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OTHER WRITINGS AND RELATED ACTIVITIES

This page has links to a selection of writings by, and relating to the work of, Nichole Georgeou, as well as links to activities associated with her work.
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BOOKS:

FORTHCOMING: Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, Police-Building and the Responsibility to Protect: Civil society, gender and human rights culture in Oceania, Routledge, London & New York, September 2014, (Hardback) 224 pages. 


ABOUT: This book examines how the UN and states provide assistance for the police services of developing states to help them meet their human rights obligations to their citizens, under the responsibility to protect (R2P) provisions.
It examines police-capacity building ("police-building") by international donors in Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea (PNG). All three states have been described as "fragile states" and "states of concern", and all have witnessed significant social tensions and violence in the past decades. The authors argue that globally police-building forms part of an attempt to make states "safe" so that they can adhere to norms of human rights with the framework of a developing democratic polity, allow the flow of capital for investment and profit taking, and be responsible members of the international community. Oceania as a region thus illuminates numerous issues in post-conflict state-building found in other parts of the world. The case studies explore international assistance in policing provided to the Global South and link these with police-building operations elsewhere in the world — particularly Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo since around 2000), the Caribbean (Haiti since 1999) and Europe (Kosovo since 1999) — so as to develop a typology of police-building. The aim is to contribute to the debate concerning the appropriateness of the aid given, and to determine if a relationship exists between R2P and police-building.

The Oceania region allows the authors to explore and analyse the relationship between police-building and R2P at different levels of international relations. Specifically, the book examines the range of activities adopted by the UN and other police organisations to evaluate if there is any correlation between police-building and entrenching a culture of respect for human rights within society. These case studies operate at three levels: at the multilateral level, where we explore the UN in Timor-Leste; at the regional level, as regional organisations are prominent in peace operations, we examine the Pacific Islands Forum’s Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI); at the bilateral level, as North-South bilateral ties are common across the world, we survey Australian policing aid (supplemented by that of New Zealand) to these states.

The authors argue that a culture of human rights in the two of the three states (Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands) is being fostered, but that police-building does little if anything to spread knowledge of R2P. Rather, an improvement in the level of knowledge and respect for human rights is due to the activism of local and international NGOs who link through transnational civil society to advocate for improvements in police treatment of citizens, publicise police abuses and pressure politicians to take action.
This book will be of much interest to students of the R2P, development studies, security-sector reform, statebuilding, peace and conflict studies, Asia-Pacific Politics and IR in general. [LINK to publisher]

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Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, editors, The Globalization of World Politics: Case Studies from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific (Third Edition), Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2013.

ABSTRACT: This is a companion of 33 case studies by 24 experts to accompany the Sixth Edition of the internationally respected OUP text by John Baylis, Steve Smith, Patricia Owens, The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations. The Studies include one by Nichole Georgeou: "Aid Volunteering and Voluntourism: Transnational Actors, State and Market", and six co-authoured by Nichole Georgeou and Charles Hawksley--"Australia's Seat on the UN Security Council"; "Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger in the Pacific"; "Migration and International Law: The Pacific Solution Mark II"; "Socio-Institutional Neoliberalism, Securitisation and Australia's Aid Program"; "Sovereignty and Intervention in Southeast Asia"; "West Papua and Indonesia: A Forgotten conflict?". [LINK]

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Nichole Georgeou, Neoliberalism, Development, and Aid Volunteering, Routledge, New York: NY, 2012. 

ABSTRACT: This book is Study Number 33 in the Routledge Studies in Development and Society Series. It comes at a time of global crisis and change, and a world ravaged by natural disasters and poverty. This has increased pressure on governments and other organisations such as volunteer sending agencies which provide aid, and we have seen an upward trend in the number of people volunteering abroad. Within this volatile environment neoliberal ideology on how aid should be provided and implemented has become embedded in how policy is formulated. A market-driven model of aid provision has become the norm and governments are increasingly focused on international development volunteering as a form of 'soft diplomacy'. 
This is the first qualitative empirical study of international development volunteering. The book contributes theoretical knowledge on International Volunteering Sending Agencies (IVSAs) and examines practitioner experience in development volunteering in the context of emerging policy developments. Critical analysis highlights the impact of global and social changes and provides a nuanced understanding of development volunteer motivation, and the relationship between volunteers and sending agencies. The book also puts forward an agenda and model for volunteer sending that addresses the complexities and diversity of the volunteer experience. 
[LINK to publisher]

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CHAPTERS:

Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, "Transitional Justice as Police-Building in Solomon Islands: Tensions of State-Building and Implications for Gender", in Natalia Szablewska and Sascha-Dominik Bachman (Eds.), Current Issues in Transitional Justice: Towards a More Holistic Approach, Springer International Publishing Switzerland, 2015, pp. 133-160.


