The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Joakim Vaverka as its new Deputy Director. He will assume his post on 1 September 2020.
Joakim Vaverka is currently Head of Political Affairs at the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations. During Sweden’s term on the UN Security Council in 2017–18, Joakim served as Political Coordinator, playing a leading role in the planning and execution of Sweden’s priorities across the full range of the Council agenda.
‘SIPRI has long enjoyed a strong global reputation for its contributions in the areas of disarmament, and peace and security, and has successfully continued to add to its relevance by building on traditional strengths while tackling new challenges such as climate change and new technologies. I am honoured and excited to join SIPRI during a dynamic period in global affairs and hope to contribute to continued efforts to make its research relevant to policymakers in Sweden and abroad,’ says Joakim Vaverka.
Previously, Vaverka held various positions in the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, notably as Head of the Global Division of the Security Policy Department, and as Political Counsellor at the Embassy of Sweden in Cairo, Egypt. From 2002 to 2006 he served as First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations, and in 2000–2002 he worked in the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Division of the Global Security Department. Vaverka has also worked at the Department for International and Security Affairs in the Swedish Ministry of Defence.
Welcoming the appointment, Chair of the SIPRI Governing Board, Ambassador Jan Eliasson, says, ‘We are extremely pleased to welcome Joakim Vaverka as the new Deputy Director. We are very impressed with his wide expertise which fits well with SIPRI’s broadening research portfolio and we look forward to having him joining the institute’s global research and activities agenda.’
Jan Eliasson further stresses, ‘I would like to express my warm thanks to the outgoing Deputy Director Sigrún Rawet for her extremely valuable contributions to SIPRI’s work, in particular the great success of the 2020 Virtual Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development as well as her efforts in raising SIPRI's profile within the global women, peace and security agenda. I warmly congratulate her on her new appointment and look forward to continuing the great cooperation with her in her new role.’
For editors
Joakim Vaverka (Sweden) will be SIPRI’s eighteenth Deputy Director since the Institute’s founding in 1966. He replaces Deputy Director Sigrún Rawet, who will as of 1 August assume her new post as Head of the Global Agenda Department of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Media contact
For further information or media requests, please contact Alexandra Manolache (alexandra.manolache@sipri.org, +46 76 628 61 33).