The Fight against Extremism?

A seminar with Maty Nikkhou-O'Brien, Executive Director, Diplosphere, New Zealand. 

Christchurch Attack: Has New Zealand found a formula to fight against extremism?

>Tuesday 28 May 2019 | 8:00 am - 10:00 am
PSIA Seminar Room, 28 rue des Saints-Pères, Paris
Registration compulsory. A light breakfast will be served.

With Maty Nikkhou-O’Brien, Executive Director, Diplosphere ; former Executive Director of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs.

Maty Nikkhou-O’Brien is the Founding Director of Diplosphere. She is a political scientist, linguist, author, speaker and accomplished executive. From August 2015 to August 2018, Maty was the first woman Executive Director of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (NZIIA) in 82 years, where she initiated over fifty public and private events and hosted world leaders and thinkers, including New Zealand Prime Ministers and Ministers; Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif; IAEA Director General, Yukiya Amano; International Crisis Group President, Jean-Marie Guéhenno; UN Undersecretary General, Jeffery Feltman; Nobel Peace Price Laureate Jose Ramos Horta, and many more. Maty's work at the Institute has been praised by many as transformational and acknowledged by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for 'expanding the range of people participating in the debate about foreign affairs and New Zealand's role in the world'.

Maty has also led EU-funded projects and teams in Europe and facilitated the negotiation of high-level international deals. She holds an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and degrees in Languages and Political and Socio-Economic Studies from the Sorbonne and in Iranian Studies and Philology from the French Institute for Oriental Studies. Maty speaks, French, English, Persian and German and has recently edited ‘The Law of the Jungle: How Can New Zealand Navigate Global Disruption?’.