Mark V. Vlasic

Prof. Mark V. Vlasic Mark V. Vlasic is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, a Senior Fellow at Georgetown’s Institute for Law, Science & Global Security, and Senior Fellow at Georgetown's Institute of International Economic Law. He also maintains a boutique law practice focused on international law, strategic philanthropy and human rights, and has served as an outside pro bono advisor to the Director-General of UNESCO and the European Centre for Dispute Resolution. As public sector specialist at the World Bank Group, Mark served as the first head of operations of the StAR Secretariat, a joint United Nations-World Bank presidential initiative to help developing countries recover stolen assets from past dictators. Before joining the Bank, he served as a White House Fellow/special assistant to the Secretary of Defense (focused on foreign policy issues), advisor to the President’s Special Envoy to Sudan, and was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service by Secretary Robert Gates. Prior to his government service, Mark practiced law in the litigation, international and public policy practice groups at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and served on the Slobodan Milosevic and Srebrenica genocide prosecution trial teams at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where he focused on genocide and mass executions in Eastern Bosnia. Mark has taught the Iraqi judges that tried Saddam Hussein, served on the U.S. Delegation to the Pan Am 103 “Lockerbie” terrorist bombing trial in the Netherlands, provided commentary to BBC, CNN, FOX News, CBS, and NPR, and been published by the New York Times/IHT, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The New Republic and numerous journals. He has also contributed to five books, The Responsibility to Protect (Oxford), Prosecuting Maritime Piracy (Cambridge), Responsibility to Protect in Theory & Practice (GV Zalozba), The Business Case for Sustainable Finance (Routledge), and The Encyclopedia of Transnational Crime and Justice (Sage). Mark studied business, theology and government at Georgetown University while on an Army ROTC scholarship, and received his Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center. He holds a Certificate from The Hague Academy of International Law, conducted his post-doctorate research at Universiteit Leiden as a NAF-Fulbright Scholar to the Netherlands, and completed the World Economic Forum's executive leadership program at the Harvard Kennedy School. As a U.S. Army officer, he has been attached to Capitol Hill and the Defense Attaché Office at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. He is a Fellow with the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, a member of the Bars of California, the District of Columbia, and the Supreme Court of the United States, and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Knighted by the Vatican and named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mark is co-chair of its YGL SDG Advisory Council and has advised numerous boards, including those related to the U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce’s Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Services & Finance Industries, the White House Fellow Foundation, Humanity in Action, Inc., the NCAC Fulbright Association, Kinecta Federal Credit Union, and the Fulbright Academy of Science & Technology.