Peter Emerson

About me

On leaving school, I joined the British navy as an officer cadet but, after nine years, I resigned my commission to become a volunteer teacher in a school for the poor in Nairobi, Kenya. Three years later, I cycled 10 000 km across Central Africa and back, witnessing many of the mistakes we Europeans have brought to this continent, not only in the destruction of the rain forests but also by replacing traditional decision-making and the imposition of majority rule. In 1975, I moved to Belfast in Northern Ireland where I soon became involved in peace and environmental work. In 1980, I was a founder member of the Northern Ireland Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Following a few years in Russia working as a translator, I returned to Belfast in 1991, where I ran another cross-community consensus gathering. In December 1992, I went back to the Balkans as a freelance correspondent, before returning yet again to Belfast.

My skills

As implied above, I have both a mathematical and a linguistic brain. I’m also computer literate, with power-point and so on, and I'm very much the environmentalist, a committed cyclist and a very keen gardener.

Why you should work with me

When organising a demonstration of consensus voting or facilitating mediation between various factions, I invariably rely on workshops and role plays, usually on very real problems, as in my first experiment in consensus where participants discussed the constitutional position of NI. I also make full use of electronic voting. I first used a computer in 1991; more recently (in a university in Beijing) I have used ‘de Borda’ software and students’ smart phones.

My work experiences

• 1961-1970 Naval officer in submarines, rising to the rank of first lieutenant
• 1970-1973 Teacher in Starehe Boys’ Centre, Nairobi
• 1974 Travel writer in Central Africa
• 1975-1983 Youth and community work in Belfast
• 1984-1988 Student of Slavonic Studies in Queen’s University, Belfast
• 1988-1990 Russian-English translator in Progress Publishers, Moscow
• 1991-1992 Manager of a city farm in Belfast
• 1992-1993 Freelance correspondent in Bosnia
• 1994-1997 Campaigning work, leading to the foundation of the de Borda Institute
• 1996-2017 The first of over 20 election observation missions was in Bosnia, followed by others in Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia: the last was in Mongolia
• 1997- Director, the de Borda Institute

My education & training

• 1961-1964 Degree equivalent in the Naval College, Dartmouth, UK
• 1984-1988 A mature student, learning Russian, but I terminated my studies to work as a translator in a Russian publishing house in Moscow

My references

Phil Kearney, founder member of the Irish Greens