MODERATORS &

SPEAKERS

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS

moderator

Clive Marshall

Clive Marshall is Chief Executive of PA Group, the parent company of

the Press Association, UKs leading multimedia news agency and digital
content & service provider.
Since taking up the role in February 2010, Mr. Marshall has led the
successful transformation of the business, implementing a strategy to reduce
the Groups reliance on the traditional media sector, and consolidate its
position as the preeminent supplier of multimedia content and services to
customers in the UK and overseas, across media, business and government.
Mr. Marshall was previously Chief Executive of the Australian Associated
Press (AAP).
In addition to his executive responsibilities, he is Chairman of the
motoring business, Baize Group, he is a member of the advisory board at
Sheffield Universitys Department of Journalism and he is a member of the
Nomination Committee of the Thomson Reuters Trust.

Alan Oakley
Alan Oakley began his career with Home Counties Newspapers in the UK
and after working on weekly and evening newspapers, he left the Daily
Express in Manchester and moved to Australia in 1985. He has since been
the Editor of five Australian newspapers, including the Sunday Telegraph,
The Sydney Morning Herald and the Herald Sun. He is currently Network
Editorial Director for News Corp Australia, based in Sydney, where he is
involved in newsroom strategy and content innovation.

Turki bin Abdullah Aldakhil

Turki bin Abdullah Aldakhil is a Saudi journalist and media figure. He
is currently the General Manager of Al Arabiya Television News Network
in Dubai. He is also the owner of Al Mesbar Studies and Research Centre,
Dorba Training Center and Madarek Publishing House in Dubai, Riyadh
and Beirut.
Mr. Aldakhil has tremendous experiences in journalism, business and
politics. He had the opportunity to visit many countries around the globe,
and dealt with people from different cultures, diversities and backgrounds.
In 2007, 2010 and 2011 Arabian Business magazine placed Mr. Aldakhil
among the most influential Arab figures, and in November 2012 ranked
him 29th of the worlds 100 most powerful Saudis. In 2014, he received
the America Abroad Media annual award for his role in supporting civil
society, human rights and advancing womens role in Society in KSA and
the Gulf.

Romanus Otte
Romanus Otte is the Head of Axel Springer Global Network. He is a
passionate publishing executive with over 20 years of experience as a
high level journalist, product and business manager. Currently Mr. Otte
is establishing a cooperative network of nearly 200 companies in many
countries with diversified digital business models that belong to Axel
Springer.
Apart from leading the activities of Axel Springer SE, he is also the General
Manager of DIE WELTN24 in Berlin. Prior to that, he has been responsible
for the digital products of DIE WELT for five years. Before that, he was
member of the editorial board of WELT Group for five years. Mr. Ottes
professional background also includes leading editorial positions at the
Financial Times Deutschland, Tomorrow Internet AG, Deutsche PresseAgentur, WELT am SONNTAG. He is a graduate of Economics at Georg
August University in Gttingen, Germany.

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS

Kim Svendsen
Kim Svendsen is the Director of Stibo Accelerator which he launched in
2014 and is an initiative aimed to support talented young students, interns
and startup companies working on promising innovations for the media,
retail and manufacturing industries. He has worked in the technology and
supplier side of the news industry the past 14 years. Mr. Svendsen recently
held the position as Vice President for one of the Stibo Divisions, CCI
Europe. The Stibo Accelerator program has graduated an array of radical
innovation research projects in the past 24 months focussed on how
cutting edge technologies and emerging trends will potentially impact the
industries Stibo serves.

Yusif Babanli
Yusif Babanli is the Special Correspondent and representative of Azerbaijan
State News Agency (AZERTAC) in the United States. He is also co-founder
and board member of several Azerbaijani-American organizations
including the U.S. Azeris Network (USAN), U.S. Turkic Network (USTN),
and Houston Azerbaijanis (HA). Throughout his work in diaspora
building and community relations, he has also served as the Vice-President
of Azerbaijani American Council and board member of United Nations
Organization - Houston Chapter. With extensive knowledge of ArmeniaAzerbaijan conflict he has authored numerous articles and has spoken on
the issue at various forums and roundtables. Mr. Babanli holds a Bachelors
degree in American Studies from Western University in Baku, Azerbaijan,
and Political Science and Masters degree in Finance from Lindenwood
University in St. Charles, MO. His current research includes conflict
analysis and transformation in European conflicts.

