Former Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch, Department of Disarmament Affairs at the United Nations | USA
Dr. Swadesh Rana is a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York and the UN Representative of the Academic Council of the UN System. Dr. Rana is the former Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch at the Department of Disarmament Affairs at the United Nations.
She designed the Gramsh Pilot Project for Albania, the UN’s first ever undertaking to offer community development incentives for the recovery of wrongfully acquired weapons. During her two decades career at the United Nations, Dr. Rana directed research for the groups of inter- governmental experts appointed by the Secretary-General on issues ripening for the conventional disarmament agenda, was a member of the Executive Office of the Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, was selected as the Senior Political Aide to the Chief of UNPROFOR to brief the army on the political aspects of the operation and served as the focal point for CASA. the mechanism instituted by Secretary General Kofi Annan for system wide coordination of activities on small arms. Dr. Rana is at the IDSA to write a policy oriented monograph on “Non-State Actors and South Asia: Developing a Regional Frame of Reference.”
