Brussels, 30 April 2010

On 1 May, Bernard Adam will be stepping down as director of GRIP (Group for Research and Information on Peace and Security), a post he has occupied for 31 years, since founding the organisation in 1979.

With his forthcoming early retirement, Bernard Adam is not entirely leaving the GRIP as he will become president of the board of directors and take over from Jean-Paul Marthoz, who has occupied this post since 2003. In addition to this new role, Bernard Adam will continue to work on the topics he has consistently studied, such as the proliferation of small arms, arms transfer controls, international security threat assessment and the use of force in conflict resolution and prevention.

Bernard Adam has remained loyal to the original objectives set out by the GRIP and has worked unceasingly towards developing an independent research centre, whose quality of research and information is now widely recognised at an international level. GRIP aims to strengthen the role of citizens and support decision-making by political leaders in the domains of international security. Initially, GRIP’s work centred on East-West relations and the nuclear arms race. Since 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, North-South relations have become the focus of GRIP’s priorities, together with the improvement of human security, the link between security and development and the proliferation of small arms in countries from the South, mainly sub-Saharan Africa. GRIP currently has a staff of around 20, including 12 researchers.

The new director, Xavier Zeebroek, was appointed to the post of deputy-director in September 2008, whilst continuing his mission as head of the Africa-sector project for GRIP, a post for which he assumed responsibility in 2001. As a specialist in conflict and peace keeping missions in sub-Saharan Africa, Xavier Zeebroek has carried out numerous in-the-field operations since 1990, particularly in the DRC, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Mali. His recent work has focused on peace keeping operations in Africa and the role of the United Nations and European Union in conflict prevention.

A new deputy director has also been appointed, Luc Mampaey, a GRIP researcher since 1993 and head of the “Europe, Collective Security and Globalisation” sector. Luc Mampaey is an arms economy specialist and recently obtained his doctorate in economic science at the Université de Versailles-St Quentin-en-Yvelines, where he wrote his thesis on arms production groups in the US. His other work focuses on nuclear proliferation, arms control and arms transfers.

The steering committee is also welcoming a new member on board, Olivier Lanotte, PhD in political science and a specialist on Central Africa. After having worked as a researcher at the Catholic University of Leuven since 1996, he has just joined GRIP and takes charge of the Africa sector project. Other members of the GRIP steering committee include Marc Schmitz, who has been head of publications since 1983 and Cédric Poitevin, researcher at GRIP since 2005 and appointed head of the “small arms and arms transfer” sector project in 2009.