As Chairman, Dr. Rupesinghe also seeks to provide policy support to each step of the Sri Lankan peace process, writing articles and issue papers, participating in seminars and TV opinion programmes, and so on. This role supports continued public discussion of pertinent issues and encourages the sharing of expertise between key decision makers, stakeholders and fellow civil society organisations. Since his return to Sri Lanka he has also been advisor to the Triple 'R' programme and founding member of the National Anti-War Front.

Dr. Rupesinghe obtained his first degree at the London School of Economics and received his Doctorate from the City University London. He was a Research Fellow at the Agrarian Research and Training Institute Colombo (1971-1973) and was Director of the National Youth Service Council. He later lectured at the Department of Sociology at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (1977- 1981).

In 1982 Dr. Rupesinghe was invited to join theInternational Peace Research Institute (PRIO) in Oslo as a research fellow. He was later appointed Deputy Director of PRIO's Programme on Ethnic Conflict and Conflict Resolution. This research programme was an early attempt to warn the international community of impending ethnic and national conflicts and to engage in debate with the international community on the importance of focusing on internal conflicts, early warning and conflict prevention.

During his tenure at PRIO, Dr Rupesinghe was appointed Co-­ordinator to the Programme on Governance and Conflict Resolution at the United Nations University, Tokyo. There he edited two volumes and commissioned several monographs on identity conflict. He was also Chair of the Commission on Internal Conflicts of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA), where he concluded his chairmanship by publishing four volumes on Early Warning and Conflict Resolution.

From 1992-1998, Dr Rupesinghe served as Secretary General of International Alert; an international non-governmental organisation (INGO), based in London, dedicated to the prevention and mitigation of violent internal conflict. Under his leadership, International Alert became one of the largest international NGOs in the world, with a staff of 60 and field programmes in over 15 countries experiencing conflict.

During his tenure he was engaged in capacity building of local organisations and collaborated with over 50 organisations mainly in the regions of conflict. International Alert became an effective advocate for conflict prevention and inspired other NGOs to join together in working to provide a complimentary track for conflict transformation.

He contributed towards theoretical and conceptual reflections on advancing early warning and conflict resolution, as well as the role of third parties in the mediation of protracted internal conflicts. In doing so, he advanced the concept of multi-track solutions to civil wars. International Alert’s advocacy programme, which he developed, was to persuade governments and international organisations to develop programmes for early warning, early action and to develop coalitions and burden sharing in civil wars. As part of this work in influencing policy he contributed to the discussion and to creating policy instruments on early warning systems with the European Union, the O.A.U, and sought to influence the policy debate in the U.K., Norway, Sweden, Holland, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Japan. In Japan it led to the formation of the Centre for Preventive Diplomacy.

Dr. Rupesinghe initiated a programme to expand an early warning and early response network in the Russian Federation, and inaugurated a citizen-based network for peace building and conflict resolution in the Caucuses region. This was done in collaboration with the then Minister of Nationalities, Professor Valery Tishkov, also then director of the Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology at the Russian Academy of Sciences. At the request of the Minister of Nationalities, International Alert was asked to intervene in several conflicts in the former Soviet Union, including Chechnya and Dagestan.

Apart from the responsibilities carried throughout his various postings, Dr. Rupesinghe has been involved in the work of several organisations dedicated to conflict resolution and prevention and has served in the following positions;

Member of the Board at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) - Project on War Torn Societies.
Chair of the Forum for Early Warning and Early Action (FEWER), which is an ongoing initiative to establish an international early warning early action network.
Chair of the Programme on Culture and Ethnicity of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Japan. This programme has published several volumes treating Culture and Identity.
Member of the Council of the International Negotiation Network based in Atlanta, an initiative led by President Carter. There he acted as advisor with a number of others to President Carter's initiatives on peace.
Chair of HURIDOCS (Human Rights Documentation Systems Exchange, International) and contributed to developing a worldwide network for Human Rights Documentation.
Council Member and Commissioner for the Commission on Globalisation of the State of the World Forum headed by President Gorbachev and based in San Francisco.
A dynamic and dedicated expert, Dr. Rupesinghe's contribution has been extensive in the field of conflict resolution.

www.kumarrupesinghe.org
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