Kishore Mandhyan’s work covers peacekeeping and diplomacy; teaching and research in global security, political ecology and social change; civic and political activism in sustainable development; and international administration and governance.
He was Political Director and Deputy Director for Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Human Rights in the Cabinet of the United Nations Secretary General. He represented the Executive Office of the Secretary General to the International Parliamentary Union, and was responsible for portfolios related to the Alliance of Civilizations, Human Security, Peace building; Protection of Civilians, Coordination of anti-Piracy operations off the coast of Somalia, Restoration of Buddha’s Lumbini Cultural site/ Nepal; North and Horn of Africa (Western Sahara/ Morocco, Libya) and West, Central and South Asia including the Gulf.
Prior to the UN secretariat in New York, through the nineties until 2007, he led political and civil operations in UN peacekeeping missions and transitional administrations in conflict zones. These included countries which emerged out of the former Yugoslavia – Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Kosovo in Europe; Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Cyprus, Jordan in West Asia, Gulf and the Middle East. At the World Bank in the Office of Science and Technology he researched and co-wrote the Strategy for Renewable Energy Technologies.
In the eighties, he taught International Relations/ Organization, Comparative Politics and Environmental Policy at Boston College, Tufts and Harvard and served as a panelist on public and foreign affairs in various national and global forums. He was recognized for Excellence in Teaching at Harvard, at Tufts by the Institute for Global Leadership and Jai Hind College (Bombay University) for his international service, and as a thought leader at the World Vision Institute.
And as member of the Save Mumbai Committee he co-drafted the Citizen’s Urban Regional Environmental Approach in response to the Municipal Development Master Plan of 1981-2001. He has reviewed and drafted several reports of the UN Secretary General to the General Assembly and the Security Council on peace, security and sustainable development. He worked on the State Advisory Council to the Maharashtra State Executive, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Working Group, Political Education and Training Committee and Disciplinary/ Grievance Cells, on matters related to party organization, manifesto, policy/ program and election campaign issues, funding and external relations.
Associations he is a part of include the Triglav Circle (France), Transnational Futures Foundation (Sweden), Global Dialogue Forum (Australia), TITLI (Teacher’s Institute for Transformative Learning in India). He was also a member of the Greenpeace Advisory Board/ New England Chapter, and produced and ran a cultural radio show ALMANAC on FM 91.5 geared to the South Asian migrant community in Boston. His interests are in travel and comparative research on Indian states, South Asian and Indian foreign policy, governance of UN peace operations; poetry; architecture, permaculture gardens, community sustainable agriculture and slow food (Terra Madre).
Leave a Reply