Mbaire Bessingar
Mbaire Bessingar is the General Director of Chad Information and
Publishing Agency. Born in 1957 in the town of Endu, he graduated from
Felix Eboue College in NDjamena in 1979 and Niger Information and
Communication Technologies program at Instruction Institute in 1999.
From 1999 through 2009, Mr. Besingar worked as the director of digital
radio programs and assistant director of news department. In 20092011, he was assistant general secretary of Human Rights and Freedoms
Development Ministry. In 2011 he was appointed the Director of Chad
Information Agency.

Mikhail Gusman

moderator

Mikhail Gusman is First Deputy Director General of the Russian news agency
TASS. He is the author and anchor of the Formula Vlasti (Formula of Power)
TV series, one of the best-known and most influential media executives and TV
personalities in Russia.
As the author of the series of television profiles of world leaders for the Russianspeaking audience around the globe, he has produced over 350 programs on
leaders from 170 countries under the Formula of Power logo. Mr. Gusman
is a recipient of a number of professional awards, along with the Russian State
Prize, the highest recognition of professional achievement, conferred for the
series alone. Apart from TASS, Mr. Gusman holds a number of other leadership
positions in domestic and international professional bodies. He is a Board
member at the All-Russian Mediasoyuz (Media Union) and of the Moscow
Union of Journalists. He also serves as Vice-President of News Agencies World
Council, Executive Secretary of the World Association of the Russian Press
(WARP), as Secretary-General of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies
(OANA) and represents Russia at UNESCOs Intergovernmental Program for
the Development of Communication (IPDC).
Born and raised in Baku, Azerbaijan, Mr. Gusman is a graduate of the Azerbaijani
University of Foreign Languages and the Baku School of Political Sciences
(with an advanced degree in journalism). He is a Member of the International
Academy of Information in Moscow, a Professor and Doctor of Political Science.

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS

Park No-Hwang
Park No-Hwang is the President and CEO of Yonhap News Agency, Koreas
key newswire agency. Prior to his appointment as the president of Yonhap,
Mr. Park served as the director of Yonhap Infomax. Park, a graduate of
the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, joined Yonhap in 1983 and
had served in several of the companys key posts, including chief of the
companys Washington branch, editor-in-chief and as a managing director
in charge of international and business affairs before moving to Yonhap
Infomax, the financial news and market intelligence arm of Yonhap News,
in 2012. Mr. Park worked as president of the financial news service the same
year before becoming the companys special missions director in 2013.

Tony Gillies
Tony Gillies joined AAP as Editor-in-Chief in January 2004, having spent
25 years in various editing and group roles with Australian newspaper
publishers. Mr. Gillies was appointed with a mandate to bring the news
agency closer to its subscribers and aid them in their transition into the
digital era. Under his leadership AAP has become a true multimedia
agency serving innovative storytelling on all platforms to all media and
the corporate sector in Australia and New Zealand. In addition to editorial
responsibility Mr. Gillies has revenue accountability for the AAP newswires.

Peter Clifton
Peter Clifton has been Editor-in-Chief of the Press Association since
January 2015. He was previously the Editor of the Ceefax teletext service,
and both the BBC News and Sport websites during a 15 year career at the
corporation, and was also Executive Producer of the MSN UK website for
three years. Mr. Clifton began his career as a news and sports reporter at the
Chronicle and Echo evening newspaper in his home town of Northampton,
and also had a stint as chief sub editor on the Press Association sports desk
in Fleet Street in the early 1990s. Throughout his professional career, Mr.
Clifton has managed teams through significant change, including new
strategies, expansion, mergers, budget cuts and redundancies.