ABSTRACT: Modern interventions focused on state building usually incorporate some mechanisms for transitional justice. The 2003 intervention of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) initially favoured criminal trials to achieve transitional justice, while local initiatives promoted community healing. RAMSI adopted a security paradigm that viewed the conflict as a matter of law and order, rather than as a complex historical and social issue. A central aim of RAMSI has been to rebuild trust in the state’s police force, however this has been a particularly complex process as during the conflict from 1998-2003 many members of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) were implicated in serious crimes. RAMSI has pushed for a generational renewal of the RSIPF, but its emphasis on institutional mechanisms of state control and legal processes has resulted in a lack of coordination with local preferences for restorative justice. This chapter uses a gender lens to unpack the tensions and implications of the RAMSI intervention for women, arguing that the security-first paradigm, along with the exclusion of women from the initial Peace Agreement, has entrenched existing patriarchal social relations and has been counterproductive to later gender-mainstreaming initiatives in peace-building. [LINK]

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Nichole Georgeou, "Aid Volunteering and Voluntourism: Transnational Actors, State and Market", in Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, editors, The Globalization of World Politics: Case Studies from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific (Third Edition), Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2013.

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Nichole Georgeou and Charles Hawksley, "Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger in the Pacific: Toward the first Millennium Development Goal", in Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, editors, The Globalization of World Politics: Case Studies from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific (Third Edition), Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2013.

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Nichole Georgeou and Charles Hawksley, "Socio-Institutional Neoliberalism, Securitisation and Australia's Aid Program", in Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, editors, The Globalization of World Politics: Case Studies from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific (Third Edition), Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2013.

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Nichole Georgeou and Charles Hawksley, "West Papua and Indonesia: A Forgotten Conflict?", in Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, editors, The Globalization of World Politics: Case Studies from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific (Third Edition), Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2013. 

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Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, "Australia's Seat on the UN Security Council", in Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, editors, The Globalization of World Politics: Case Studies from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific (Third Edition), Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2013.  


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Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, "Migration and International Law: The Pacific Solution Mark II", in Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, editors, The Globalization of World Politics: Case Studies from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific, (Third Edition), Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2013. 


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Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, "Sovereignty and Intervention in Southeast Asia", in Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, editors, The Globalization of World Politics: Case Studies from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific, (Third Edition), Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2013.

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Andrew Goldsmith, Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, "The Responsibility to Protect in Oceania: A Political Assessment of the Impact and Influence of R2P Principles on Police Forces", Research in Focus 2012, Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, University of Queensland, Brisbane, pp. 42-45. [LINK]



ABSTRACT: The project ‘R2P in Oceania’ is a political assessment of the impact and influence of R2P principles on the developing police forces of three states, Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea (PNG). It links most strongly with the Centre’s priority concept two: supporting states to build their capacities to protect their own populations from abuses of human rights, including genocide and mass atrocities. This articulates with the Responsibility to Assist, the least studied aspect of the UNSG’s ‘Three Pillars’ Approach to R2P. Our research provides empirical findings surrounding the process of police-building in these states. It points to the critical role of CSOs in monitoring police actions, and in education the community. At the same time we have identified a need for greater involvement by CSOs in the process of police-building, in particular in drawing attention to the importance of gender mainstreaming in peace-building in post conflict societies. A key finding has been identifying the disjuncture between the international norms of UNSC Resolution 1325 and their implementation by patriarchal institutions such as police forces, especially in relation to addressing the serious social problem of sexual and gender based violence. International police-building efforts are conscious of this matter, however progress is slow. A central problem is the creation or  renewal of trust in police as an institution. Progress is being made, and police in Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands are showing the effects of the large international investment. Policebuilding in PNG is too small to expect any outcomes, and while this remains the case the propensity for abuse of power and abuse of rights by police continues.


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ARTICLES

Nichole Georgeou, "Volunteering for development: Tensions around conducting multi-sided ethnography with volunteers", ACFID University Network Case Study Series, Ethical Research in Development, Australian Council for International Development, February 2015.

