Timo Kivimäki

In addition to his work in Indonesian peace processes, Kivimäki has worked in various contracts in assistance of foreign ministries of Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands and Russia. Furthermore, he has worked with EU and UN organizations and several other donor agencies and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) promoting strategies of conflict prevention and peace dialogue. In October 2004, he was “strongly advised” by a Danish intelligence official either to stop his meetings with the Aceh rebel organization, or if he continued meetings, he would have to provide reports on them to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service. Dr. Kivimäki declined and continued his meetings (interview with a Malaysian diplomat, who had heard about the demand from Dr. Kivimäki in summer 2005).

In September 2010 Dr Kivimäki was arrested (and released in 24 hours) on a suspicion of helping espionage organization of Russia.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

According to Kivimäki himself, his work with the Russian foreign ministry was similar to his work with other ministries and that the diplomats he worked with were not spies.[12] His work for the Russian foreign ministry consisted of short studies that explored research-based support for example for Russian diplomatic arguments against militaristic counter-terrorism of the United States and its allies (including Denmark) and military interventions in Iraq, and the potential intervention in Iran. Kivimäki had refused to help Russians in their arguments of their position in the negotiation on the territorial disputes in the Arctic. However, Kivimäki offered to organize scholarly seminars on the topic in order to help the initiation of political negotiation on the topic (Kai Byman: “Rauhanmies Häpeäpaalussa”,YLE documentary, September 27, 2012). The Court in Glostrup, Denmark, concluded in its public version of the verdict, after a hearing that was secret not only to the public, but, in part, also to the defendant (double closed doors hearings), that the Russians Dr. Kivimäki had collaborated with were diplomats (rather than spies), but that information that Kivimäki delivered in his discussions with these diplomats, if passed to the Russien intelligence organization, could have helped the intelligence organization. Thus the court convicted Kivimäki under the paragraph 108 of the Danish criminal code (public version). Kivimäki was not charged for delivering secrets to Russians (article 107). He served his 2 ½ months home arrest in autumn 2012. His sentence was controversial and for example the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland said in an interview to the biggest Newspaper in Finland (Helsingin Sanomat 13.4. 2012) that Kivimäki's activities would not have given rise to legal proceedings in Finland, and that the Foreign Minister could not see with certainty that Prof. Kivimäki's legal rights were protected in Denmark.

According to a University of Helsinki representative the peace negotiators need contacts with all the conflict parties and big nations.[13] According to Prof. Liisa Laakso of the Faculty of Social Sciences Dean of the University of Helsinki, scholars are often more suitable for the creation of the initial contacts that are needed for official peace negotiation and conflict resolution between official representatives of the conflicting parties.

After the controversy in Denmark, Dr. Kivimäki moved back to his native Finland, and took up a faculty position at the University of Helsinki. He has recently published a book examining the relationship between academic research and peace work (Kivimäki 2012a) in which he also briefly touches on the subject of how intelligence communities can block or support peace processes. Since moving to Finland his activities have been focused on purely academic issues, and he is teaching and further developing the theory of pragmatic peace research giving a new generation of peace activists new ideas on how to help the crucial initial phase of dialogue between conflicting parties. He is also a frequent commentator of issues related to peace and conflict in the Finnish media. His book is entitled The Long Peace of East Asia.