Walter Dorn

Walter A. Dorn (born July 11, 1961) is a scientist, educator, author and researcher. Dorn teaches military officers and civilian students at the Canadian Forces College (CFC) in Toronto and also at the Royal Military College of Canada of Canada (RMC) in Kingston. He lectures and leads seminars on the ethics of armed force, peace operations, the United Nations, arms control, Canadian and US foreign/defence policy, Canadian government and society, and science/technology applications. He has served as Chair of the Department of Security and International Affairs at CFC and as Chair of the Master of Defence Studies programme at RMC.

He has served on the Board of Canadian Pugwash since 1995. From 2008 to 2013, he was Chair of the group, which is the Canadian branch of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, co-winner of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize.

He completed his doctorate in Chemistry at the University of Toronto and now applies this scientific background toward the study of peace and conflict issues. He has pursued this work at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Nova Scotia, where he developed and taught courses, as well as at Cornell University, where he was a senior research fellow.

In 2006, he was commissioned by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) to conduct a study on technologies for peacekeeping especially for monitoring of conflicts, borders, sanctions, civilian protection, staff security, and various Security Council mandates. His report was welcomed by the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping, composed of 124 member states who contribute to peacekeeping. His 2011 book, WATCH: Monitoring, Technology and Innovation in UN Peace Operations'', served as an impetus for the UN's creation of a Panel of Experts on Technology and Innovation in UN Peacekeeping, of which he was a member. DPKO is now seeking to implement the recommendations in the panel's report Performance Peacekeeping.

He also assisted with the negotiation, ratification, and implementation of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) as the CWC Coordinator for Parliamentarians for Global Action. Since 1983, he has served as the UN Representative of Science for Peace, a Canadian non-governmental organization (NGO). Dorn addressed the United Nations General Assembly in 1988 at the Second UN Special Session on Disarmament.

Dorn also has experience in United Nations field missions such as the United Nations Mission in East Timor and the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNDP projects in Ethiopia, and as a Training Adviser with the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).

Selected publications
Books and book chapters


 * AIR POWER IN UN OPERATIONS: Wings for Peace, 2014.
 * KEEPING WATCH: Monitoring, Technology and Innovation in UN Peace Operations, United Nations Press, 2011 (full pdf).
 * UN Peacekeeping Intelligence, chapter in 'Oxford Handbook', Oxford University Press, 2011. (OUP access) (pdf1) (pdf2)
 * World Order for a New Millennium: Political, Cultural and Spiritual Approaches to Building Peace, St Martin's Press and MacMillan Press, 1999.

Reports and Articles


 * html The UN at 70: A Return of Canada, the Peacekeeper (pdf)
 * The Cuban Missile Crisis Resolved
 * Who is Dying for Peace?
 * "World Order For a New Millennium: Political, Cultural and Spiritual Approaches to Building Peace." (St. Martin's Press and MacMillan Press, 1999)
 * Canadian Peacekeeping: No Myth But Not What It Once Was
 * Canada pulls out of peacekeeping
 * Afghanistan and UN Peacekeeping - Testimony to the Foreign Affairs Committee
 * Intelligence and Peacekeeping: The UN Operation in the Congo 1960-64
 * Intelligence and the Operation in Eastern Zaire 1996
 * Intelligence-Gathering in UN Peacekeeping: The Limits
 * Militias in East Timor: Personal Encounters
 * Preventing the Bloodbath:Could the UN have Predicted & Prevented the Rwanda Genocide?
 * Unprepared for Peace? Canadian Training for Peacekeeping (pdf) (html) (Fr) (CCPA) (Toronto Star Editorial)

For more complete set of references see the Publications page on Walter Dorn's Website