ABSTRACT: A scholarly and personal account of the ethical, and human issues and values involved in a specific example of ethnographic research and field-work, with wider research implications and relevance. [LINK

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Colleen McGloin and Nichole Georgeou, '''Looks good on your CV': The sociology of voluntourism recruitment in higher education", Journal of Sociology, 26 January 2015, pp. 1-15.

ABSTRACT: The recruitment for what has become known as 'voluntourism' takes place on the campuses of many Australian universities. Students are recruited to travel to developing countries to aid poor communities. In doing so, according to recruiters, student CVs will be enhanced. The authors critically examine this process and argue that it reinforces the idea that 'poor' countries require outside help from affluent westerners to induce development, thereby reinforcing a hegemonic discourse of need. [LINK]

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Nichole Georgeou and Charles Hawksley, "Foreign Aid Budget: promoting Australia's interests at the expense of the poor", Academics Stand Against Poverty Oceania, 2014-15 Budget Response, ASAP Oceania, Sydney University, 2014. [LINK]

ABSTRACT: A critical discussion of the 2014 Foreign Aid provisions of the 2014-15 Abbott government's budget (May 2014). The authors argue that the government's strategy and Foreign Aid budget cuts are aimed at promoting the interests of Australia via market led 'solutions', rather than addressing the problems of structural poverty.  


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Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, "RtoP's Second Pillar: the Responsibility to Assist in Theory and Practice in Solomon Islands", R2P Ideas in Brief, Volume 4, Number 1, 2014, pp. 1-9. [LINK]


ABSTRACT: This paper explores the implementation of a regional capacity-building program in Solomon Islands, a state that experienced significant violence and political tension between 1998 and 2003. The July 2003 intervention of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) is a useful and relevant case study for understanding the operationalization of Pillar II of  RtoP, which the authors have termed the “Responsibility to Assist” (RtoA). While RAMSI has not consciously adopted RtoP language in its operations, the rationale for the intervention included humanitarian as well as wider regional security concerns. The mission’s emphasis on developing the state’s capacities in policing has supported the development of a human rights culture. RAMSI is thus illustrative of RtoP’s Pillar II as it demonstrates a regional intervention to enhance a state’s capacity to protect its population from mass atrocities.


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Nichole Georgeou and Charles Hawksley, "Foreign Aid Policy II", Australian Political Party Poverty Audit, August 2013, Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) Oceania, University of Sydney, 2013, pp. 38-39. [LINK]

This report is an anaysis by leading experts regarding the policies of the major Australian political parties (the Liberal/National coalition, the ALP, the Greens) in relation to poverty in Australia and abroad. It was prepared ahead of the September 2013 Federal election. The report's brief to contributors was to be brief and readable. For an overview of this comprehensive report, its contexts, aims and concerns, follow the link to this article in The University of Sydney News, 19 August 2013.
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Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou, "Issues in Australian Foreign Policy: July to December 2012", Australian Journal of Politics and History, Volume 59, Issue 2, June 2013, pp. 260-275.

ABSTRACT: A survey and discussion of Australian foreign policy issues during the period July to December 2012. The authors focus on the period’s high degree of policy continuity characterised by bilateral support for the US Alliance, an emphasis on creating wider trade opportunities within neoliberal globalization, particularly in East Asia, and international engagement with the world through multilateral bodies such as the United Nations and its agencies. They review the return to the Pacific Solution, the Australian presence in the UN Security Council, the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper, and focus on the linking of gender concerns to aid delivery in the region previously referred to as the Arc of Instability. [LINK]

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Nichole Georgeou, "How Volunteering in Development Became 'Duchessed'", WhyDev blog, 8 January 2013.

ABSTRACT: Discussion of the ways in which development volunteering has been stripped of its political meaning and lost its social justice and political dimensions. While the language of 'participation', 'partnership' and 'empowerment' is retained, volunteering has become infused with national interest and economic agendas. It is not a process, however, that is unchallenged. [LINK]


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Charles Hawksley & Nichole Georgeou, "Pillar II in Focus-The Responsibility to Assist: Police Capacity Building in Timor-Leste and the 2012 Parliamentary Elections", APC R2P Brief, Vol 2, No. 6, 2012.

