EFTA00283376.pdf

1 Terje's Remarks Launch of the Rick Hooper Distinguished Fellowship for International Peace and Security October 19, 2011 Dear friends, It is a great pleasure to see you all this evening. I am delighted to welcome colleagues who participated in today's workshop organized by Peter, and who are joining IPI staff for this informal meeting. Thanks for joining us. This is a very special occasion for me, as I am pleased to announce the establishment of a new fellowship at IPI. We have received very generous funding from one of our donors, who wishes to remain anonymous, and who is happy to support the creation of a fellowship to encourage new talent at IPI. EFTA00283376 I am delighted to announce the establishment of the Rick Hooper Distinguished Fellowship for International Peace and Security. As some of you may know, Rick Hooper was my special assistant in Gaza. He died at age 40 on August 19, 2003, in the terrorist bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. Rick was one of the most, perhaps even the most, talented and creative individual I have known. He was a great expert of Middle East issues and a wonderful person to work with. I find him an inspiring role-model for our staff at IPI. And I hope that this fellowship will contribute to continuing his legacy. And now, I would like to announce the first recipient of this new fellowship: I seized the opportunity of his current visit to New York, And I am delighted to announce that Walter Kemp will be our first Rick Hooper Distinguished Fellow for International Peace and Security. EFTA00283377 3 Walter Kemp is our Director for Europe and Central Asia, based at IPI's office in Vienna. He joined IPI a bit more than one year ago after serving for four years as spokesman and speechwriter at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Before UNODC, Walter worked for 10 years with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), including as Senior Adviser to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities. Walter is an experienced practitioner but also a distinguished academic, with a PhD from the London School of Economics. He is the author of several books, including a Quiet Diplomacy in Action. A title which sounds like a nice motto for our work here. So please join me in congratulating Walter for his distinguished fellowship!,. EFTA00283378 4 Richard M. "Rick" Hooper, died at age 40 on August 19, 2003, in the terrorist bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. Rick graduated in 1985 from University of California Santa Cruz, He spent many years in the Middle East and became one of the UN's chief experts on the region. He became interested in the Middle East as an undergraduate while studying abroad, and he returned to join a campus student organization, the Palestine Support Group, dedicated to promoting awareness of the culture, aspirations, and human rights situation of Palestinians. He spent an extra undergraduate year studying at Birzeit University, studied Arabic on a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Damascus and the American University of Cairo, and received a master's in Arab studies from Georgetown University. EFTA00283379 5 Walter Kemp is Director for Europe and Central Asia, based at IPI's office in Vienna. He joined IPI in August 2010 after serving for four years as spokesman and speechwriter at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). At UNODC his main focus was on Afghanistan, West Africa, piracy, corruption, and the impact of organized crime on security and development. From 1996 to 2006 he worked for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), including as Senior Adviser to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and Senior Adviser to the OSCE Secretary General and Chairmanship. He also assisted in the drafting of the report of the Panel of Eminent Persons on increasing the effectiveness of the OSCE, and the Bolzano Recommendations on National Minorities in Inter-State-Relations. Walter has a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics, a master's in political science from the University of Toronto and a bachelor's (honors) in history from McGill University. He is the author of Nationalism and Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (1999) and Quiet Diplomacy in Action (2001), editor of Blood and Borders (2010), and has written several articles and chapters on issues including conflict prevention, the OSCE, the political economy of conflict, and national minorities. EFTA00283380 6 EFTA00283381