Expert Roundtable:

The Future of Peace in Eurasia

Event Description

The Eurasian region is home to a series of frozen conflicts that have periodically reignited, or that have the potential to reignite, including conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Chechnya, and the states that comprised the former Yugoslavia. This year, Armenia and Azerbaijan have lodged separate cases at the International Court of Justice against each other on the application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. At the same time, a number of Eurasian states, e.g. Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia are in the process of WTO accession, and are building closer partnerships with the European Union (in different forms, including through accession). By exploring the connections between trade relations and foreign policy, the panelists will discuss the future of regional partnership via these trade networks and whether there is a path to a more permanent peace and if so, what that may look like. This panel examined the prospects for future peace and stability in Eurasia from a holistic perspective–drawing from the panelists' backgrounds in peace negotiations, trade, diplomacy, self determination, and conflict resolution.

This event is part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes monthly expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and war crimes prosecution.

This event was held as part of the World Trade Organization’s Trade for Peace Week 2021. The WTO's Trade for Peace Week 2021 built on the discussions and partnerships established between the trade and peace communities since its launch last year. Through a focus on Eurasia, this year's program, organized in partnership with the Government of Kazakhstan which is the co-chair of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference to be held at the end of November, addressed opportunities, challenges, and approaches to harnessing trade as a vehicle to promote peace and security.

Event Recording

SpeakerS

**Ambassador Thomas Greminger**
Ambassador Thomas Greminger is the Director of the Geneva Center for Security and Policy (GCSP) and a former Secretary General, Organisation of Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Ambassador Greminger joined the diplomatic service of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 1990. He has held numerous senior management positions during his career. Prior to his appointment as OSCE Secretary General, he was Deputy Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. From 2010 to 2015, Ambassador Greminger was the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the OSCE, serving as Chair of the Permanent Council during Switzerland’s 2014 OSCE Chairmanship. Prior to his assignment at the Permanent Delegation of Switzerland to the OSCE, Greminger was Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affair’s Human Security Division, Switzerland’s competence centre for peace, human rights, and humanitarian and migration policy.

**Professor Milena Sterio**
Milena Sterio, the Charles R. Emrick Jr. - Calfee Halter & Griswold Professor of Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Managing Director at PILPG is a leading expert on international law, international criminal law and human rights. Sterio is one of six permanent editors of the prestigious IntLawGrrls blog, and a frequent contributor to the blog focused on international law, policy and practice. In the spring of 2013, Sterio was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, spending the semester in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Baku State University. While in Baku, she had the opportunity to teach and conduct research on secession issues under international law related to the province of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh. Serving as a maritime piracy law expert, she has participated in meetings of the United Nations Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia as well as in the work of the United Nations Global Counterterrorism Forum. Sterio has also assisted piracy prosecutions in Mauritius, Kenya and the Seychelles Islands. Sterio is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the University of Paris I, and was an associate in the New York City firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton before joining the ranks of academia full time. She has published seven books and numerous law review articles. Her latest book, “The Syrian Conflict’s Impact on International Law,” (co-authored with Paul Williams and Michael Scharf) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.

**Ambassador Tudor Ulianovschi**
Ambassador Tudor Ulianovschi is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova, the former Ambassador of Moldova to the United Nations and WTO in Geneva, to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and a recent candidate for the position of the Director-General of the WTO. He previously served as the President of the Trade and Development Board of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),Vice-President of the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Chair of the Steering Committee on Trade Capacity and Standards at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and Chair of the Balance of Payments Committee at the WTO. A distinguished diplomat, with postings in Washington, Doha and Geneva, Ambassador Ulianovschi is currently a Senior Vice President at Grasshopper Energy, where he is focused on renewable, clean, and sustainable energy promotion and storage.

**Ambassador Zorica Marić-Djordjević**
Ambassador Zorica Marić-Djordjević is a Senior Peace Fellow at PILPG. Her career in public service and diplomacy spans 40 years. Amb. Marić-Djordjević was the Head of the Permanent Mission of Montenegro to the World Trade Organization and Special Representative of Montenegro to the UN Human Rights Council between 2013-2015. She has held leadership positions, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro and the Chief Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister. She served as the Special Envoy of the Prime Minister and President of Montenegro to the US and the Head of Montenegro’s Trade Mission in Washington, DC. She was responsible for coordinating USAID assistance and was the liaison to the US Congress, State Department, and the Pentagon for the Government of Montenegro. Through these positions, Amb. Marić-Djordjević made a case for Montenegro's independence and its membership in NATO. She participated in the NDI/UN peacebuilding mission in Sierra Leone in 2007 and led the PILPG Mission in South Sudan in 2010. After retiring from diplomatic service in May 2020, she became highly engaged in the WTO Trade for Peace network as a strategic advisor. She continues to advocate on issues of transitional justice, human rights, and empowerment of women. She is a visiting speaker at El Colegio de Mexico, Guillermo Aguilar Alvarez – Program in International Trade Negotiation for 2021.

MODERATOR

Dr. Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca I. Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University where he teaches in the School of International Service and at the Washington College of Law. Dr. Williams is also the co-founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), a pro bono law firm providing legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and the prosecution of war criminals. As a world renowned peace negotiation lawyer, Dr. Williams has assisted over two dozen parties in major international peace negotiations and has advised numerous parties on the drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions. Several of Dr. Williams' pro bono government clients throughout the world joined together to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. Williams has served as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as an Attorney-Adviser for European and Canadian affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Dr. Williams is a sought-after international law and policy expert. He is frequently interviewed by major print and broadcast media and regularly contributes op-eds to major newspapers. Dr. Williams has authored six books on various topics concerning international law, and has published over three dozen scholarly articles on topics of international law and policy. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on a number of occasions relating to specific peace processes, transitional justice, and self-determination. Dr. Williams is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and has served as a Counsellor on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. In 2019, Paul was awarded the Cox International Law Center's Humanitarian Award for Advancing Global Justice. More information about Dr. Williams can be found at www.drpaulrwilliams.com.