The Defense Institute of International Legal Studies is pleased to welcome Ms. Melanne A. Civic as its new Operations Director.  Ms. Civic is a U.S.-educated attorney with more than twenty years of public service, primarily with the U.S. Government, the United Nations, and with Civil Society / Nongovernmental Organizations.  Ms. Civic is expert in three main areas of law and policy: security and the rule of law, international human rights, and international science, environment and energy cooperation. 

For three years, at the United Nations Mission in Liberia, Ms. Civic directed the Rule of Law Justice, Security Sector Reform, and Corrections divisions, and advised the Special Representative to the Secretary General on Protection of Civilians, advancing multidimensional peacekeeping and overseeing the handover of security responsibilities to the government of Liberia. 

Immediately prior to her service with the United Nations, she served for more than a decade as the Senior Rule of Law Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State’s Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS AKA CSO). There, her duties included launching the Civilian Response Corps, a Whole of Government rapid response capability in conflict prevention and stabilization.  Ms. Civic has served as Special Advisor to the National Defense University (NDU), Center for Complex Operations (CCO), establishing an integrated Center operationalizing comprehensive military-civilian approaches for stabilization and peacebuilding. She also was a Brookings Fellow to the Senate Judiciary Committee and House of Representatives Science Committee. 

Ms. Civic has taught as an adjunct professor, and is co-editor of several books, including: Unity of Mission: The Role of Civil-Military Teams Past, Present and Future (2016); Understanding Complex Stability Operations (2014); International Security Reform and Complex Operations (2013), and Monopoly of Force: Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration and Security Sector Reform (2011). She has authored book chapters and law journal articles on stability operations, human rights, energy and environmental security, and transboundary water security.    

Ms. Civic has an LL.M. Masters of Law with distinction from Georgetown University Law Center. She was a Fellow at the Urban Morgan Center for Human Rights, where she earned her Juris Doctorate with honors. She was also credentialed at the Rene Cassin International Institute for Human Rights and received her Bachelor’s Degree Cum Laude from Vassar College. She is the founder and co-Chair Emeritus of the American Society of International Law Rule of Law committee, and has served on the boards of Women in International Security; the Vassar College Alumni Association; and the American Bar Association Steering Committees for Women in International Law, and International Environmental Law.

We look forward to having her lead the Operations team at DIILS.