The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy will co-host a crisis management course on how to lead effectively in a turbulent and fast-moving world. Overcoming the mind-set of fear and developing the muscle memory of crisis response is the objective of this RSIS-GCSP Crisis Management course. Rather than a tick-box approach of a process driven response, participants will learn to recognise and adapt the psychological and organisational elements of crisis management. This is achieved by combining the latest theory, best practice and lessons learnt using real-time simulations that enable participants to explore their resilience as individuals, team members and leaders.

Understanding the characteristics of Black Swan events and other disruptive challenges and reacting to these mean that risks need to be assessed and decisions made. Navigating the Storm will help individuals and organisations identify these issues and practice skills in a stimulating and interactive environment. Building trust internally within a team and externally, learning to recognise symptoms of bias and stress participants will leave the course better prepared and skilled to meet whatever crisis they may face in the future.

Course Fee: 2’000 USD. RSIS and GCSP Alumni qualify for a 20% discount. A limited number of partial tuition waivers may be granted on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of the GCSP and RSIS.

Click here to view the course brochure.

About the Experts

Mr David Horobin

Mr David Horobin joined the GCSP in March 2017 as the Cluster Leader for the Crisis Management thematic cluster.

From 2006-2017 he was a delegate at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) holding the position of Head Security and Crisis Management as well as Head of the Rapid Deployment Unit which spearheaded ICRC’s emergency response capability. From 2003-2006 David was Director of the DFID UK Operations Team in the Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs Department. In a 25 year Red Cross/Crescent career he has undertaken many missions across the globe in various operational and security related emergencies including the Rwanda genocide, Iraq, Asian tsunami, Ethiopia, Angola, Japan EQ and whilst working for the British Government was appointed EU High Level Coordinator for Hurricane Katrina. He has developed ICRC and DFID protocols and training programs for complex emergencies such as kidnap management and preparedness, security and crisis response.

A logistician by profession and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics he holds an MSc in Transport Engineering from Imperial College, London and a BSc in Social Science. A Swiss/UK national fluent in English and French he has also worked in the commercial and public sector in transport management in Hong Kong and the UK and is a keen biker, hiker and gardener.

Dr Alistair D. B. Cook

Dr Alistair D. B. Cook is Coordinator of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Programme and Research Fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre), S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. His research interests focus geographically on the Asia-Pacific and Myanmar in particular and thematically on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), foreign policy and regional cooperation. He has taught undergraduate, graduate and professional development courses at Purdue University, University of Melbourne, Deakin University, Nanyang Technological University, Australian National University, Singapore Civil Defence Academy and SAFTI. He has recently published Negotiating Access to Populations of Concern in Southeast Asia (Pacific Review, 2018), Co-authored An Assessment of International Emergency Disaster Response to the 2015 Nepal Earthquakes (with Maxim Shrestha and Zin Bo Htet in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2018); Humanitarian Technology Survey (RSIS Policy Report, 2017), and co-edited Civilian Protection in the Twenty-First Century: Governance and Responsibility in a Fragmented World (Oxford University Press, 2016). | Email: [email protected] | Twitter: @beancook

Ms Janet Lim

Janet Lim has recently retired from the United Nations, after a career which spanned 34 years.

She joined UNHCR, the UN refugee agency in 1980 and has served in various positions both in UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva and in the field. Her field assignments have included UNHCR’s country and emergency operations in different parts of the world, including Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Western Sahara and Syria.

In Geneva, she served in senior positions which included being Director of the Emergency and Security Services, Director of the Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, and during her last 5 years, she was the Assistant High Commissioner (Operations). In this latter capacity she oversaw the work of five regional bureaux responsible for UNHCR’s operations globally, as well as two functional Divisions providing support to the field.

Ms Lim has particular expertise in managing complex emergency operations where populations have been forcibly displaced as a result of war and conflict. She was closely associated with the establishment of UNHCR’s emergency response capacity and mechanisms.

During her career with the UN, she has also been seconded at a senior level to UNAIDS and to the peacekeeping operation, UNAMA  in Afghanistan.

Ms Lim is a graduate of the University of Singapore.

After a stint in the Administrative Service of the Singapore Civil Service, she pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, majoring in Development studies, before joining the United Nations.

Ms Lim is currently a Fellow, School of Social Sciences, as well as an Advisory Board member of the Institute for Societal Leadership in the Singapore Management University.