Mohammad Khodadi
Mohammad Khodadi is the Managing Director of Islamic Republic News
Agency (IRNA). Prior to being appointed to the position in 2013, he served
as the Consul General of Iran in Lahore, Pakistan in 2001-2004; Head of
the Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2000-2001,
Director of Media Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1998-1999,
Secretary of Organizing Committee of Islamic Conference of Information
Ministers in Tehran in 1998, Secretary General of the Organization of
Asia Pacific News Agencies (OANA), ECO News
Agency (ECONA)
and Association of Caspian Sea News Agencies (ACSNA) in 1995-1998,
Secretary General of Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool (NANAP) in
1995-1998, the President-Publisher and Chief Editor of English-Language
Newspaper Iran Daily in 19972001, Iran Newspaper Founders and
Editorial Board Member in 1996, IRNA Policy Council Member in 1994,
IRNA Director General of International News and Cooperation in 19931998, IRNA New Delhi Bureau Chief in 1989 - 1992, IRNA Chief Editor of
Economic News Desk in 1988 and Director General, Support Department,
President Office in 1982-1987. Mr. Khodadi holds a Bachelors degree in
Media Management.

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS

moderator

Bruce Davidson

Bruce Davidson has been Chief Executive of Australias domestic news

agency, Australian Associated Press, since 2010.
Mr. Davidson began his career as a cadet journalist in regional Victoria
before moving to community newspapers in Melbourne and a stint in the
UK.
He joined the Herald and Weekly Times in Melbourne in 1980 where he
was a sub-editor on the-then afternoon daily, The Herald.
He moved to the Sun News-Pictorial in 1985 and served in several senior
editorial roles including the News Editor and Features Editor. He was also
the founding Deputy Editor of the Sunday Sun, now the Sunday Herald
Sun. Mr. Davidson formed Pagemasters, a page-ready solutions provider
in 1991. In 2002, Pagemasters was acquired by AAP and he stayed on as
Managing Director until his appointment as AAP CEO in 2010.

Meinolf Ellers
Meinolf Ellers (55) is the Chief Digital Officer of dpa. He joined the agency
in 1985 and was a reporter and foreign correspondent. For the last more than
20 years he worked as a leading intrapreneur within the dpa. He founded
or managed several subsidiaries and was in charge of dozens projects
and product innovations. Two of his initiatives received the award of the
European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA): the MINDS research project
on mobile media including the MINDS network of agencies (2006) and the
next media accelerator (2016). Always interested in what comes next, Mr.
Ellers had also initiated Scoopcamp to explore new ideas in journalism.
He is a co-founder of the Next Media Accelerator, which invests in earlystage start-ups in the media and advertising industry and links them to the
media industry and investors in a six-month program.

Jose Ignacio Martin Gomez

Jose Ignacio Martin Gomez is a video journalist who has worked at
the Spanish news agency EFE since 1988. Mr. Gomezs work experience
includes projects with various TV stations, companies and institutions that
are or have been clients of EFE. As a video reporter at EFE, he extensively
covered news on national and international issues. Apart from working in
his home country, Mr. Gomez has also been stationed in Germany for two
years and United Kingdom for four.
In recent years, his work is focused more on the development of video on
demand (web content) for institutions and companies. Besides practical
video journalism, Mr. Gomez also has experience in training and marketing.
He collaborates with Canon Spain and its professional assistance CPS
department since 2011 as a video specialist.

Ted Anthony
Ted Anthony is the Director of Asia-Pacific news operations for The
Associated Press, based in Bangkok, Thailand. He oversees text, video and
photography from the Koreas across Asia to India and down to Australia
and New Zealand. He has worked with the AP for 24 years in both the
United States and overseas, and has reported from more than 25 countries
in capacities from national correspondent to political correspondent to
China news editor. In 2004, he was the founding editor of asap, an early
cross-platform news service run by AP whose innovative storytelling
techniques are now standard practice in the industry.
He was also instrumental in APs early use of social media, user-generated
content and real-time news - the principles and practices of which he now
oversees daily in a region composed of more than 30 nations and 200 AP
staffers and freelancers. A graduate of Penn State University in the United
States, he is also the author of the cultural history book Chasing the Rising
Sun: The Journey of an American Song.

