Walter Kemp

Director for Europe and Central Asia | kemp@ipinst.org

Walter Kemp is Director for Europe and Central Asia, based at IPI’s office in Vienna.

He joined IPI in August 2010 after serving for four years as spokesman and speechwriter at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). At UNODC his main focus was on Afghanistan, West Africa, piracy, corruption, and the impact of organized crime on security and development. From 1996 to 2006 he worked for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), including as Senior Adviser to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and Senior Adviser to the OSCE Secretary General and Chairmanship. He also assisted in the drafting of the report of the Panel of Eminent Persons on increasing the effectiveness of the OSCE, and the Bolzano Recommendations on National Minorities in Inter-State Relations.

Walter has a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics, a master’s in political science from the University of Toronto and a bachelor’s (honors) in history from McGill University.

He is the author of Nationalism and Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (1999) and Quiet Diplomacy in Action (2001), editor of Blood and Borders (2010), and has written several articles and chapters on issues including conflict prevention, the OSCE, the political economy of conflict, and national minorities.