Dr. Alistair Edgar

Dr. Alistair D. Edgar serves as the Executive Director of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), having returned in August 2010 to the position he held previously in 2003-2008.  He currently also serves as co-director of the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies (LCMSDS), and Associate Professor of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, where he has worked since 1993.

Outside of the university, Dr. Edgar is president of the New Delhi, India-based International Jurist Organization (IJO); he is a National Board member of the United Nations Association in Canada (UNAC); and sits on the board of the Canadian Landmines Foundation as representative of the LCMSDS. Dr. Edgar is an Editorial Board member for the Issue Briefs series, from the Center for Governance and Sustainability (University of Massachusetts Boston).

Dr Edgar’s current research interests involve issues of transitional justice in war-to-peace transitions and post-conflict peace building. After completing his first term with ACUNS in 2008, he conducted sabbatical research fieldwork on this subject in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kosovo, and northern Uganda during 2008-10. He intends to return to all locations when possible, to continue his work there.

Dr. Edgar holds a BA Honours in History from Cambridge University (Sidney Sussex College) (1983), a MA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia (1985), and a PhD in Political Science from Queen’s University, Canada (1993). He was the John M. Olin Doctoral Fellow in Economics and National Security at the Olin Institute, Centre for International Affairs, Harvard University in 1992-93, and completed a Certificate in Russian Studies at Moscow State University in 1995.