Nick Birnback is currently the Director of Strategic Communications for United Nations Peacekeeping at the UN Headquarters in New York City He was previously the Chief of Public Affairs for the Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support, in addition to serving as the Chief of Public information and Chief of Staff for the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS).
He began his career with the UNDP as a public information officer for the United Nations observer mission in Liberia, starting a 25 year journey with UN peace operations. He has worked in a number of capacities, both in the field and at Headquarters, including as Special Assistant to the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General at the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, an Information Officer in Liberia and Sierra Leone, a Civil Affairs Officer and Special Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner of the UN Mission’s International Police Task Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina.and an information Officer and Acting Spokesman for the United Nations Mission in East Timor. He has also worked as an External Relations Officer for the UN Department of Political Affairs’ Electoral Assistance Division. Among his areas of expertise are peacekeeping, strategic communications and military affairs.
Nick has received a number of awards and commendations throughout his career, including the UN medal, which he was awarded in 1998 for his actions during a riot in the Hercegovci town of Drvar.
In his typical pithy manner, Nick has characterized the Peacekeepers' jobs as "the last stop before hell," and has made it explicit that the Peacekeeper's role is not fighting wars, but rather assisting in building institutions in troubled countries and protecting the population in the transition.
Nick studied at Tufts with me as a very thoughtful, inquisitive, and challenging member of my EPIIC, Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship colloquium on “Confronting Political and Social Evil.” He was a superb student, graduating Magna Cum Laude, with Summa Cum Laude for his thesis in History and international relations which he accomplished in an unusual short amount of time. He was also a scholar-athlete. A Tufts Varsity baseball player, he was also a sabre fencer, my fencing weapon, and some of the our more delightful email exchanges often included simulated bouts of attacks, ripostes, and counter-attacks.
But we fused over ideas. His honed his intellect, continued his formal education, earning a Masters in Public Policy from Princeton University.
After graduation Nick was awarded a prestigious Herbert Scoville Jr Peace Fellowship providing him an opportunity to gain a Washington perspective on key issues of peace and security (His accepting this award was particularly pleasing for me. “Pete” Scoville was an ally and core participant in the MX missile citizens action forum that I created and held at MIT in 1981).
We communicated often. One day a terse email came in my in-box from East Timor, “Pray for me. They are shooting at us” His UN headquarters in Dili, East Timor was under siege by pro-government militias. It was soon followed by a jarring email from his mother, who informed me that he had never heard of the place until he took a course with me. I ruefully remembered assigning an article by Noam Chomsky.
His mission, UNAMET, was awarded the 2000 Elie Wiesel award for Humanitarianism for Nick’s, Ian Martin’s, and other senior UN staff’s courageous intervention during the siege, refusing to be evacuated to Darwin, Australia, until all the Timorese people under their protection were airlifted out as well. Two of his emails back to New York Headquarters during the tense negotiations he shared read, “This is not Schindler’s List,” and “This is not Darwinian survival of the fittest.” Nick’s response stayed true to his typical honest, blunt, understated persona.
I had the honor of successfully nominating Nick for the highest alumni recognition from Tufts University, the Light on the Hill Award I also brought Nick back to Tufts as an invaluable member of our Institute’s Voices from the Field gathering in 2012, and to award him the Institute’s Distinguished Alumni Award, in the presence of General Romeo Dallaire.
He surprised me in turn, presenting me with his heavy personal distinctive Blue Helmet, lugged all the way from Somalia. Chillingly for me, his blood type is written on the back. (I will send this picture later)
Nick and I have a fun relationship and I would be remiss to post this without a sense of his singular, irreverent verve – he wrote this about himself when I asked for his bio:
Growing up in the independent and sovereign republic of Brooklyn, Nick’s real passion is writing about food and New York, the city that sent him out into the world with a chip on his shoulder and the belief that he belongs in any room and a sense that anything is possible with the right amount of hustle.
Chief of Staff, MINURSO - Mission for the UN Referendum in Western Sahara