In this lunchtime event, Jean-Luc Lemahieu, Director of the Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs (DPA) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will discuss how illicit flows are undermining global security. Drawing on his own field experience, he will outline how the illicit drug trade has been interlinked with armed conflict and crime in regions such as Afghanistan and Myanmar, and what policies have failed or succeeded in tackling this challenge.

This event will be chaired by Dr Annette Idler and is co-hosted with the Changing Character of War Centre’s Conflict Platform project.

Free sandwiches will be provided.

About the speaker:

Lemahieu was appointed Director of the DPA at the UNODC in December 2013. Before taking up this position in Vienna, he gained 20 years of field experience, serving in various countries challenged by political economies heavily dependent on drug cultivation, including Afghanistan and Myanmar, and in transit regions such as Central Asia and the Caribbean. His first appointment with the United Nations dates back to 1990, as a Junior Professional Officer with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) assigned to the Republic of Korea. Lemahieu is a licensed jurist with a postgraduate degree in international law.