Overview
The Political Affairs Officer will review and monitor disarmament, non-proliferation, and arms control issues, analyze political events, and prepare analytical reports and papers for senior UN officials.
Key Responsibilities
- Reviews and monitors activities in cross-cutting and emerging disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control issues; assesses current status of processes, treaties and other instruments (political, normative, and legal) as well as trends which might affect geo-political conditions; recommends solutions/possible action by United Nations.
- Analyses political and related events within assigned area with a view to provide early warning advice to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and Director.
- Prepares analytical reports and papers on sensitive and high profile matters of concern to the General Assembly, Security Council, or other bodies; drafts notes, background papers, talking points, speeches and other correspondence for senior UN officials.
- Participates in the organization and supervision of Secretariat services required by the General Assembly and to other committees and bodies related to its work.
- Acts as focal point for the collection and analyses of information on political issues of assignment.
- Provides up-to-date information to senior officials regarding substantive political matters and country or regional issues and makes recommendations on actions to take.
- Maintains contacts with other offices and departments within the UN, other international organizations and governments on coordination and policy matters; briefs representatives and provides, as appropriate suggestions and recommendations.
- Participates in conferences, seminars and academic fora related to their assigned area of expertise.
- Carries out, in consultation with the Chief of the Unit, administrative functions relating to programme implementation, the staff planning, and budget.
- Acts as focal point to the United Nations Disarmament Yearbook and ODA's Education Strategy for the Unit, and develops behavioural science interventions and strategic foresights techniques in relevance to science and technology matters.
- Develops the Unit's tailored industry partnership strategy in the context of science and technology.
- Organizes workshops on advancements in science and technology in relation to international peace and security.
- Drafts plans for projects and participates in the activities of implementation.
- Collects and analyzes data to identify trends or patterns and provide insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization methods to enable data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting.
- Performs other related duties as required.
Required Experience
A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in political science, international relations, law, disarmament, security, conflict resolution or related area is required. A minimum of four years experience working on advancements in science and technology in the context of international peace and security is required. Experience in drafting high-level reports on science and technology issues, such as on military applications of artificial intelligence, lethal autonomous weapons systems, legal reviews on new weapons, means and methods of warfare, and coordinating them internally and externally with relevant entities within a large entity is required. Demonstrated experience in servicing intergovernmental bodies and meetings on science and technology in the context of international peace and security, such as the General Assembly, the relevant working groups of the UN Disarmament Commission, or similar level bodies/working groups is required. Experience with cross-entity coordination on the nexus of developments in science and technology, and broader disarmament and arms control matters, is desirable. Two years or more of experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.
Qualifications
An advanced university degree (Master’s or Doctorate degree, or equivalent) in political science, international relations, law, disarmament, security, international development, conflict resolution or related fields is required. A first-level degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent) in the specified fields of studies with two additional years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is desirable.