Dr. Patrick Sweet

Dr. Patrick Sweet is Co-Director of the Leadership Alliance. Dr. Sweet was regional director for Northern Europe at the Center for Creative Leadership responsible for advanced leadership development programs in the region in close collaboration with EMEA CCL teams. He brings 20 years of programmatic business, organisational and leadership development to the Alliance.

Dr. Sweet has been co-lead in several EU funded programs focused on innovation and leadership, was European Developmental Lead for Korn-Ferry International’s European implementation of leadership assessment tools developed by Dr. Sweet’s company, and has coached, consulted and trained in Talent Management and Leadership Development with international, regional, governmental and non-governmental organisations in Europe for 20 years, and in the U.S. prior to this. His Ph.D. is in Business Economics from Lund University, Sweden, with doctoral and graduate studies at the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Dr. Sweet is a U.S. and Swedish national. He migrated to Stockholm, Sweden, where he is based, from the U.S. in 1995 and is fluent in Swedish & English, with reading proficiency in Norwegian.

Mr Martin Richards

Martin spent thirty years in the Metropolitan Police London and retired at Chief Superintendent Rank. During this time he spent fifteen years as a hostage and crisis negotiator and coordinator. On numerous occasions he represented the UK Government, as strategic team leader during kidnap incidents of British subjects. Martin has led surveillance, public order and firearms teams and has designed and implemented national leadership, crisis management and firearms senior command training for all UK police forces. As an Associate Director at Control Risks, Martin managed and advised clients during several kidnap and crisis incidents. He created and delivered a varied programme of kidnap related training products in excess of 40 countries and wrote and reviewed a variety of crisis plans and company response protocols. As Regional Security Director APAC for Bloomberg LP, he was also global lead for all high risk travel where he enhanced risk assessment and briefing protocols. He also improved incident response by introducing a more robust method of documenting crisis incidents. Martin is a self-published author, is qualified as a teacher and national assessor and has an interest in cycling, hiking and all ocean related sport.

Ambassador Christian Dussey

Ambassador Christian Dussey is the Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP).

Prior to this assignment, he served as Swiss Ambassador and Head of the Crisis Management Centre of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). The Centre coordinates the governmental crisis response system during major incidents affecting Swiss citizens abroad (disasters, political upheavals, terror attacks, hostage-taking).

In 2012, he was selected to serve as a fellow at Harvard University (Weatherhead Center for International Affairs), where he spent the academic year 2012-2013.

Among other postings as a Swiss career diplomat, Christian Dussey headed the International Security Section of the FDFA, served as political counselor at the Embassy of Switzerland in Moscow (Russia) and as diplomatic adviser to the President of the Swiss Confederation.

Prior to joining the diplomatic corps of the FDFA, he served for five years at the Strategic Intelligence Service of the Federal Department of Defense. Christian Dussey is also a general staff officer in the Swiss armed forces. He is regularly invited to give lectures on crisis management at various universities and business schools. He was educated at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (MA), at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland (MA), and at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. (exchange student).

Ms Esther Goette

Esther recently joined The Leadership Alliance, an innovative new partnership created by the GCSP and the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) combining deep expertise in peace and security issues and leadership development with the aim to give international peace and security professionals the knowledge and skills to face 21st century challenges.

Esther is a certified coach and an experienced trainer and facilitator on the subject of Leadership Development; Women Leadership; Team Development; Communication; Innovation; Networking and Personal Branding. Prior to becoming a trained coach in 2009, Esther has a successful 20 year career as global marketing executive within several Fortune 200 corporations and small start-up environments, in the FMCG/Consumer Goods sector (Colgate-Palmolive; Clairol; Procter & Gamble), in Health Care (Novartis OTC) and the New Media industry (Agency.com).   She is an experienced global leader of multi-functional and multi-cultural teams and has worked in complex and established matrix structures of multinational corporations  as well as in pioneering start-up environments, in Europe and the USA.

Esther is multi-lingual with fluent German (mother tongue) and English, as well as solid Spanish and conversational French.

Mr Kwa Chong Guan

Kwa Chong Guan is the Co-chair of CSCAP Singapore and Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor (Hon) at the History Department at the National University of Singapore and he is affiliated to the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. Kwa works on a range of regional security issues with a focus on the implicit narratives underlying our framing of regional security issues. He also works on the intersections of history, security studies and international relations of Southeast Asia. Kwa was previously Head of the old Department of Strategic Studies at the SAFTI Military Institute where he taught military history and strategic studies while concurrently teaching history at the School of Arts at the National Institute of Education.