Nahid Ahmed is the Chief Program Officer at Soliya, a global leader in virtual exchange, dialogue facilitation, and intercultural learning. She leads the strategic design, scale, and evaluation of Soliya’s programs, working with universities, civil society organizations, and global networks to strengthen the infrastructure for constructive dialogue across cultural, political, and ideological divides.
With nearly two decades of experience in international education, conflict resolution, and curriculum design, Nahid’s work focuses on equipping institutions and emerging leaders with the skills and frameworks needed to engage across difference in increasingly polarized environments. She advises universities and organizations on integrating dialogue-based learning, facilitation training, and experiential global engagement into academic pathways and workforce development initiatives.
Her work sits at the intersection of pedagogy, technology, and applied dialogue science, and she has contributed to research collaborations exploring how dialogue and virtual exchange shape empathy, attitudes, and intergroup understanding while helping advance emerging practice in dialogue and depolarization.
Born in Bangladesh and raised across Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and India, she brings a deeply personal understanding of cross-cultural connection. She is based in New York.
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Karol Nathaly Mejía is an intern at the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT). She is based in the Bogotá office, where she supports research, analysis, and project tasks related to IFIT’s work in Colombia.
Prior to joining IFIT, Karol worked with “Rodeemos el Diálogo”, a Colombian organization focused on peacebuilding and monitoring the implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement. She holds a degree in Political Science from Universidad de los Andes (2025) and is interested in peacebuilding, gender, political representation, and education as a tool for social transformation.
Working languages: English and Spanish.
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The Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) is pleased to announce the establishment of the Security Engagement Practice Group (SEPG): a distinguished group of global experts focused on advancing constructive engagement between civic groups and state security actors in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
Civic groups and state security actors in these contexts often operate at a distance from one another – a separation that can deepen mistrust and limit opportunities for meaningful policy dialogue. The SEPG aims to help close the gap by providing practical analysis and advice to civic and security stakeholders alike on how to identify, cultivate and sustain trust-building engagement and dialogue.
Comprised of 15 retired senior military figures, civil-military relations specialists, security sector reform experts, and civic diplomats, the establishment of the SEPG builds on IFIT’s in-country engagements with civic groups and state security actors worldwide, and draws on findings from IFIT’s groundbreaking multiyear study, Dialogue with State Security Actors in Hybrid Regimes: Recommendations for Constructive Engagement.
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The Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) is pleased to announce the formation of the Security Engagement Practice Group (SEPG): a purpose-built group of distinguished experts focused on advancing constructive engagement between civic groups and state security actors in fragile, conflict-affected and hybrid regime contexts.
Civic groups and state security actors often operate at a distance from one another – a separation that can deepen mistrust and limit opportunities for meaningful policy dialogue. The SEPG aims to help close this divide by generating innovative knowledge, providing practical analysis and offering targeted advice to civic and security stakeholders on how to identify, cultivate and sustain trust-building engagement and dialogue.
Comprised of retired senior military figures, civil-military relations specialists, security sector reform experts, and civic diplomats, the SEPG builds on IFIT’s extensive in-country work engaging both civic groups and state security actors, and draws on findings from IFIT’s groundbreaking multiyear study, Dialogue with State Security Actors in Hybrid Regimes: Recommendations for Constructive Engagement.
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Traumatic experiences affect more than the individual; they are often collectively transmitted
through group narratives, cultural symbols and social memory. While these narratives help
communities make sense of harm, they can also entrench rigid identities, polarise intergroup
relations, and perpetuate cycles of fear, blame and exclusion. In this 40-minute video,
Frauke de Weijer, Alison Castel and Refik Hodžić of IFIT’s Inclusive Narratives Practice
Group and Melanie Greenberg of IFIT’s International Advisory Council share practical
strategies for addressing collective trauma and polarising narratives in ways that help break
cycles of violence.
Using her recent publication as a starting point for the discussion, De Weijer notes that
traumatic events interrupt people’s understandings of self, relationships to others, and how
they fit in the world. When this occurs at a collective level, groups enter a process of
meaning making, using narratives to restore a sense of cultural continuity and psychological
safety. While this coping strategy can build resilience, it often leads to in-group hyper-
defensiveness, reduced empathy towards out-groups, and even justifications of militarism
and violence. This affects both groups perceived as victims and groups perceived as
perpetrators.
Going into further detail, De Weijer’s co-author Castel discusses ways frozen narratives
create memory prisons, so that past traumatic events are experienced as continually
happening in the present, even for generations that were not directly harmed. Post-traumatic
narratives are often enforced through narrative policing, which sets explicit and implicit rules
about what can and cannot be said and how individuals are expected to behave as members
of the in-group. In addition to being imposed by political actors and state institutions, these
rules may be internalised by entire populations over time, which means that post-traumatic
narratives regulate meaning, distribute legitimacy, and shape the possibilities for
constructive cross-group engagement at scale.
