Trends of Global Crisis in 2025 and Beyond

Dr. Comfort Ero was appointed Crisis Group’s President & CEO in December 2021. She joined the organisation as West Africa Project Director in 2001 and rose to become Africa Program Director and then, in January 2021, Interim Vice President.

Dr. Ero has spent her entire career working on or in conflict-affected countries. In between her two tenures at Crisis Group, she served as Deputy Africa Program Director for the International Centre for Transitional Justice (2008-2010) and, prior to that, Political Affairs Officer and Policy Advisor to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, UN Mission in Liberia (2004-2007). She has a PhD from the London School of Economics, University of London. Dr. Ero sits on various boards and advisory bodies.

Areas of expertise: Conflict prevention, management and resolution, mediation, peacekeeping, transitional justice, politics and international relations of Africa.

For details, visit: https://www.crisisgroup.org/who-we-are/people/comfort-ero

Mr. Naoki Ando was appointed to the current position in October 2022. Prior to that, his served following positions:
・May 2020 Director General, Operations Strategy Department, JICA
・April 2019 Director General, Treasury, Finance and Accounting Department, JICA
・March 2015 Chief Representative, Indonesia Office, JICA
・January 2011 Professor (special assignment), National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
・April 1987 Joined Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Currently, he is in charge of following: Africa Department, Governance and Peacebuilding Department, Financial Cooperation Implementation Department, Secretariat of Japan Disaster Relief Team.

Tsuneo “Nabe” Watanabe is a senior fellow of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, an independent policy research organization in Tokyo. In October 2016, Watanabe joined the Sasakawa Peace Foundation after serving a senior fellow and a director of foreign & security policy research at the Tokyo Foundation in 2009 to 2016. He served a senior fellow at the Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute in Tokyo in 2005 to 2009. In 1995, Watanabe joined Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. He served a visiting research scholar, research associate, fellow and senior fellow until 2005. He is currently adjunct fellow of the CSIS.

After earning a Master of Public Administration from Cornell University, she went on to earn a PhD in Political Science from Waseda University. Before assuming current position, she has worked as an expert researcher at the Embassy of Japan in Timor-Leste, a researcher at the Secretariat of the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters of the Cabinet Office, a governance officer at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, an assistant professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, and a lecturer at Hitotsubashi University. She specializes in comparative politics and international relations, and she has published widely on international peace operations with the latest “EU as a Security Actor in Action - Crisis Management Practices by CSDP Missions,” SPF, 2024. She is a core member of the SPF’s research project "The Future of International Peace Operations.

Ippeita conducts research on Japan’s foreign engagement policies and tools, in particular, foreign aid and security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, as well as international peace operations. He is the lead editor/author of the book and the policy proposals on Japan’s Defense Diplomacy. Currently, he serves as the chair of the “Expert Panel on Ministry of Defense Capacity Building” at the Ministry of Defense and an expert panel member of the “Development Assistance Accountability Committee” at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. He earned his MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).