The San Diego World Affairs Council presents the
"Distinguished Speaker" Series
RICHARD NUCCIO, Ph.D. & GILES DICKENSON-JONES
Richard Nuccio - International Governance and Development Specialist
Giles Dickenson-Jones - Applied Economist, Asia-Pacific region
Presenting:
Development, Democracy, and Despair - What Myanmar's Faltering Democratic Prospects Means for its Economic and Political Future
Tuesday, 20th April 2021 from 6:30-8:00 p.m. (PST)
Watch the video here
Over the last decade, Richard Nuccio has played key roles in two countries undergoing dramatic transitions, South Sudan and Myanmar. From 2011 to 2012 he was the National Democratic Institute’s (NDI) senior country director based in Juba, South Sudan during the referendum process that resulted in South Sudan’s separation from Sudan after decades of a deadly civil war.
Beginning in 2013, Nuccio participated in Myanmar’s “guided” transition from military rule that led to the release of Nobel laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, from decades of house arrest, her election to parliament in 2012, and massive electoral victories by her National League for Democracy party in 2015 and 2020. He served in Myanmar as NDI’s resident senior director from 2013–2016 and returned to Myanmar in 2017 as the team leader of efforts to support the Myanmar parliament’s public finance committee’s reform process. He returned from Myanmar in March 2020 and has followed closely the events of February 2021 when Myanmar’s military carried out a coup d’état to prevent the NLD from continuing in power despite their overwhelming success in elections declared free and fair by domestic and international observers.
Nuccio spent nearly two decades in Washington, DC in leadership roles with think tanks such as the Wilson Center, the Inter-American Dialogue and the Roosevelt Center. He was a senior official in the Clinton Administration’s State Department and White House with special responsibilities for the Guatemalan peace process and the promotion of a democratic transition in Cuba.
Nuccio has a Ph.D. in political science and a Masters in Latin American Studies from Stanford University. He has taught comparative politics and international relations at Williams College, Bennington College, Georgetown University and the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University.
Giles Dickenson-Jones is an applied economist with over a decade of experience working on economic and governance issues across the Asia-Pacific region.
Giles started his career at the Australian Federal Treasury where he provided advice on taxation policy, economic stimulus measures during the 2008 financial crisis, climate change and Australia’s economic engagement in the Pacific. Since then, he has worked with the Asian Development Bank on identifying the risks posed by climate change to infrastructure, the Institute for Economic and Peace to understand the cross-country drivers of peace and conflict and as an economic advisor in Myanmar.
Giles started his work in Myanmar in 2014 at Myanmar’s Centre for Economic and Social Development where he led teams to develop economic advice aimed at guiding Myanmar’s economic and political transition. From 2016 to 2018 Giles worked as the Senior Economic Advisor in Myanmar’s parliament where he worked to support the public finance committee’s efforts to drive economic and political reform. Since leaving Myanmar, Giles has worked as an independent economic consultant - keeping a close eye on Myanmar’s transition and the Military’s recent coup d’état.
Giles holds a Masters of Development from the University of Sydney and an Honours Degree in Economics from the University of New England.