Hodžić offers examples of narrative policing from his hometown of Prijedor, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, 35 years after ethnic cleansing in the area. He describes municipal authorities’
efforts to promote a dominant narrative of Serb self-defense rather than aggression during
the Yugoslav Wars, which extends to not giving local groups permission to erect a memorial
to the 102 local children killed during the conflict. He notes that these efforts reference and
enforce memory prisons regarding Serb collective trauma under the Ottoman Empire and
during WWII, discussing ways post-traumatic narratives are used to hold on to political
power. Finally, Hodžić argues that a similar dynamic is playing out across the world, pointing
to examples ranging from the situation in Israel-Gaza to negative attitudes towards
reparations for slavery to justifications for violence against migrants.
Reflecting on the role of post-traumatic narratives in peacebuilding, Greenberg argues that
the field has shifted in the past two decades from a focus on political compromise and
institutional arrangements to a more systemic approach that prioritises individual and
collective healing. She discusses the value of public acknowledgement of victimhood during
dialogue processes, as well as learning lessons from neuroscience about relaxing the brain
enough through rituals, for example using music, to open the mind to cross-group
engagement. Drawing on examples from Armenia, South Sudan and Colombia, Greenberg
describes in-person and digital narrative change initiatives that focus not on challenging
dominant, divisive narratives, but rather on enriching the narrative landscape with diverse,
complex stories that better reflect social realities and enable dialogue.
De Weijer and Castel delve further into strategies that enable narrative enrichment. The first
is facilitated processes that promote self-reflection on how narratives mould worldviews and leaders use narratives to mobilise their constituencies, with the aim of building narrative
literacy and resistance to manipulation. The second strategy is using narrative tools to create
the conditions within and across groups for multiple, even conflicting, narratives to coexist
without being forced into coherence. And the third strategy is making more publicly visible
the stories that are typically not told, while doing no harm by remaining attentive to the risks
that speaking out can pose. Because people in post-traumatic contexts are not only
struggling to heal but also often navigating fear, anger, silence, vulnerability and regulated
speech, peacebuilding in such contexts by necessity calls for both a narrative lens and
implementation of narrative change processes.
Dr. David Darchiashvili is a professor in international relations, history and regional studies at Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. Until recently he was also a director of the Center for Russian Studies – a Georgian non-governmental think tank. Born in 1960, Darchiahsvili graduated from the history department of the Tbilisi State University in 1982. Defending two doctoral theses – one in History (1991) and another in Political science (2002), Darchiashvili had number of research fellowships: 2002-2003 Fulbright scholarship, at the Johns Hopkins University, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, US, being one of those.
Through years, he was a leading researcher at the Institute of Caucasus Studies of Peace, Democracy and Development, Tbilisi, Georgia, the head of the parliamentary research department, director of the Open Society Georgia Foundation. In 2008-2016 Darchiashvili was a member of the Georgian Parliament, focusing on legislative activity on the issues of European Integration and National Security. In 2010-2012 he was heading the Georgian delegation in the EU Eastern Partnership (Euronest) inter-parliamentary assembly.
David Darchiashvili authored and co-authored a number of books and academic articles on Georgia’s modern history, security problems and civil-military relations. Among those are: “Georgia: The Search for the State Security”, Caucasus Working Papers, CISAC, Stanford University (1997); “Georgian Security Problems and Policies,” in The South Caucasus: A Challenge for the EU, Chaillot Papers, Institute for Security Studies (Paris, 2003); “Soviet Path Dependency as an Impediment of the Democratization in Georgia,” in Modernization in Georgia (Interdisciplinary Studies No. 18, Peter Lang, Bern, 2018); “Russo-Georgian War of August 2008 – Clash of Ideologies and National Projects in the Era of Hybrid Warfare,” Estonian Journal of Military Studies, 7 2018); Darchiashvili, David, Ronald Mangum, “Georgian Civil-Military Relations: Hostage to Confrontational Politics,” Caucasus Survey, Volume 7, Issue 1, 2019; Darchiashvili, D., and Grozovsky, B. “Georgia’s Backsliding from Democracy. Is the Russian Path Dependency on the rise?,” (Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy (2023); Darchiashvili, D., and Samarganishvili, Z., “Trajectory of Polish and Georgian National Projects: Case a for Comparative Nationalism Studies,” Ilia State University (2025) (in Georgian).
