Dr. Rick Fawn is a specialist on international security, with a geographic concentration on the former communist space. He has conducted research in and published on Central Europe, the Balkans, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. He has also made numerous invited briefings and contributions to governments, NGOs and media, and given many papers and invited lectures and keynote addresses in the UK and overseas. Dr. Rick Fawn has received research grants from various bodies, including the British Academy, the Nuffield Foundation; the Open Society Institute; the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Academy; the Foreign & Commonwealth Office; the Russell Trust; and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland; and was a Sterring committee member of the 8-University 4.7GBP ESRC/AHRC-funded Centre of Excellence called the Centre for Russian and Central and East European Studies (CRCEES). He is member of the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia Studies Institute; Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies; and the Centre for Russian, Soviet and Central and Eastern European Studies at the University of St Andrews. Dr. Fawn is currently Director of the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia Studies Institute (MECACS).