Dr Morten Pedersen is Senior Lecturer in International and Political Studies at the University of New South Wales Canberra (Australian Defence Force Academy) and a former senior analyst for the International Crisis Group in Myanmar. In addition to teaching and research, he has worked as a policy advisor on Myanmar politics and development affairs for the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Commission, the Australian government, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari, among others.

His major publications include Promoting Human Rights in Burma: A Critique of Western Sanctions Policies (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008); with Anna Magnusson, A Good Office: Twenty Years of UN Mediation in Myanmar (International Peace Institute, 2012); and with David Kinley, Principled Engagement: Negotiating Human Rights in Pariah States (Ashgate, 2013). He was the 2013 winner of the Boyer Prize for the best original article in the Australian Journal of International Affairs - "How to promote human rights in the world's most repressive states: Lessons from Myanmar", Vol. 67, No. 2, 2013.