Dr. Sebastian “Bass” Kevany joined the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI APCSS) in January 2021. He is a specialist in health security, health diplomacy, health as foreign policy, international relations, and global public health. Within these realms, he has gained extensive experience in the fields of monitoring and evaluation; cost-effectiveness analysis; diplomacy; national and international security; conflict resolution; and the use of global health engagement as a means of preventing or resolving international conflict.

Dr. Kevany has also gained extensive field work via 100+ missions to the Middle East and Northern Africa; Oceania; the South Pacific; and sub-Saharan Africa. His in-country experience includes missions with the United Nations, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the World Health Organization, in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Vanuatu, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Republic of the Sudan, South Sudan, Egypt, Bulgaria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Lesotho, South Africa, Mozambique, Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and many other nations.

Relatedly, Dr. Kevany has also published numerous research papers, based on field experience with the United Nations Development Programme and other organizations, on the interaction between HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, Ebola and Covid-19 epidemic response efforts and counter-terrorism initiatives, access to ‘off-limits’ regions and countries, counter-extremism, nation-building, peace keeping, spheres of global influence, and national and international security and stability.

Building on his related experience, Dr. Kevany worked extensively on the 2020-21 global pandemic via informal support to European governments and politicians; the publication of numerous academic articles in Europe and the USA; and a number of media commentaries. His most recent efforts in this regard have related to advising on military involvement in international vaccination programs; responding to anti-vaccination activism; and the impact of the 2020 pandemic on international relations.

Previously, Dr. Kevany has held positions as an assistant adjunct professor at Trinity College Dublin; a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster; a research analyst at the University of California; and a consultant for a number of national and supranational organizations. He has worked informally with the Office of Global Health Diplomacy at the US State Department, amongst other international bodies. He is also a US Coast Guard Auxiliarist; a research fellow at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health; and a visiting scholar at the University of Leeds School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS).

Dr. Kevany has published numerous peer-reviewed publications in a range of academic journals, including The Lancet, Joint Forces Quarterly, and the American Journal of Public Health. His recent book, Barefoot Global Health Diplomacy: Field Experiences in International Relations, Security, and Epidemics, was published by Elsevier in December 2020. He holds a B.A. degree in Economics and Politics from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland); a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Cape Town (South Africa); and a doctorate in International Relations from the University of Westminster (United Kindgom).

Dr. Kevany’s Publications: