Saner, R; “ Science Diplomacy to support global implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. Policy Brief written for the first edition of the Global Sustainable Development Report of the UN-DESA, page 39.

Trade in education is debated between market liberalizers and protectionists and is played out within countries and their different stakeholders, for example between government ministries (e.g. ministry of trade versus ministry of education) and between government and the private sector (privately owned schools versus publically run schools). A balance needs to be struck between consumer protection and the rights of governments to pursue high quality education without falling into the trap of closing market access to foreign education service providers.

As nuclear negotiations conclude and an opening to Iran’s market looms, Western companies with interests in investing in Iran need to prepare their entry strategies carefully. Beyond normal business considerations, Western companies may face challenges with obstacles emanating from outside of their direct sphere of control. To plan beyond “business as usual,” this article proposes that they consider applying thecompetencies of Business Diplomacy Management. After so many years of strained international relations, foreign companies  need to understand that Iran comes with a history fraught with political tensions that may impede business as usual. A British and American backed coup forcefully removed the democratically elected Mossadegh in 1953 to reinstall the Pahlavi Shah, who was himself subsequently removed in the Islamic revolution in 1979. Since then relations between the new Islamic Republic of Iran and Western countries have been frosty. The recent JCPOA agreement must be understood within this context. 

Raymond Saner (2015); “Private Military and Security Companies: Industry-Led Self-Regulatory Initiatives versus State-Led Containment Strategy”. Recent self-regulatory guidelines that have been created by private military and security companies (PMSCs) in order to deter calls for stricter regulations of the industry. This “battle of influence” over the regulation of the use of force, the author contends, leads to rising tensions between stakeholders who form coalitions consisting of states, PMSCs, and civil society actors on either side of the regulation cleavage. The paper calls for new measures that continue to build on IHL and the Geneva Conventions, but that go beyond the current regulatory positions of existing international initiatives. This paper be cited as Raymond Saner (2015); “Private Military and Security Companies: Industry-Led Self-Regulatory Initiatives versus State-Led Containment Strategy”, The Center for Conflict, Development and Peace Building, Graduate Institute, CCDP Working Paper 11 2015, University of Geneva.

9th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health6-10 September 2015, TPH, Basel Article

Public Private Partnerships in the Health Sector: opportunities, risks and issues of congruence with the Sustainable Development GoalsRaymond Saner, CSEND Article 

Monitoring, Transparency and Accountability Framework within Global Partnerships in the global health sector: Considerations for Post 2015 SDGs Implementation.Lichia Yiu, CSEND Article

Lecture given on Economic Diplomacy at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic on 10th April 2015.Presentation has also been uploaded on website of Jan Masaryk Centre of International Studies at the Faculty of International Relations, University of Economics, Prague. Presentation

Stakeholder engagement for sustainable development : replacing hierarchies of failures with hierarchies of solutions. Article

This presentation focuses on the cultural entrepreneurship in the lake of Geneva region. Two musical festivals are described namely the Jazz Festival of Montreux and the Music Festival Paléo near Nyon. Both music festivals were created by founders who had the initial creative concepts, implemented them and found a way to make their success sustainable through constructive and mutually beneficial cooperation with the communities and authorities of the locations where the two festivals are being held on an annual basis.