ABSTRACT: This briefing paper provides a short background to the 2012 elections in Timor-Leste, and explores the UNPOL mandate to support and build the capacity of the Polícia Nacional de Timor-Leste (PNTL – the Timor-Leste National Police), so that Timor-Leste will be able to manage security for its citizens without international assistance. Based on fieldwork conducted during June 2012, including interviews with human rights-focused NGOs, and with international police implementing bilateral and multilateral capacity building, we argue that the 3,200-3,400 strong PNTL is theoretically ready to go it alone when the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste departs, and explore questions as to how the force will be used by the government, and the way in which further diverse institutional police capacity-building efforts by bilateral donors can be coordinated. [LINK]

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Charles Hawksley & Nichole Georgeou, "Pillar II in Practice: Police Capacity-Building in Oceania", Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, APC R2P Brief, Vol 2, No. 4, 2012.

ABSTRACT: At the recent AusAID sponsored UN Strategy and Coordination Conference on the Regional Capacity to Protect, Prevent and Respond (May 17-18, Bangkok), the UN Secretary General’s  Special Representative on Responsibility to Protect (R2P), Edward Luck, noted that while the three pillars of R2P are becoming better known, 90% of the academic work is on Pillar III (Intervention), even though it is comparatively rare. In contrast we know much less about Pillar II: The Responsibility to Assist. 

In this briefing paper the authors explore  police capacity-building (“police-building”) in three developing states of Oceania and its relation to R2P. This activity forms part of a larger challenge of Security Sector Reform (SSR) occurring within an even wider paradigm of state-building. SSR is linked with the idea of development, as well as with aid delivery and the transmission of technical knowledge and expertise. 
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Nichole Georgeou & Susan Engel, "The Impact of Neoliberalism and New Managerialism on Development Volunteering: An Australian Case Study", Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 46, No. 2, June 2011, pp. 297-311. 


ABSTRACT: Within the large volume of research on aid and development there has been limited study of international development volunteering generally and the ways in which it has been affected by neoliberalism. Development  volunteering has undergone a resurgence over the past decade and some new forms of volunteering have emerged, but state sponsored development programs are still a key form. These programs were relatively immune from neoliberal ideas and managerial practices until the early 2000s. An interesting puzzle is why neoliberal principles were operationalised in Australia's volunteering program at the same time as it, and other donor states, softened this focus in the rest of their aid program. These shifts in Australia's development volunteering programs have changed the logic, forms and outcomes of development volunteering. 
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Nichole Georgeou, "From Hōshi to Borantia: Transformations of Volunteering in Japan and Implications for Foreign Policy," Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, Volume 21, No. 4 (2010), pp. 467-480. 

ABSTRACT: This study explores the relationship between state-citizen relations and changing notions of volunteering in Japan. I map Japan's state-citizen relations through an analysis of the transformations of volunteering in Japan from hōshi” (mutual obligation) to "borantia" (borrowed from the English "volunteer"). The article broadly considers these paradigm shifts in terms of the context of the role International Non Profit Organisations (INPOs) play in Japanese foreign policy. 
[Link to article here]
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Nichole Georgeou & Brendan Joyce, "Volunteering in a neo-liberal development paradigm: A Timor-Leste case study", Discussion Paper, Palms Australia.

ABSTRACT: Nichole Georgeou and Brendan Joyce from Palms Australia question the role volunteers play in AusAID policy in Timor-Leste, pointing to a risky conflict between the aims of volunteering and those aid programmes in which volunteers work.

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REVIEWS:
Nichole Georgeou, "Review of Olivera Simic, Regulation of Sexual Conduct in UN Peacekeeping Operations, Springer: Heidelberg, 2012", Griffith Law Review, Volume 23, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 149-151.

ABSTRACT: Review of the 2012 study by Olivera Simic on the regulation of sexual conduct in UN peacekeeping operations. The reviewer critically examines this study and explains what sets it apart from previous studies of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse in the context of international peacekeeping. [LINK]

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THESES:
Nichole Georgeou, "Australian Volunteers Abroad in the Asia/Pacific Region: Altruistic and egotistic desire in a neoliberal paradigm (2006-2009)". PhD Thesis, University of Wollongong, 2011. 

NOTE: This Doctoral dissertation provided the basis of what became Neoliberalism, Development, and Aid Volunteering (2012). See description of the book above. [THESIS LINK] 


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Nichole Georgeou, "Tense relations: the tradition of Hoshi and emergence of Borantia in Japan". Master of Social Change and   Development, Honours Thesis, University of Wollongong, 2006.