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS

Anita Tobias
Anita Tobias is the Global Head of Sales at Reuters News Agency. Ms. Tobias
brings years of experience leading sales and marketing teams, overseeing
distribution and monetization of content to web, mobile, television, radio,
cable and publishing outlets to drive sales results. She joined Thomson
Reuters in May 2011 and was promoted to the current position in May
2015.
Prior to joining Reuters, Ms. Tobias held various leadership positions at
Bloomberg Media, leading and building sales and marketing teams across
Bloombergs numerous businesses. Until 2001 she ran North American
operations for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate as Vice President. Before
joining The Los Angeles Times, she was EVP of a start-up syndication
company she helped launch.
Ms. Tobias studied Business and Marketing at California State University,
Fullerton. She is an avid reader with a love of food and wine and a passion
for politics. She is currently based in New York City.

Shenol Kazanci
Shenol Kazanci is the General Director of Turkish state press agency
Anadolu Ajansi. Originally from Turkeys northeastern Trabzon province,
he did his early schooling at the Kartal Anatolian Imam Hatip High School
in Istanbul. Later, he studied law at Istanbul University.
He became the chief editor of the Turkish television channel, TV Net. He
also wrote articles for the daily Yeni Safak until 2011, when he was appointed
as Recep Tayyip Erdogans principal consultant during his prime ministry.
Mr. Kazanci went on to serve as a chief advisor when Recep Tayyip Erdogan
became the president and simultaneously he served as the head of corporate
communications department at the presidency.

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Sergei Mikhaylov
Sergei Mikhaylov is Director General of Russian news agency TASS. He
joined the news agency in September 17, 2012. Prior to TASS, Mr. Mikhaylov
held various top managerial positions at Russian Railways JSC, including
the Head of Public Relations Department, Advisor to the CEO and Member
of the Management Board. From 2000 to 2001, he served as the President
of the Russian Division of International Communications Consultancy
Organization (ICCO). A member of Russian Union of Journalists, he has
made substantial contributions, including authoring over 200 publications.
Mr. Mikhaylov is a graduate of International Journalism Department
at Public Relations Division of Moscow State Institute of International
Relations (MGIMO) under the Auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Russian Federation.

Kakuya Ogata
Kakuya Ogata is the Managing Director of the International Department of
Kyodo News, which is in charge of Kyodos foreign language news services
and global strategy. Kyodo News, founded in November 1945 is the leading
news agency in Japan. It has 52 domestic and 43 overseas bureaus.
Mr. Ogata was appointed to his current post in 2015 after serving as Deputy
Managing Director of the Digital Operations Department and Deputy
Managing Director of the Management and Planning Office. Mr. Ogata
also served as a correspondent at the Kyodo Washington Bureau. Prior to
that he also served as the Chief of the Kyodo Bonn and Berlin bureaus.

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MODERATORS & SPEAKERS

moderator

Dr. Farid Ayar

Dr. Farid Ayar is an acclaimed author and journalist. In October 2016, Dr.
Ayar was elected Secretary General of Federation of Arab News Agencies
(FANA) for the 8th time. Native of Baghdad, he obtained Bachelors degree in
Philosophy and holds Masters and PhD degrees from Leipziger Universitt,
Germany. He had worked as a journalist for the Iraqi News Agency managing
the agencys foreign bureaus department. In 2004, Dr. Ayar was nominated
by the U.N. Secretary General to be a member of the Independent High
Commission for Elections formed by the U.N. to supervise the first free
elections in Iraq following the fall of the previous regime. He participated in
three great elections organized in Iraq during 2005.
As a media professional, Dr. Ayar had written several books, including The
Future of News Agencies (1984, UNESCO Publication, Paris in Arabic and
French); Studies in Information and Psychological War, published in Beirut
in 1989; The News Brokers A Study about international news agencies and
their spheres of influence, published in Kuwait in 2002; and Arab Information
Security The Booby-Trapped Satellite T.V. stations, published in 2004. In
2005, he also foudned the first Arab private news agency with the cooperation
of the United Nations which concentrated on publishing unbiased, transparent,
objective and balanced news. It is considered at present the biggest private
news agency in Iraq and its ownership reverts to the Iraqi Journalists Union.

