Gilles Carbonnier

Carbonnier was born in 1965 and grew up in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.  

In his youth, Carbonnier worked and travelled across Latin America. This experience informed his decision to pursue development economics and a life-long interrogation around diverse development trajectories, the role of economic actors and institutions, war economies and innovative financial instruments.

Carbonnier obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Neuchâtel in 2001. His thesis, entitled The Economics of War-torn Countries, included field research with Interpeace.

He speaks French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese.

Before his tenure as professor, Carbonnier executed various field missions with the ICRC (Iraq, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, El Salvador), and conducted multilateral trade negotiations under the GATT/WTO with the Swiss Office for Foreign Economic Affairs.

As full professor in the Department of International Economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Carbonnier served as President of the Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action. From 2009 to 2017, he was Editor-in-Chief of the e-Journal International Development Policy, and Vice-President of the European Association of Development Studies. He was invited as Visiting Professor at SciencePo – Paris and Visiting Scholar at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Singapore) and the American University of Beirut.

As the Vice-President of the ICRC, Carbonnier has engaged states and other influential stakeholders on international humanitarian law (IHL) and humanitarian access. He has promoted work around innovation with the scientific and business community as well as sustainable humanitarian impact in protracted crises, championing a people-centered approach to aid service delivery.

• Humanitarian Economics - War, Disaster, and the Global Aid Market (Hurst & Oxford University Press, 2016)
• Thematic issues Editor, International Development Policy Journal:
  • The ILO @100 – Addressing the Past and Future of Work and Social Protection (Brill, 2019)
  • Alternative Pathways to Sustainable Development: Lessons from Latin-America (Brill, 2017)
  • Education, Learning, Training: Critical Issues for Development (Brill, 2015)
  • Religion and Development (Palgrave, 2013)
  • Aid, Emerging Economies and Global Policies (Palgrave, 2012)
  • Energy and Development (Palgrave, 2011)
  • Africa – 50 Years of Independence (The Graduate Institute, 2010)
• The Global and Local Governance of Extractive Resources (2011)
• Natural Resource Governance and Hybrid Political Orders (2013)
• The Rise of Disaster Risk Insurance and Derivatives (2015)
• Reason, Emotion, Compassion: Can Altruism Survive Professionalization in the Humanitarian Sector? (2015)
• Business-Humanitarian Partnerships: Processes of Normative Legitimation (2015)
• Privatization & outsourcing in wartime: the humanitarian challenges (2006)
• The Competing Agendas of Economic Reform and Peace Process (2002)
• Institutional Learning in North-South Research Partnerships (2015)