Tina Robiolle

Graduated with a PhD from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and an MBA from ESSEC Graduate School of Management, Tina Robiolle has worked for over 15 years as a scholar-practitioner, teaching and conducting research and capacity-building programs in Afghanistan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Libya/Tunisia, Syria/Lebanon/Turkey, and the United States of America.

In association with ESSEC Institute for Research and Education on Negotiation (IRENE) since 2001, she conducts negotiation, conflict management, and leadership seminars for diplomats and for several graduate and executive programs in France including ENA, Ecole de Guerre, and La Sorbonne University. In 2004, she started to work for the Burundi Leadership Training Program, a program initiated by the Africa Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In this capacity, she has facilitated peace-building programs for Government officials, U.N. military observers, leaders of political parties, High Command of the Army and the Police. Her last project to date in Burundi is a peaceful conflict resolution curriculum for the Ministry of Education targeting secondary schools. Interested in giving back to her native region, she also developed a capacity-building initiative dedicated to Afghan women leaders whose objective is to strengthen and promote the political participation of women in Afghanistan with the support of Melanne Verveer, former Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues near U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Robiolle has also conducted several studies on peace education and global citizenship education for UNESCO, and led the external evaluation of the HD Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue programs in Libya and in Syria. More recently, she has led a consultancy as a senior training advisor for the Inclusive Peace and Transition Initiative based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

Her doctoral research assesses the influence of international standards and guidance on peace education on education policy and practice at the national and local levels in a fragile state. It also explores the critical factors that affect this influence—or the lack thereof. Utilizing a vertical case study approach that draws comparisons across multiple levels, her dissertation examines the case of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2015. It explores the origins and content of these recommendations at the global level, investigated their influence at the national level, and assessed what then is implemented at the local level through the work of a local non-governmental organization (NGO). The issues, tensions, and concerns uncovered in this investigation contribute to provide guidance for how to improve the mainstreaming of peace education in fragile states, and add to the literature on school-based peacebuilding policy and practice in fragile contexts. This research is applicable to Afghanistan and to other fragile states and post-conflict countries that aim to reform or rebuild after a protracted war.