Ms Monica Mendez Caballero has 10 years of experience on security sector reform and governance, specialized on peacebuilding through strategic foresight and the intersection between gender, peace and security. Her practitioner experience and research interests include diplomacy, geopolitics and legitimacy-building of security institutions in democratic environments.
At present, she co-directs the GCSP Strategic Foresight Course and she is Associate at the Strategic Anticipation Cluster. Regular speaker and facilitator of workshops on foresight for NGO’s, international organizations and governments on topics impacting the global security environment as gender-based violence prevention, energy transition, challenges for science development, and institutional change for security agencies (police and army). Monica joined in 2018 the judge panel for the Joseph Jaworski Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Award, annual recognition of innovative strategic foresight projects. Since 2019 Monica is a member of the OECD Government Foresight Community, the WIIS (Women in International Security) Next Generation Fellows, and Amassuru: Women in Security and Defense in Latin America and the Caribbean.
As government official, she worked on Security Sector Reform in Mexico, and on international comparative analyses of empirical examples to foster institutional strength of justice and security agencies from Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Spain, and the United States. As Programme Manager for the Security, Gender and Development Institute, she coordinates projects, events and partnerships on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.
Ms. Mendez holds a MAS in International and European Security from the University of Geneva and the GCSP, an MBA from IPADE Business School and a BA in Political Science from ITAM. She is an alumna of the GCSP through its flagship Leadership in International Security Course, the School of International Futures, the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, and the Near East South Asia Center For Strategic Studies.
Monica is Mexican and speaks English and Spanish; understands German and French, and has basic knowledge of Finnish.
Recent Publications:
- The adhesion process to NATO in five steps (In Spanish), July 2022.
- Contributed to GCSP Peace and Security 2025 publication p. 18, April 2021.
- GCSP policy brief on domestic violence, November 2020.