Joanne Lin Weir

Jo Weir works as Head of Global Training for DMA-Media, Europes largest
independent media training company. She is a board member of NewsDecoder (www.news-decoder.com) which is an educational news service
and discussion forum which provides a platform that links young people
around the world with expert journalists.
Ms. Weir currently also works with Chime for Change and others on
humanitarian projects which empower women and girls. This includes
organizing journalism training and mentoring for women journalists. Her
background is in media development and the launching of news platforms.
She worked for 25 years for Reuters Foundation and Thomson Reuters
Foundation where she was the Director of Journalism Training and Media
Development.
As a media consulting professional, Ms Weir helped to set up the first
independent news agency, Aswat al-Iraq, in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
She directed a team of Egyptian journalists to set up Aswat Masriya (www.
aswatmasriya.org)- a multimedia news and information website linked to
social media - in the immediate aftermath of the Egyptian Revolution and
worked with a Zimbabwean team to set up The Source in Harare which
provides independent business news.

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Eric Wishart
As a former AFP editor-in-chief, Eric Wishart is a member of the Agencys
global news management. Based in Hong Kong, he recently drew up new
ethical and sourcing guidelines for the Agency.
He began his career in newspapers in Scotland and joined AFPs English
desk in Paris in 1984. He has served as head of the Agencys Middle East
English service in 1992-1996, Asia-Pacific editor in 1996-1999, editor-inchief in 1999-2005 and Asia-Pacific director 2005-2012.
Mr. Wishart currently works on special editorial projects for the Agencys
global news management. He is also a part-time journalism lecturer at
Hong Kong Baptist University and a member of the Hong Kong Foreign
Correspondents Club board of governors.
He has British and Irish nationalities and is a permanent Hong Kong
resident.

Alejandro Ramos Esquivel

Alejandro Ramos Esquivel is the Director General of the Mexicos state
news agency NOTIMEX.
Prior to joining NOTIMEX in May 2013, Mr. Esquivel has worked as the
Director General of MBW Mexican Business Web from 2008 to 2013, the first
website specializing in information and analysis on business opportunities
in Mexico. MBW was the product of a partnership he set up as the cofounder of the initiative with the University of the Americas, Mexico City
Campus. Before that, he also worked as Commentator for Canal 40 TV
from 2005 through 2013 and was a Chief Editor of El Financiero newspaper
from 1981 through 2012.
Mr. Esquivel has graduated with a Bachelors degree in journalism and
communication from the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and
took a television course on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
He also has a Masters degree in Institutional Relations by the Superior
Institute for Prospective Studies in Mexico City, Mexico.
Apart from full time job as the Director General of NOTIMEX, he also
contributes to Noticiario Mexico al Dia with Reflections on Educational
Television.

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MODERATORS & SPEAKERS

Scott Kraft
As deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, Scott Kraft is
responsible for Top Stories, including the front page and major investigative,
explanatory and narrative reporting projects.
During more than two decades at The Times, Mr. Kraft has been a national
and international correspondent as well as a news department head. He
joined the paper in its Chicago bureau and later was bureau chief in Nairobi,
Johannesburg and Paris. He covered the release of Nelson Mandela and
the end of apartheid and the ill-fated U.S. military mission in Somalia. His
story for the Los Angeles Times magazine on the AIDS epidemic in Africa
won the SPJ Distinguished Service Award for Foreign Correspondence.
After a decade abroad, Mr. Kraft moved to Los Angeles and was named
National Editor, overseeing national correspondents and the Washington
bureau. During his 11 years as National editor, he directed coverage of
many major stories, including 9/11, three presidential elections, the Clinton
impeachment, the 2000 Florida recount and Hurricane Katrina. Reporters
on the National staff won four Pulitzer Prizes during his tenure.
Mr. Kraft was a Pulitzer Prize juror in International Reporting in 2014 and
chaired the Public Service jury in 2015. He came to The Times from the
Associated Press, where he was a national correspondent based in New
York and a 1984 Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing.

