SAHETIANS MAKING HEADLINES

Elizabeth Sideropoulos

Class of 1985

Speaking at The United Nations in New York.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE - SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (SAIIA) - SOUTH AFRICA
MA (cum laude) IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, WITS

The SAHETI Alumni Association is very proud to see our very own SAHETI Alumna Elizabeth Sideropoulos, speaking at The United Nations in New York this year.

Elizabeth matriculated in 1985, was Deputy Head Prefect and from those early years, showed a zest for leadership and a passion for academic excellence. She has maintained ties with SAHETI and continues to be a friend and supporter of all that SAHETI stands for. Elizabeth is the chief executive of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), an independent foreign policy think-tank based in Johannesburg. She holds an MA in International Relations (cum laude) from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She has headed the Institute since 2005. Before her current appointment, she was director of studies at SAIIA from 1999 to April 2005. She was previously research director at the South African Institute of Race Relations and editor of the highly acclaimed Race Relations Survey (now the South Africa Survey) an annual publication documenting political and constitutional developments, and socio-economic disparities in South Africa.

She is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, the journal of the Graduate Institute of International Development in Geneva and the International Journal Chinese Quarterly of Strategic Studies under the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). She is the editor-in-chief of the South African Journal of International Affairs. Ms Sideropoulos serves on the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Agenda Council on the Future of Regional Organisations, and the WEF Think Tank Leaders Forum.

She also served on the International Advisory Board of the EU Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs. Her research focus is South Africa’s foreign policy, global governance and the role of emerging powers in Africa.

Her works include co-edited volumes on Development cooperation and emerging powers: New Partners or Old Patterns (Zed Books, May 2012) and Institutional Architecture & Development: Responses from Emerging Powers (Jacana, June 2015). Her current research focus is Russia’s renewed presence in Africa, against the background of SA’s membership of the BRICS grouping.

For numerous years she taught the adult Greek classes at the school with great success. In 1995-1996 she was Honorary Secretary of the SAHETI Board and from 1997-2002 served as Vice Chairman of the Board with the Portfolio of Greek Studies. In 2010 (until 2018) Elizabeth was elected as an Executive member of the Board as Vice-Chair (Greek). In 2016 she was elected as Deputy-Chair of the Board responsible for Greek.