COMMENTARY
Mark Vlasic was a part of an AlJazeera piece on the wealth that has been looted by some of the major leaders ... Bin Ali and family in Tunisia, Mubarak and family in Egypt ... and Gaddafi in Libya.

As I listened I was stressed by the fact that 'rule of law' which is so much talked about by the 'good' (sarcastic) governments of the world is in fact designed in a way that makes it relatively easy for huge wealth to be stolen and rather little that can be done to recover it. I like some of what Mark Vlasic had to say, but the fact that the international organizations have put so much money in play and it has largely been stolen is a serious disgrace.

I have tried over the years to get officials in the UN and World Bank systems to pay attention to these matters ... but I was turned into the 'bad guy' not the people who were engaged in very sloppy practices that permits leakage of money.
Peter Burgess

Mark V. Vlasic has served as a soldier, a lawyer, a professor, and a diplomat, and has worked for the White House, the Pentagon, the World Bank, the United Nations, and a large international law firm. He is currently a senior fellow and adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University and a partner at Ward & Ward pllc, where he heads the firm's international practice, and focuses on international law, international trade, litigation, business diplomacy, public policy, human rights, and stolen asset recovery matters.

Mark's private practice background includes: working with international organizations, corporations, foreign governments and non-governmental organizations regarding complex international law and public policy matters, including World Bank and United Nations collaboration/procurement issues, INTERPOL 'red notice' arrest warrant abuse issues, and social responsibility issues; providing advice regarding business diplomacy, international banking, and international litigation issues; participating in asset recovery, cartel, foreign corruption, and securities fraud investigations around the world; and, advising clients on the application and enforcement of U.S. economic sanctions and embargos, export controls, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Mark has also advised companies subject to investigations and enforcement actions by the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, Justice, and Treasury, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Prior to his return to academia and private practice, Mark was a public sector specialist at the World Bank Group, where he served as head of operations of the StAR (Stolen Asset Recovery) Secretariat, an initiative launched by President Robert Zoellick and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to help developing countries recover stolen assets from past dictators (Sani Abacha/Nigeria, Jean-Claude Duvalier/Haiti, etc.). A member of StAR's management team, Mark was responsible for country engagements on four continents, and furthered bilateral relations with major financial centers, foreign governments and civil society organizations.

Before joining the Bank, Mark was competitively selected and appointed by the President to serve as a White House Fellow. As part of his nonpartisan fellowship, Mark served as a special assistant to the Secretary of Defense (focused on foreign policy issues and bilateral relations) and helped advise the President's Special Envoy to Sudan. In recognition of his contributions to the Department, including being a 'valuable member of Secretary of Defense's official delegations to Europe, Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East, and to NATO Defense Ministerial meetings,' Mark was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service by Secretary Robert M. Gates, the highest non-career award in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Prior to his government service, Mark practiced law in the litigation, public policy, banking, and international trade practice groups at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and served as a prosecution attorney at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where he was a member of the Slobodan Milosevic and General Radislav Krstic (Srebrenica) trial and investigative teams, and focused on mass executions and genocide in Bosnia. As a U.S. Army officer, he has been attached to units on Capitol Hill and at the Defense Attaché Office at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Mark has also served in the Executive Office of the President, Office of the United States Trade Representative, where he worked on WTO Ministerial issues.

An adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and senior fellow at Georgetown's Institute for Law, Science & Global Security, Mark has provided advice to the U.S. National Intelligence Council and Central Intelligence Agency, and has lectured at numerous academic institutions on both sides of the Atlantic, including Oxford University, Yale Law School, the NATO School, the U.S. Military Academy, the Hague Academy of International Law, the Baltic Defense College, and the Danish Center for Human Rights. Mark served on the U.S. Delegation to the Pan Am 103 'Lockerbie' terrorist bombing trial in the Netherlands, and in 2005, he was part of a select team of international experts that helped train the Iraqi judges that tried Saddam Hussein.

Mark has provided legal commentary to CNN, CBS, FOX News, NPR, CTV, bloggingheads.tv, Voice of America, the History News Network, the Washington Post, and USA Today, and been published by the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Times, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, the Yale Journal of International Affairs, The Tax Lawyer, USA Today, Legal Times, the Huffington Post, the Toronto Star, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Cayman Financial Review, Americas Quarterly, the Ventura County Star, and the Sudan Tribune.