ABSTRACT: In this thesis I examine the transformations of volunteering in Japan from “hōshi”(mutual obligation) to “borantia” (borrowed from the English “volunteer”).  I argue changes in the forms of volunteering overtime point to important shifts in state-citizen and state-civil society relations in Japan.  Hōshi emerged during a period of Japan’s history when the state had an increasingly authoritarian approach to managing its subjects.  It reflects this cultural context as it embodies a strong sense of obligation and is characterised by notions of service and sacrifice, particularly dedicated service to the greater good of the Emperor and state.  In contrast the concept of borantia is associated with free will and social contribution.  Borantia has had a tremendous impact on the way Japanese citizens view civil society.  Its emergence marked a change in popular consciousness about the role of citizen’s vis-à-vis the state and departure from Japan’s traditional form of volunteering (hōshi) which has connotations of obligation to the state and Emperor.  First appearing in the 1960s and 1970s, the word “borantia” was used to describe residents’ and citizens’ movements.  After the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of January 1995 the notion of borantia was propelled into popular public consciousness leading to the enactment of The Law to Promote Specified Non-Profit Activities (NPO Law).  This represented a significant landmark in state-citizen/state civil society relations. However, the effectiveness of the Law to enable an autonomous civil society has been impeded by traditionally low corporate and individual giving, as well as a reliance on the state for funding. Tension remains in Japan because the old systems and practices that supported hōshi remain along side new systems and practices that led to the emergence and proliferation of borantia.  
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CONFERENCE PAPER:
"International Development Volunteering in Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea: the tensions of 'partnership'", Fifth Oceanic Conference on International Studies, Sydney University, 19 July 2012.


ABSTRACT ONLY: There has been a rejuvenation of interest in, and support for, international development volunteering since the early 2000s. A focus on ‘partnership’ in development scholarship, policy and practice over the last decade is one of the reasons that scholars and practitioners of development have renewed their interest in development volunteering; understood as a grass-roots approach to development concerned with building people-to-people relationships. In line with such understandings of volunteering the Australian government views its volunteer programs as the ‘human face’ of government aid and as integral to building community links that sustain development and alleviate poverty, as well as generating ‘trust’ between communities and governments. At the same time there has been a restructuring of the Australian government’s volunteer program to tie it more closely to the government’s aid agenda, a move that has led to the operationalization of neoliberal principles within the volunteer sending program. This paper considers the tensions between assumptions of harmonious relationship building that operate within Australia’s state-sponsored volunteer sending programs, and the recent demands of neoliberal managerialism from the perspective of volunteers in the field. The presentation presents findings of research on the experience of volunteering in the Asia Pacific, in particular on Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea. The research is from a three-year research project funded by the Australian Research Council and hosted by an industry partner Palms Australia.

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DISCUSSION PAPER 
[with reference to the work of Nichole] 
Roger O'Halloran, "Missionaries, International Development Volunteers and Beyond: Prophetic Wisdom for Cross-Cultural Engagement", Palms Australia Discussion Paper, 2011/12.

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the evolution of a program, from its birth in 1961 as the Paulian Association Lay Missionary Secretariat (PALMS) to the eve of its Jubilee (50th year) where some characterise it as an International Development Volunteer (IDV) program. It considers influences on the vision, mission, values, philosophy, policies, process, and practice that have taken the program beyond simply being either a missionary service, or an international development program.
[LINK]
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CONFERENCE OUTCOME DOCUMENT:  
Regional Capacity to Protect, Prevent and Respond: UN-Asia Pacific Strategy and Coordination Conference, Bangkok, 17-18 May, 2012.  


ABSTRACT: The Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibilty to Protect (APC R2P), in cooperation with the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and in partnership with Chulalongkorn University, organized a two-day conference on 17-18 May in Bangkok, Thailand.  The meeting brought together some 80 international and local participants from various sectors across the globe to discuss and debate on the principle of R2P and its implementation. This Conference Outcome Document provides the contextual highlights, focuses on the key debates, and suggests recommendations. Dr. Nichole Georgeou was a Speaker at this conference.
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OTHER ACTIVITIES:
INTERNATIONAL ONLINE FORUM: On 19 April 2013, Nichole was one of ten international experts on an online discussion panel organised by The Guardian (UK) newspaper. The subject of discussion was 'VOLUNTEERING IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: HOW TO DO IT WELL'. [LINK]