionally includes representatives of the Russian diplomatic corps: Mr. Andrey Belousov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva; Mr. Igor Vishnevetskiy, Second Class Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (retired), an independent expert; Mr. Vladimir Ladanov, Head of the South Pacific States Section at the Third Asia Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry. They have been interacting with PIR Center for many years on issues related to educational projects and public diplomacy events and preparing analytical and research materials. Dr. Elena Suponina, PhD in Philosophy and Religion and a political analyst, is a well-known expert on the Middle East and Asia and a wide range of international relations and global security issues. For 15 years, she was a member of the Kremlin’s analytic media group. Now, she provides analytics for various Russian and foreign outlets and media. Remarkably, all the participants highlighted her brilliant lectures at the Education & Training Program conducted by PIR Center in 2023.

Dr. Elena Suponina, PhD in Philosophy and Religion, political analyst, highlighted, “Joining the PIR Center Advisory Board is similarly an honor and a responsibility. The organization has crossed the 30-year watershed and has entered its best period of energetic maturity and authoritative fame. The high bar of expert objectivity requires additional efforts, yet PIR Center has proven that it can do much and even more. From my experience of participating in conferences, seminars, and lectures, I know well about its wide geographic coverage, a unique combination of various methods, and organizational discipline. I hope we will consolidate these ranks and reach new heights!”

The complete list of PIR Center Advisory Board members is available on our website.

PIR Center Advisory Board, established in 1995, plays a crucial role today in the organization’s project activities. It brings together more than ninety leading international relations specialists and major research centers. Among the experts are representatives of think tanks and research centers, government agencies and business structures, public figures, and journalists from Russia and abroad. Based on the collective membership, the Advisory Board includes ten research institutes working in global security. The geographical composition of the PIR Center Advisory Board currently covers such countries as Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Norway, Russia, Turkey, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the United States. PIR Center started renewing its Advisory Board in 2021. From 2021 to 2023, more than 20 new experts from Russia and abroad joined the PIR Center Advisory Board. Read more information about it here.

Mr. Vladimir Ladanov, Head of the South Pacific States Section at the Third Asia Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, noted, “It is a great honor for me to become a PIR Center Advisory Board member and to join the authoritative cohort of professionals. I am willing to assist in implementing educational and research projects to disseminate knowledge, raise awareness, and encourage academic discussions on current arms control and international security issues.”

PIR Center Advisory Board members participate in PIR Center educational projects as speakers, lecturers, reviewers, and consultants and support PIR Center academic activities. They are involved in strategic planning for further organization development. Also, PIR Center Advisory Board members have deep expertise in various global security issues. Each has a unique personality, rich experience, and a life path full of achievements and mistakes, which is especially valuable and vital for future generations of international relations specialists. Traditionally, PIR Center Advisory Board members are invited as participants in a series of informal Open Collar interviews, where they share their life and work memories and lessons. You can read more about it on our website.

Key words: PIR Center Advisory Board

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F4/SOR – 24/09/24