In 2010, the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce appointed Mark to serve on their Industry Advisory Committee on Services & Finance Industries, as was he selected to serve as a designated representative to the Secretary of State's Overseas Security Advisory Council. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Humanity in Action Foundation, the Board of Trustees and Senior Advisory Board of Atlas Service Corps, the International Advisory Council of the Fulbright Academy of Science & Technology, the Advisory Council of the Public International Law & Policy Group, the Advisory Boards of Luke's Wings and the Middle East Council of American Chambers of Commerce, and the Board of Counselors for Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. Mark is a member of the Asset Recovery Experts Network, the Atlantik-Brucke's German-American Young Leaders Program and the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in San Remo, Italy, and is a Fellow in the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program, the U.S.-Spain Council's Young Leaders Program, and the National Committee on United States-China Relations' Young Leaders Forum. He is listed in Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in International Humanitarian Law/International Criminal Law, was profiled as an 'International Lawyer' in Esquire magazine, and was honored by the Development Executive Group (DEVEX) as a 'Top 40 Under 40' in international development. Mark was awarded the inaugural Frank Wheat Award for his leadership and dedication to pro bono and community service and the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, and has worked, studied and traveled in 80 countries.

After attending public schools in California, Mark studied business, theology and government at Georgetown University while on an Army ROTC scholarship, and received his Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center. He holds a Certificate in International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law and conducted post-doctorate research at Universiteit Leiden as a NAF-Fulbright Scholar to the Netherlands. Mark is a member of the Bars of California, the District of Columbia, and the Supreme Court of the United States, and serves on the Term Member Advisory Committee at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Publications

• Justice for Haiti, via the Swiss, International Herald Tribune/New York Times, Oct. 4, 2010.
• Fast Cash in the Caribbean: Recovering Assets from Corrupt Leaders, with Greg Cooper, Americas Quarterly (Fall 2010).
• Look Who's Coming to Dinner: a warlord, a president, a model, and a blood diamond?, Washington Times, Aug. 2, 2010.
• The Next Financial Reform Floodgate, with Mike Signer, Huffington Post, Jul. 30, 2010.
• Remembering Srebrenica & Our Responsibility to do More, Huffington Post, Jul. 17, 2010.
• Fighting Corruption to Improve Global Security: An analysis of international asset recovery systems, with Jenae N. Noell, 5 Yale Journal of International Affairs 2 (2010).
• With G-20 Influence Comes G-20 Responsibility, with Greg Cooper, Huffington Post, Jul. 6, 2010.
• The Long Arm of Justice, Huffington Post,Apr. 13, 2010.
• Rebuild the Right Way - Don't let corruption hijack aid, with Jack Smith, Washington Times, Mar. 26, 2010.
• Fighting Impunity: Recent International Asset Recovery Efforts to Combat Corruption, with Jenae Noel, Cayman Financial Review, Jan. 5, 2010.
• The End of Impunity, San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 1, 2008.
• The ILC Debate and the Separation of Banking and Commerce: A Work in Progress, co-authored with C.F. Muckenfuss and Robert Eager, presented at the Financial Services Roundtable, May 12, 2006.
• Milosevic: Two Stories and the Pursuit of Justice, Ventura County Star, Mar. 21, 2006.
• How to Remember Milosevic: Last Words, The New Republic, Mar. 18, 2006.
• Bodyguards for Justice, Legal Times, Jan. 23, 2006.
• Iraqi Judges Deserve Support, Toronto Star, Oct. 19, 2005.
• Iraq Tribunal Needs the World, USA Today, Oct. 18, 2005.
• We Always Forget, Foreign Policy, Aug. 2005.
• Mass Slaughter: We Always Forget, Sudan Tribune, Aug. 23, 2005.
• Richness of Mankind Sacrificed to Indifference, Ventura County Star, July 17, 2005.
• Cloak & Dagger Diplomacy: The U.S. & Assassination, A Study of Law and Policy, 1 Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 95 (2000).
• Act of State Doctrine Allows Foreign Taxes on Net Loan Interest Paid by a Foreign Central Bank to Qualify for Foreign Tax Credit: Riggs v. Commissioner, 53 Tax Lawyer 811 (2000).
• Liability for Actions of Broker-Dealers & Agents Involving the Sales of Variable Insurance Products, co-authored with John Sturc and Diana Preston, presented at the Investment Advisor and Broker-Dealer Compliance Conference for the Financial Services Industry, Sept. 10, 2000.