On various occasions, David Darchiashvili participated in networking with American, German, Finnish, Polish, British, Armenian, French and Austrian Universities and think-tanks.
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Gen (rtd) Martin Luther Agwai CFR GCOR AFM NAM GSS is a retired four-star general of the Nigerian Army who served as Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Staff, holding Nigeria’s highest military appointments. He had a long and distinguished career spanning tactical, operational, and strategic leadership both in Nigeria and internationally, and is a committed advocate for peace, stability, and democratic values in Nigeria and across Africa.
During his military service, General Agwai held senior command, training and diplomatic roles, including Nigerian Defence Adviser covering Southern Africa (Harare, Zimbabwe), Director of Military Training at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), and Deputy Military Adviser at UN Headquarters in New York. He also served as Force Commander of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and became the first Joint Force Commander of the AU–UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), one of the largest peacekeeping missions of its time.
Following his retirement from active service, he has held academic and leadership positions, including Visiting Professor at the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London, and Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Calabar. He currently serves as Director of the Olusegun Obasanjo Leadership Institute in Nigeria.
He is a graduate of the Nigerian Defence Academy, the British Army Staff College (Camberley), the U.S. Army Armor School, and the U.S. National Defense University in Washington, DC, where he earned a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy and was later inducted into the institution’s Hall of Fame. He is a recipient of numerous military, national and international honours, including Nigeria’s Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) and a Sierra Leone National Honour the Grand Commander of the Order of the Rokel (GCOR).
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Rocío San Miguel is a lawyer with postgraduate studies in security and defence, a human rights activist, and president of Control Ciudadano para la Seguridad, la Defensa y la Fuerza Armada Nacional, a Venezuelan armed-forces oversight organisation.
In public service in her country, she has worked as an analyst and researcher for the National Security and Defence Council, Legal Advisor to the National Borders Council, Director General of the Office of the Ministry of Infrastructure, and Associate Advisor to the Centre for Advanced Military Studies.
San Miguel has been a professor of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights at Venezuela’s Naval War College, Air War College, and National Guard Military Academy. She has also taught Security Studies at the Universidad Metropolitana and lectured on the law of armed conflict at the Graduate Studies Centre of the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences at the Universidad Central de Venezuela.
After two years of wrongful imprisonment (2024–2026), she is currently focused on the process of institutionalisation, coexistence, and democratic peace in Venezuela, developing proposals in the areas of security and human rights.
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Dr. Risa Brooks is the Allis-Chalmers Professor of Political Science at Marquette University, a Fellow in the Future Security program at New America, and a Non-Resident Senior Associate in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Her current research primarily focuses on U.S. and comparative civil-military relations in democratic states, security forces/sectors and contentious politics. She also maintains a longstanding interest in the armed forces of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and in armed forces in non-democracies. Most recently, much of her research focuses on the role of the armed forces in eroding democracies and explores both how political leaders implicate the military in anti-democratic initiatives and how militaries variously respond in ways that both advance and impede democratic regression.
Dr. Brooks is the author and editor of several books, including “Shaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment” (Princeton University Press). Her research has also appeared in leading journals including International Security, Annual Review of Political Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Security Studies, Armed Forces & Society, Journal of Strategic Studies, European Journal of International Security, and Journal of Global Security Studies. Her scholarship often aims to bridge regional and subfield divides, especially in the study of civil-military relations. Currently she is working on a co-edited volume that examines patterns of politicization of the military in nine democracies around the globe.
Beyond academia, Dr. Brooks regularly speaks to audiences of practitioners, including military personnel from the U.S. and other militaries. She also engages with the public through podcasts, articles, and blog posts that have appeared in publications such as Foreign Affairs, Just Security, World Politics Review, Carnegie Middle East Center, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Her commentary on contemporary U.S. civil-military relations is regularly cited by journalists.
Dr. Brooks received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego, and has held positions as Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and Senior Fellow at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
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Paula Cristina Roque is an author, researcher, and analyst with extensive expertise in human rights, security, and surveillance in Africa. She is the current Executive Director of Intel Watch and has served as an advisor on Sub-Saharan Africa for the Crisis Management Initiative as well as a Senior Analyst for Southern Africa with the International Crisis Group (ICG).
Previously, she worked as a Senior External Advisor for the South Sudan-Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies and a Senior Researcher for the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). She has also served as the China in Africa Research Co-ordinator for the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIA), as a journalist in West Africa and the United Kingdom, and in 2020 founded a non-profit organisation Changes for Humanity that operates across the global South funding transformative community projects.
Paula holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Oxford, a MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Social Anthropology from the Instituto Superior de Ciencias do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE).