Danish Institute for International Studies
Partner No. 14: Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) is an independent research institution engaged in research in international affairs. The institute draws up reports and analyses and follows developments in international affairs continuously in order to assess the security and foreign policy situation of Denmark, e.g. aspects of relevance with regard to development policy. DIIS also communicates research findings, analyses and knowledge and performs functions concerning documentation, information and library services. Furthermore, DIIS contributes to the education of researchers, supports the development of research capacity in developing countries and establishes contacts between Danish and international research environments.
DIIS’s research and activities are organized in several research units and a few major commissioned works. The research unit involved in the SEAT-project is ‘Global Economy, Regulation and Development’ (GEARED). The unit builds on the previous work of the research unit on ‘Trade and Development’ to explore development issues in the broader setting of current trends and transformations in the global economy.
Of particular interest to their research agenda are the prospects of re-regulation at the global, regional and national levels – in the context of various crises (food, energy, and financial/economic) that have affected the global economy and developing countries the past few years. Specific focus is on the role that standards (on products, practices, corporate organization and policy) may be playing in such re-regulation.
| Dr. Stefano Ponte has been senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) since 2003. His thematic specialization is on international trade, agro-food standards, global value chain analysis and economic development and he has more than 10 years of research experience in low-income countries, mainly Africa. He has a PhD in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia and has published 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 3 books and a large number of other publications. Before joining DIIS, he was researcher at the Centre for Development Research (Copenhagen). He has been visiting lecturer at the University of North Carolina, Duke University, and the University of Copenhagen, as well as guest researcher at universities in Tanzania, Uganda, and South Africa. |  |
| Karen Sau Jespersen joined the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) as a PhD Candidate in February 2011. She is affiliated to the DIIS research unit ‘Global Economy, Regulation and Development’ and the Graduate School of International Development Studies at the Institute of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University (RUC). She has previous experience with green procurement policy from the public sector and environmental management and occupational health & safety from the private sector. Karen holds a M.Sc in Socio-Economic Geography from University of Copenhagen. Her thesis was a value chain analysis of the South African pineapple industry. In the SEAT programme she will work within WP5 on the social and economic dynamics of value chains for selected aquatic products. |  |