moderator

John Daniszewski

John Daniszewski is the Vice President and Editor at Large for Standards.
He was appointed to the position in July 2016 after more than a decade
leading its international news department as international editor, senior
managing editor and vice president for international news.
Mr. Daniszewski spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent for
the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times. He was a correspondent in
Cairo, Moscow, and London, where he was bureau chief for the LA Times,
and he covered conflicts in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo, Chechnya,
Afghanistan, and Iraq, as well as the aftermaths of civil wars in Rwanda
and Angola. In 1989, he was shot in the arm and seriously wounded while
covering the overthrow of Romanias Nicolae Ceausescu.
Mr. Daniszewski became international editor at the AP in 2006, in which
capacity he oversaw 600 journalists in 100 bureaus outside the US. He was
appointed APs managing editor for international news in 2007, and in 2008
was a Sulzberger Executive Leadership Fellow at Columbia Journalism
School. He was part of a team that won an Overseas Press Club award in
2006 and that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2007 for coverage of Iraqs
descent into civil war.
Mr. Daniszewski had graduated from the University of Pennsylvanias
Wharton School.

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David Schlesinger
David Schlesinger is the founder and Managing Director of Tripod
Advisors, a consultancy that advises on political risk analysis, strategy and
on running complex, dispersed global organizations with an emphasis on
China and the media sector.
He previously served as the Chairman of Thomson Reuters China and was
responsible for government relations and businesses in financial markets,
legal and regulatory databases, scientific information and journalism.
Mr. Schlesinger was appointed to that role after being the global Editor-inChief of Reuters News, running all aspects of the 3,000-journalist strong
international news service.
A graduate of Oberlin College and Harvard University, Mr. Schlesinger
joined Reuters Hong Kong bureau in 1987 as a correspondent. From 1989
to 1995, he ran editorial operations in Taiwan, China and the Greater
China region. He then transferred to New York to serve in turn as Financial
Editor, Managing Editor for the Americas and Executive Vice President
and Editor of the Americas before taking on global roles based in London
starting from 2004.

Miklos Haraszti
Miklos Haraszti is a Hungarian author, professor, and human rights
promoter. is books have been translated into many languages. He founded
Hungarys human rights and free press movement in the 1970s, and was
a Member of Parliament in the 1990s. From 2004 to 2010, Mr. Haraszti
served as the OSCEs Representative on Freedom of the Media. Recently, he
headed several OSCE/ODIHR election observation missions.
Since 2012, he has served as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on
human rights. He has taught at several universities, including Columbia
University, New York, and Central European University, Budapest. Mr.
Haraszti is director of research on human rights at the CEU Center for
European Neighborhood Studies.

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MODERATORS & SPEAKERS

Maxim Minchev
Maxim Christov Minchev has been the Director General of BTA (elected
by Bulgarian Parliament) since 2003. He was re-elected for another term in
2012.
Mr. Minchev has also served as the President of the Black Sea and Balkan
Association of News Agencies, Secretary General of ABNA and BSANNA,
Council member and Press director of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, editor
and moderator at Bulgarian National Radio and Radio Free Europe.
Hes the author of 11 books and over 2500 publications in daily and
periodical press, 1500 analytical pieces, reports and commentaries in
electronic media. A professional journalist, he has served as the special
correspondent for different media platforms on political and cultural
events in Bulgaria.
Mr. Minchev has been a participant and lecturer in many symposiums,
international conferences, seminars and round tables on international
security, economy and media problems.

Vugar Seidov
Vugar Seidov is the Special Correspondent and representative of
Azerbaijan State News Agency (AZERTAC) in Germany. He has served at
refugee relief NGOs, Soros Foundation, RFERL. Mr. Seidov holds a Masters
degree in European Studies from Central European University in Budapest,
MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge (U.K.)
and Ph.D. in History from Moscow Lomonosov University. His current
research includes energy geopolitics and regional conflict resolution. He is
the author of numerous publications in history and political affairs.

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