Peter Jones has extensive experience in the conceptualisation, development and execution of highly innovative, policy relevant Track Two projects.This experience has come in both government service and academic life.Dr. Jones’ government service includes almost five years dealing with security and intelligence issues in the Privy Council Office (the Prime Ministers’ Department) and almost seven years leading international negotiations in various regions and fora with the Department of Foreign Affairs.Academically, Dr. Jones led for four years the highly renowned Middle East Security and Arms Control Project at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).Dr. Jones’ Track Two experience has been developed in three regions of the world: the Middle East; South Asia; and South-East Asia.
At SIPRI, Dr. Jones led the conceptualisation and execution of a multi-year Track Two process in which leading officials and thinkers across the Middle East came together to consider how a Regional Security Regime might be created. This project has been cited as one of the most influential and respected Track Two projects ever run on Middle East security issues.Also while at SIPRI, Dr. Jones conceived and ran one of the first quiet meetings between U.S. and Iranian academics and officials (in their private capacities).Since leaving SIPRI, Dr. Jones has continued to lead innovative and policy-relevant Track Two projects, culminating in a project during 2003 which saw a group of influential officials and academics from across the Middle East meet three times under Dr. Jones’ Chairmanship to draft a Regional Security Charter for the Middle East.The results of this project have now been adopted by the Canadian and Danish Governments as the basis for an official diplomatic process to develop a new mechanism for co-operation and reform in the Middle East.This proposal has been accepted by several regional governments as the basis for discussion.Dr. Jones remains active in this process as a member of the official Canadian delegation which is promoting this concept in the Middle East.
In South Asia, Dr. Jones is a leading figure in a quiet Track Two effort to resolve critical disputes between India and Pakistan in the maritime sphere.Since 2001 Dr. Jones has worked with a colleague at Dalhousie University to conceive and execute a series of meetings between retired Naval Chiefs of the two countries at which significant draft agreements have been reached on ways to resolve an outstanding maritime boundary dispute; the repatriation of captured fishermen held by the two sides for having strayed into disputed waters; ways to avoid incidents between naval vessels of the two states; and ways to enhance co-operation in search and rescue and pollution prevention.The draft understandings reached in these areas are now making their way onto the agenda of the official talks between India and Pakistan and promise to be an area where rapid progress may be made in the evolving peace process.Further South Asian work is pending.
In South-East Asia, Dr. Jones has led a series of workshops designed to develop ways in which the Navies of the region may avoid incidents in disputed waters – a critical issue in the region today.This work has led directly to a Confidence-building agreement signed by the navies of Malaysia and Indonesia, the first of its kind in the region, and other such agreements are in process.Dr. Jones was involved in the negotiation and implementation of the agreement at the request of the two sides.
During his service with Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Jones was a lead member of Canadian delegations to arms control and confidence-building negotiations in the Middle East, Europe and at the United Nations.
Academically, Peter Jones holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from Kings’ College, London and an MA in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada.He specialised in topics relating to the negotiation of arms control and confidence-building agreements in both degrees.He is a Research Fellow of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto and the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS.
