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Freedom, Democracy and Solidarity: These are the values Konrad Adenauer Foundation promotes around the world. As part of these efforts, KAS grants scholarships to support future German leaders around the globe who advocate for liberal values and democracy. For that reason, the KAS New York office is determined to reach out to current and former fellowship students in order to connect them and grow an interdisciplinary network of international experts.

Thus, the office invites all current and former KAS fellowship students to a get-together in the KAS New York office. The event will be framed by a talk about the Role of the UN in Iraq with Mr. Axel Wennmann, a former fellowship student himself.

Speaker:

Axel Wennmann, Senior Political Affairs Officer/Iraq Team Leader in the Middle East and West Asia Division of the United Nations Department of Political Affairs

Mr. Axel Wennmann is a Senior Political Affairs Officer in the Department of Political Affairs in the United Nations Secretariat in New York. He has been serving as Iraq Team leader a.i. since May 2016. Prior to this assignment he has been serving as Desk Officer for Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar and other regional countries since March 2011. From 2009-2011 he has been the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Mr. Oscar Fernandez-Taranco. His responsibilities included supporting the Department’s work on the Middle East, West Asia and Europe, and promoting closer cooperation between DPA and UNDP, especially on conflict prevention. From 2007-2009, Mr. Wennmann has served as a Team Leader in the Policy Planning and Mediation Support Unit. In this capacity, he has worked on promoting a more operational approach of DPA to conflict prevention, particularly through inter-agency cooperation with UNDP and other agencies. Before assuming these functions in December 2006, Mr. Wennmann worked as a Political Affairs Officer in the Asia and the Pacific Division of DPA. As a member of the DPA Iraq Team, Mr. Wennmann contributed to UN efforts on Iraq, particularly with regard to supporting the political and constitutional support role of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1546 (2004). From January 2002–May 2004, Mr. Wennmann served as Deputy Secretary of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the UN Security Council. He joined the United Nations in May 2000 in the Policy Planning Unit of DPA. Mr. Wennmann is a German national and holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn (1998). From September 1995-May 1996 he attended the Washington Semester Program of American University in Washington, D.C.