Harry Anastasiou, Ph.D.
Professor of International Peace and Conflict Studies in the Conflict Resolution Graduate Program and International Studies Program at Portland State University.
Harry Anastasiou holds a Ph.D. from the Union Institute and University, USA, a Doctorandus degree from the Free University of Amsterdam, Holland, a MA degree from the University of Toronto, Canada, and a BA degree from Geneva College, USA.
His academic endeavors have centered on International and Interethnic Peace and Conflict Studies, with contributions toward the development of theoretical and practical perspectives in conflict analysis, multi-dimensional peacebuilding, as well as in the design, facilitation and implementation of interethnic and international conflict-resolution processes and initiatives.
For more than two decades, he has been playing a leading role in peace-building initiatives engaging Greek and Turkish citizens and policy leaders from Greece, Turkey and ethnically divided Cyprus. He has designed and facilitated innumerable interethnic conflict-resolution workshops, policy developing think tanks, dialogue groups, and an array of peace-enhancing projects and programs in the Eastern Mediterranean. While living and working in Cyprus in the 1990s, Anastasiou was appointed Executive Director of the Institute of World Affairs Office of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, representing and working with the Institute of World Affairs headquarters in Washington DC.
Professor Anastasiou has lectured widely in the USA, Canada and Europe, and has presented his research at various international conventions. He has been an invited lecturer for The International Visitor Leadership Program, a U.S. Department of State professional development program fostering international mutual understanding. He has also been an invited frequent lecturer for the “Great Decisions” series of the World Affairs Council, and has been included in the organization’s annual Recommended Speakers Book since 2007.
As an academic, professor Anastasiou has published numerous peer reviewed books, book chapters and journal articles, on peace and conflict issues, including nationalism and ethnic conflict, peace building and the European Union, the Cyprus problem, Greek-Turkish relations and conflict transformation. His most recent work focuses on American nationalism and peace-building challenges in US foreign policy.
The Peace Initiatives Project
Launched in 2002, the Peace Initiatives Project develops and fosters multipronged academic and practical engagements in enhancing interethnic peace in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey in the context of the European Union’s integration process in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Peace Initiatives Project is co-directed by Dr. Harry Anastasiou, a scholar of Greek background, professor of International Peace Studies in the Conflict Resolution Graduate Program, and Dr. Birol Yesilada, a scholar of Turkish Cypriot background, professor of Political Science and Chair of Turkish Studies at the Hatfield School of Government.
The commencement of the Peace Initiatives Project at Portland State University was formally announced in Cyprus on May 8th 2002 at the Fulbright Center inside the UN buffer zone of the then divided city of Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. Those present included: The University’s Dean Dr. Marvin Kaiser; Mr. E. John Rumpakis (the first private benefactor of Anastasiou’s appointment and of the Peace Initiatives Project); Mr. Andy Banis, Supreme President of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association, together with his Delegation; the American Ambassador to Cyprus Donald Bandler; the Director of the Cyprus Fulbright Commission Daniel Hadjittofi; and leading Greek and Turkish Cypriots personalities and leaders involved in interethnic peace-building initiatives.