Associate Professor Damien Kingsbury is associate head (research) of the school of International and Political Studies at Deakin University, In 2005 he was political adviser to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the Helsinki peace talks which ended 29 years of intrastate conflict. He currently advises the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation and has consulted to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Dr Kingsbury teaches Conflict Resolution and Development in the Masters of International and Community Development program at Deakin, along with other development and politics subjects.