Hon. Philip E. Coyle

National Security Expert

United States

The Honorable Philip Coyle was a senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation. He previously served as a senior advisor to the president of the World Security Institute and the Center for Defense Information. He has nearly 50 years of experience in research, development and testing matters and is a recognized expert on U.S. and worldwide operational military matters, nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons technology, as well as national security policy and defense spending.

In 2010 and 2011, Coyle served as the associate director for National Security and International Affairs (NSIA) in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. During the George W. Bush administration, he served on the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission. As former assistant secretary of defense and director of operational test and evaluation, Coyle was responsible for overseeing the test and evaluation of over 200 major defense acquisition systems. During the Carter administration, he served as principal deputy assistant secretary for defense programs in the Department of Energy and oversaw nuclear weapons at all stages of development and production.

Coyle passed away on September 2, 2021.

Prime Min. Massimo D’Alema

Political Leader

Italy

Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema is an influential Italian politician, chairman of Fondazione Italianieuropei and a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies. He was vice prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in the second Prodi government from 2006 to 2008, prime minister from 1998 to 2000, and a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2006.

Amb. Ivo H. Daalder

Diplomat

United States

Ambassador Ivo H. Daalder is president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, one of the oldest and most prominent international affairs organizations aiming to influence the discourse on global issues through leadership dialogue, public learning and opinion and policy formation. He previously served as the U.S. permanent representative to NATO, for which he received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Daalder has also served as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and as associate professor at the School of Public Policy and director of research at the Center for International and Security Studies, both at the University of Maryland.

Daalder is a member of the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction.

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Romeo Dallaire

Military Commander

Canada

Retired Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire has led a distinguished career in the Canadian military, achieving the rank of lieutenant general and serving as assistant deputy minister in the Department of National Defence in 1998. He was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 2005, serving as the vice-chair of the security and defence committee and president of the Senate subcommittee on veterans affairs until 2014. In 1994, Dallaire commanded the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR).

Dallaire has received numerous honors and awards, including Officer of the Order of Canada (2002), Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec (2005), and the Aegis Award for Genocide Prevention from the Aegis Trust. In 2007, he founded The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, an organization committed to ending the use of child soldiers worldwide. He has also written three books, including the highly acclaimed “Shake Hands with the Devil: the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda,” and his most recent book “Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD.”

Dr. Tarun Das

Civic Leader

India

Dr. Tarun Das is a prominent Indian businessman who has been an instrumental part of the promotion of U.S.-India business relations and Indian businesses abroad. Until 2009, he served as chief mentor at the Confederation of Indian Industry, where he also previously served as chief executive and director general. Das is co-chair of the Indo-U.S. Strategic Dialogue and of the Indo-U.S.-Japan Strategic Dialogue. He is a member of the international advisory council of The Coca-Cola Company Ltd and a trustee of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water.

Previously, he served as member of the governing board at Emergency Management and Research Institute. Das is a recipient of the Blackwill Award from the U.S.-India Business Council for his contribution to Indo-U.S. economic co-operation and was awarded Padma Bhushan, one of the highest Civilian Government Awards, by the president of India in 2006 for his contributions in the fields of trade and industry.

Rt. Hon. Kemal Derviş

Diplomat

Turkey

The Right Honorable Kemal Derviş was a senior fellow in the global economy and development program, and the Edward M. Bernstein scholar at the Brookings Institution. He served as the Institution’s vice president and director of global economy and development. He was an active participant in various European and international networks working to further international cooperation in order to find ways to make globalization a more stable and inclusive process.

From 2005 to 2009, he headed the United Nations Development Programme and also served as the chair of the U.N. Development Group. He held numerous positions with the World Bank from 1977 to 2001, including vice president of the World Bank for the Middle East and vice president for poverty reduction and economic management. After leaving the World Bank and returning to Turkey, Derviş was a member of the Turkish Parliament, minister of economic affairs and active in the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, a Turkish NGO working on economic and political issues.

Derviş passed away in May 2023.

Amb. Jayantha Dhanapala

Diplomat

Sri Lanka

Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala was a former United Nations under-secretary-general for disarmament affairs and a former ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United States and to the U.N. He served as chairman of the U.N. University Council, and was the president of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from 2007 to 2017. He also served as a member of the governing board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

As a Sri Lankan diplomat, Dhanapala served in London, Beijing, Washington, New Delhi and Geneva, and has represented Sri Lanka at a number of international conferences, serving as chair of several of them, including the historic Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference of 1995. Dhanapala was also a former director of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research. In 2015, Dhanapala became senior special advisor on foreign relations to then-President Maithripala Sirisena.

Dhanapala passed away in May 2023.

Dr. Anatoly Diakov

National Security Expert

Europe

Dr. Anatoly Diakov is a professor of physics and director of the Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Diakov is a renowned expert on nuclear arms control and disarmament, and has written papers on nuclear arms reductions, the history of Russia’s plutonium production, disposition options for excess plutonium and the feasibility of converting Russia’s icebreaker reactors from using highly enriched to low-enriched uranium, among other topics.