M. Joseph Andrews specializes in African conflict, state-building and political transition, peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction. Previously, Mr. Andrews managed programs in Sudan, Somalia and the African Horn for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington, D.C. For several years prior, he held a variety of posts with the United Nations, including: as a humanitarian advisor for the UN Mission in the Congo; as a political officer for the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in its New York headquarters; as a special advisor to both the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor and the country’s then-foreign minister; and as a consultant for the UN Secretariat’s Department of Political Affairs and the UN Development Program. Before joining the UN, he served briefly as a political advisor for the US Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, as an independent consultant on human rights and social welfare projects in Ghana, South Africa, Guatemala and Costa Rica, and three years as a special assistant to the Mayor of San Francisco.

Mr. Andrews has also taught courses on post-conflict reconstruction and UN peacekeeping at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs, and Syracuse’s Maxwell School. Mr. Andrews holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and graduated with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts. He is proficient in French and Spanish.