• Assessing the NATO Summit (panel chairman), NATO Summit/Young Atlantisist Summit, Lisbon, Portugal, Nov. 2010.
• Prosecuting Genocide, Boston College Law School, Boston, MA, Oct. 2010.
• Seizure of Assets: International Cooperation, International Association of Prosecutors Regional Conference on Cooperating Against Corruption, Belgrade, Serbia, Oct. 2010.
• Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, Sep. 2010.
• Tools of the Trade (panelist), Young Professionals in Foreign Policy/Aspen Institute, Washington, DC, Jul. 2010.
• Public Diplomacy & the Fulbright Scholar Program (panelist), Foreign Service Institute, Arlington, VA, Jun. 2010.
• The Role of Leadership in Fighting & Perpetrating Genocide, 8th and I Synagogue, Washington, DC, Mar. 2010.
• Preparing to Fight and Operate in Uncertain Environments (facilitator), Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY, Nov. 2009.
• Support for International Tribunals, Central Intelligence Agency, Langley, VA, Nov. 2009.
• Power v. Religion: Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, Nov. 2009.
• International Law: Prosecuting Genocide, University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, MI, Sep. 2009.
• Rackham Distinguished Human Rights Lecture, Center for International and Comparative Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Sep. 2009.
• New York 400 / Fulbright @ 60: A Transatlantic Dialogue (panelist), The Levin Institute, New York, NY, Sep. 2009.
• Challenges to International Security (panelist), U.S.-Japan Leadership Program Conference, Kyoto, Japan, Aug. 2009.
• New Developments in International Stolen Asset Recovery, Offshore Alert Due Diligence Conference, Miami, FL, Apr. 2009.
• Human Rights Investigations & Prosecutions in a Post-Conflict Environment, U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington, DC, Mar. 2009.
• International Efforts in Fighting Grand Corruption: Stolen Asset Recovery, U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington, DC, Mar. 2009.
• The Impact of the NAF-Fulbright Scholar Program, The Netherland-America Foundation, New York, NY, Mar. 2009.
• Bribery Training for Government Officials (discussant), The World Bank, Washington, DC, Mar. 2009.
• The Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative: Country Operations, The World Bank, Washington, DC, Mar. 2009.
• The Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, International Association of Prosecutors Conference, The Hague, The Netherlands, Mar. 2009.
• Faith and Human Security (panelist), Transparency International's International Anti-Corruption Conference, Athens, Greece, Nov. 2008.
• A StAR Initiative Dialogue with Civil Society on Asset Recovery (panelist), Transparency International's International Anti-Corruption Conference, Athens, Greece, Oct. 2008.
• Faith and Society (panelist), U.S.-Japan Leadership Program Conference, Seattle, WA, Aug. 2008.
• The Future of International Justice, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC, June 2006.
• International Law & War Crimes, from Bosnia to Baghdad, Yale Law School, New Haven, CT, May, 2006.
• The Slobodan Milosevic Case, Conference at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, Galway, Ireland, Apr., 2006
• The Legacy & Future of Peace & Conflict Studies, Fulbright Association Conference, Baltimore, MD, Nov. 2005.
• International Criminal Law in The Hague, Pepperdine University School of Law, Oct. 2005.
• The Tenth Anniversary of a Genocide, Human Rights First, Washington, DC, Jul. 2005.
• The Challenges of Operating Within & Between International Organizations & States, George Washington University Law School, Washington, DC, Apr. 2005.
• The Investigation & Prosecution of a Modern Genocide in Europe, Oxford University, England, Mar. 2005.
• International Criminal Law and the War Crimes Tribunal, Vilnius University, Lithuania, Sep. 2003.
• Investigations & Prosecutions at the ICTY, The Danish Center for Human Rights, Denmark, Sep. 2003.
• Introduction to the War Crimes Tribunal, The Hague Academy of International Law, The Netherlands, Aug. 2003.
• Command Responsibility, The Baltic Defense College & the Estonian Ministry of Defense, Estonia, May 2003.
• NATO-UN Cooperation and the Prosecution of Genocide, The NATO School, Germany, Apr. 2003.
• The Prosecution of General Radislav Krstic, The NATO School, Germany, Nov. 2002.
• The Srebrenica Investigation and Prosecution, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY, Oct. 2002.
• War Crimes Investigations and Prosecutions, U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC, Sep. 2002.
• Past & Current Memberships
• American Bar Association
• American Society of International Law
• Asset Recovery Experts Network
• Atlantik-Brucke's German-American Young Leaders Program
• Atlas Service Corps (Board of Trustees & International Advisory Board)
• Bar of the District of Colombia
• Bar of the State of California
• Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Council on Foreign Relations (Term Member Advisory Committee)
• Fulbright Academy of Science & Technology (International Advisory Council)
• Fulbright Association
• Georgetown University's Board of Governors
• Georgetown University Law Center's Law Alumni Board
• Humanity in Action Foundation (Board of Directors & American Program Board)
• International Institute of Humanitarian Law, San Remo, Italy
• International Bar Association
• Luke's Wings (Advisory Board)
• National Committee on United States-China Relations' Young Leaders Forum (Fellow)
• Public International Law & Policy Group (Advisory Council)
• Reserve Officers Association (Life Member)
• United Nations Association of the United States
• U.S.-Japan Leadership Program (Fellow)
• U.S.-Spain Council Young Leaders Program (Fellow)
• U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce's Industry Advisory Committee on Services & Finance Industries (ITAC 10)
• White House Fellows Foundation & Association (Life Member)
• Who's Who in International Humanitarian Law/International Criminal Law
• Who's Who in the World
• Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (Board of Counselors)