Dr. Justin D. Nankivell came to the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in July 2008 from the University of Victoria, Canada. As an instructor in the department of political science, Mr. Nankivell taught courses in international organization and international security, and lectured in international relations, Canadian foreign policy, civil-military relations, and Canadian politics at the University of Vancouver Island and Canada’s Royal Military College.

Dr. Nankivell holds a PhD in political science from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a Masters of International Law from the University of Nottingham (UK) with specific focus on international criminal justice/criminal law and the laws of armed conflict. His current research is divided into two areas. First, the relationship of international law to international politics with a particular view to answering why and how international law is used by states to achieve difficult foreign policy objectives. Second, the newly emerging field of security sector development constituted by the relationships between the security institutions of the state, domestic political and judicial institutions, and the broader sectors of civil and international society.

Dr. Nankivell is the current Course Manager for the Executive Course: Advanced Security Cooperation (ASC), a six week program focused on non-war fighting security matters, which emphasizes the cooperative and comprehensive elements of the new security dynamics in the Asia Pacific region. The ASC curriculum evaluates the political, economic, social, military, diplomatic, and ecological dimensions of security studies as tailored towards practitioners selected from over 39 states. He also oversees, with Dr. Rouben Azizian, the Security Sector Development Workshop held annually at the APCSS, which brings together top security level professionals from selected countries to evaluate the region’s progress towards greater security sector integration and accountability. Dr. Nankivell is currently working on a book about international law and foreign policy in the Arctic region focused on the dispute between Canada and the United States over the status of the law of the sea in the Northwest Passage.