Kennedy Graham

Kennedy Graham is a member of the NZ Parliament, since 2008. He holds the portfolios of global affairs, defence and disarmament, and intelligence and security. He serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee (vice-chairman 2011-14) and the Privileges Committee.

Before entering Parliament, Dr Graham was a NZ diplomat, a UN official, and a university teacher. He has taught international politics and international law at Canterbury and Victoria Universities in New Zealand, and as Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Belgium. He also served as a senior consultant to the UN’s Dept. of Political & Security Council Affairs, and to the UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. He has lived and worked in ten countries throughout Asia, Middle East, Europe, North America and the South Pacific. Dr Graham was involved in the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone negotiations as a NZ delegate.

On international work, Dr. Graham is vice-chairman of IPU-NZ, co-convenor of the Global Greens Parliamentarian Association, and has been a member of the board of directors of GLOBE-International.

Dr Graham holds a B.Com (Auckland), M.A. in International Relations (Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Boston), Ph.D. (Victoria University, Wellington), and was a Research Fellow at Cambridge University He has authored or edited five books including ‘The Planetary Interest – A New Concept for the Global Age’. He is founding Director of the NZ Centre for Global Studies.