Major General ANM Muniruzzaman

NODE CO-CHAIR / DIRECTOR SAFN - BANGLADESH

My expertise focuses on Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Security, i.e., terrorism and extremism; Migration (particularly the Bay of Bengal region, Rohingya and North East India); and energy. My regional focus includes Southeast and South Asia and the Indo-Pacific Region.

I am currently supervising doctoral research focusing on Myanmar, security policy, countering violent extremism, and maritime affairs in the Indo-Pacific Region.

I have worked as an international consultant for UNDP Maldives' Assessment and Support Implementation of Programmes on the Inclusion and Engagement of Migrants in the Maldives, which is a pioneering task to study the undocumented migrants living in the Maldives. I have also worked as the UN Women's pioneering programmes on PVE initiatives focusing on women and radicalisation in Bangladesh. I work closely with UNODC on illicit trafficking in person and narcotics in the South and Southeast Asian regions.

I have visited the UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA, as a part of a high-level Bangladesh Army delegation to Mali in 2021. Along with the UN agencies, I have been providing technical inputs to the regional multilateral platform - Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

I have worked as a senior-level consultant for and dvisor to nationla, multilateral and international organisations. With the International Republican Institute (USA) support, I have designed the process and modalities for dialogues among the political parties in Bangladesh under the current constraint political environment that has received support from the political parties across the country and other stakeholders. In addition, I have been providing lectures and training to the elected local public representatives in Bangladesh on security and P/CVE to build political and social resilience against violence and extremism at the community level.

I have worked with the International Union for Conservation of Nature as an international consultant on hydro diplomacy and capacity building programs in collaboration with the World Bank. I have prepared a country strategy paper for the International Fund for Agricultural Development. I have also designed and facilitated a pioneering work on facilitating trilateral collaboration among the national integrity institutions – Information Commission, Anti Corruption Commission, and Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, under USAID programmes. My task with USAID also included designing the implementation framework of the Right to Information Act in Bangladesh.

I have drafted the national broadcasting policy 2014, provided support to the government agencies and the United Nations agencies on the Rohingya crisis and has been a member of multiple Bangladesh-Myanmar dialogues on refugee repatriation. I was tasked to prepared and designed a counter-radicalisation framework in consultation with a broad section of the society. I have also designed and drafted the pioneering Counter-Terrorism Strategy Paper, in consultation with the key stakeholders, which has been taken into due cognisance by the Government of Bangladesh.

I regularly appear in national and international broadcast media, contribute articles in top national and international dailies and media, and I have been frequently interviewed and cited by international media which are widely available in online domains.

I regularly deliver talks and lectures at the Armed Forces War Course and the National Defence College, Bangladesh, and various international events. I have been appointed as the Editor in Chief of the National Defence College Journal, the first civilian to hold the post. I am currently an Academic Advisor to the National Defence College – the premier armed forces institution.