Professor Tom Kaydor's Profile

Prof. Tom Kaydor, Jr. is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Government and European Studies at the New University in the Republic of Slovenia, Central Europe where he is reading and researching International Development and Diplomacy with Security Aspects. He has completed his PhD dissertation. His dissertation topic is ‘Reconceiving Africa’s Regional Integration for Sustainable Development’. He earned his second master’s as a Master of Public Policy (MPP) specializing in Development Policy with Distinction from the Crawford School of Economics and Government (now Crawford School of Public Policy), Australian National University, Australia. He also holds a Master of Arts (MA) in International Relations (Highest Honor) and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Magna Cum Laude in Political Science from the University of Liberia where he currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the IBB Graduate School of International Studies. He holds a Diploma in Leading Economic Growth from the Kennedy Graduate School, Harvard University, USA. He holds several diplomas and certificates in other professional areas, and he is equally an Adjunct Professor of Development Studies at the AME University Graduate School in International Development. Prof. Kaydor is an evidence-based researcher and a published author.

Prof. Kaydor is an International Civil servant. He is a former UN Coordination Adviser in Ethiopia; and a former United Nations (UN) Coordination Analyst in Liberia. He also served as UNICEF-Liberia National Consultant. First, he was UNICEF Liberia; Volunteer Engagement Initiative; and Then National Consultant for the Development of the Roadmap on the Protection of Children Living in Street Situations in Liberia. In these two countries, he coordinated UN support for democratic governance and state-building, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution. He mobilized resources for the United Nations Country Teams’ joint programmes including Youth Empowerment; Gender Equality and Women's Economic Empowerment; Food Security; peace building and peace consolidation. He conducted policy research on Africa and its regional economic hubs and shared reports and findings with the governments and the UN systems in these states. Thus, he is aware of the major socio-economic, political, and environmental challenges and opportunities African governments share regarding democratic governance state-building, and conflict resolution.

He served as Liberia’s Deputy Foreign Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration. In this post, he coordinated Liberia’s foreign policy, development cooperation, and aid coordination, and provided policy advice to the government on how Liberia and Africa in part could curb extreme poverty, achieve economic growth and national development through international cooperation and democratic governance. Without peace, these issues cannot be achieved; hence, peace, the rule of law, and justice are preconditions for development.

As Deputy Foreign Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration, he also led Liberia’s bilateral and multilateral negotiations, regional integration processes, governance, peace, and security dialogues et al. at the UN, African Union (AU), the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), and the Mano River Union (MRU). This made him an astute policymaker, a peace builder, and an advocate of African and global affairs. Equally, he served as Liberia’s Chief Negotiator at the Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, now the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this role, he researched Liberia’s and Africa’s binding constraints, prepared policy papers/notes, and presented them to the High-Level Committee on the Common African Position, the Group of 77 plus China, the Least Developed Countries, et al. He, therefore, has a profound understanding of and hands-on experience in global governance, peacebuilding and state-building prospects and challenges.

Additionally, he served as Liberia’s Assistant Foreign Minister for Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. In this post, he was the government’s representative in charge of political and diplomatic affairs in all these regions. Hence, He has hands-on experience in governance state-building, and peacebuilding issues in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Pacific regions.

Prof. Kaydor was trained as a strategic planner in 2009 at the Galilee College (now the Galilee International Management Institute). Since then, He has been involved with supporting institutions (NGOs and INGOs in developing their strategic plans. For instance, He has developed the strategic plans for about eight National NGOs in Liberia. He has done strategic planning for the United Nations system, particularly for the Interagency Programming Teams and the Operations Management Teams in Liberia and Ethiopia, etc. He has been serving as a National Consultant for UNICEF Liberia. My current assignment for the development of the National Roadmap for the protection of children living in street situations ends on 14^th January 2023.

Most recently, prof. Kaydor served as ASSOCIATE EDITOR for “Encyclopedia of the Sustainable Development Goals: Transforming the World We Want"-Volume 16. He was responsible for proposing themes and edited 21 essays (scholarly submissions) on volume 16 which is focused on SDG16 as published by the Springer Journal I Switzerland. . Goal 16:     Promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels. The "Encyclopedia of the Sustainable Development Goals: Transforming the World We Want" has been being produced by the World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre and the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme, published by Springer, as part of the award-winning “World Sustainability Series". With this background, one can say that his work has supported the Vision of a just, peaceful, and sustainable world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. He is a Peer Reviewer for three renowned international journals.

Finally, Prof. Kaydor is a published author with the following publications, including three books, to his esteemed credit.

Kaydor, T. (2022). The Role of the International Criminal Court in Liberia’s Peace and Stability; International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VII, July 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186.

Kaydor, T. (2022). International Cooperation: Fulcrum for Sustainable Development; in W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Handbook of Sustainability Science in the Future, Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68074-9_2-.

Kaydor T. (2021) Cash Transfer: A Strategic Determinant for Poverty Reduction. In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli

L., Lange Salvia A., Özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) No Poverty. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69625-6_107-1.

Kaydor, T. (2020). Development and Policy Dialogue: Contemporary Insights, Authorhouse, Bloomington, IN, USA.

Kaydor, T. (2018). Development and Policy Dialogue: Selected Essays, LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, SIA

OmniScriptum Publishing, Brivibas gatve 197, LV-1039, Riga Latvia, European Union.

Kaydor, T. (2014). Liberian Democracy: a critique of the principle of checks and balances, Authorhouse, Bloomington, IN,

USA.

Kaydor, T. (2014). ‘What might Africa-China bilateral relationship be in 2030’, in A.S Patel, J.S.G Teo, & S.W Dempsey

(eds), Global Perspectives on International Affairs: Collection of Essays, Forum for Global Affairs, ANU, Canberra,

Australia, pp. 107-125.

_____2014, ‘The impact of poor infrastructure on poverty reduction in post-conflict countries’, New Dawn Newspaper

(online edition), 12 June, Monrovia, Liberia.

_____2014, ‘Offering cash alone to the poor is not enough, New Dawn Newspaper (online edition), 2 June, Monrovia,

Liberia.

_____ (2014). ‘Obstacles to achieving MDG2 in the Republic of Liberia’, FrontPage Africa (online edition), 10 June,

Monrovia, Liberia.

_____ 1998, An Effective Legislature, the Alternative to Presidential Autocracy in Liberia, unpublished Postgraduate

Thesis, IBB Graduate School of International Studies, University of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia.

_____ 2002, An Analysis of the Balance of Power Amongst the Three Branches of the Liberian Government, unpublished

undergraduate Thesis, Liberia College of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia.

_____ 2005, A Concise Manual for Community and Social Workers, Monrovia, Liberia.