David Dewitt, associate vice-president research (social sciences & humanities) and a professor of political science in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, will be taking a leave of absence from York University to become the vice-president of programs at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). His new position commences July 1.
Left: David Dewitt
Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the Centre for International Governance Innovation is an independent, nonpartisan think tank on international governance. Led by experienced practitioners and distinguished academics, CIGI supports research, forms networks, advances policy debate and generates ideas for multilateral governance improvements.
“I congratulate David on his new role as vice-president of programs at CIGI,” said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation at York. “David has served the University so well as associate vice-president research, bringing an important blend of academic excellence, strategic thinking and administrative efficiency to this challenging role. His new role draws on his expertise as a first-rate academic administrator and his widely recognized career as a scholar in international affairs. I invite the York community to join with me in wishing him every success in this new adventure.”
Under its recently announced strategic plan, CIGI seeks to identify and address areas of major global governance that will be challenged over the next decade. Its research and work will focus on four program themes: the Global Economy, Energy & Environment, Development, and Global Security.
“In a few short years, CIGI has emerged as a pre-eminent source of innovative thinking about international governance,” Dewitt said. “I am excited about the opportunity to work with CIGI’s staff, fellows and partners in building significant new programs of research and policy development. Our goal is to advance better ideas for promoting global prosperity and security.”
About David Dewitt
Dewitt is a specialist in international affairs with expertise in security and conflict, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and comparative public diplomacy. He earned a BA at the University of British Columbia and an MA and PhD from Stanford University.
Prior to assuming his current position within the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, he served as director of the York Centre for International & Security Studies (YCISS) from 1988 to 2006. He is the author or contributing editor of books, chapters and peer reviewed articles as well as commissioned reports on Canadian foreign, security, and defense policy, international and regional security and conflict management in Asia Pacific and the Middle East, arms control and proliferation, and human security.
In the early 1990s, Dewitt co-directed the North Pacific Cooperative Security Dialogue, a Foreign Affairs sponsored multilateral track-two diplomacy initiative, and has been involved in various track-two initiatives on security in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
Dewitt has been a visiting scholar at Tel Aviv University and an international research fellow of the Korean Institute for Defense Analysis. He served as founding chair of the Canadian Consortium for Asia Pacific Security and as a co-chair of the Canadian Member Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific. He also was a co-director of the Canadian Consortium for Human Security, national chair of the Canadian Professors for Peace in the Middle East, and has served as chair of the Partnerships for International Strategies with Asia now based at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University.