War Studies

Date of Publication: 02/02/2019 Description: In November 2018 The Marjan-Marsh Prize awarded by the Department of War Studies in partnership with the Marsh Christian Trust was presented to Milan Ruzic, President of the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia (BPSSS). This award is given annually to someone who has made an invaluable contribution to an area where conflict and conservation overlap. The Marsh Christian Trust was started in 1981 by businessman Brian Marsh to honour ‘unsung heroes’; since then the portfolio of awards has grown to over 70 across a wide spectrum that includes conservation, arts, heritage and social welfare. After the 1990’s Balkan wars, many of the paramilitary groupings morphed into criminal syndicates running everything from guns, humans, drugs, illegal cigarettes and more. A lesser known stream of illegal activity is the trade in wild birds, which are plentiful in the Balkans due to its location as a major fly-way between Africa and Europe. The trade is fuelled mainly in

Date of Publication: 19/01/2019 Description: We are going to kick off 2019 by exploring the development of international criminal law and justice, starting from the year 1919. Following the end of the First World War, the Allied nations of Britain, France and Italy agreed to try the former German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II before an international criminal tribunal, while the US stood largely opposed to such an unprecedented trial. During the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, International lawyers converged to debate on the development and application of international criminal justice for the first time and recommended that the Kaiser should be tried for war crimes. In order to break an impasse in negotiations between the US and the other Allied nations on the trial of the Kaiser, US President Woodrow Wilson would relent, agreeing to try the Kaiser for what he termed as a 'supreme offence against international morality'. This would become a part of the official wording Article 227 of the Treaty of Versailles,

Date of Publication: 07/12/2018 Description: The capabilities and the efficiency displayed by Russia’s military during its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its subsequent air campaign over Syria not only surprised the world but also signalled that Russia was once again a significant military actor. This evidence of an apparent Russian military revival, among other recent events, has increased tensions between Russia and its neighbors as well as NATO and has led many to highlight Russia’s latest military advancements and operations as a major turning point in the post-Cold War era. However, Dr Bettina Renz, associate professor at the University of Nottingham and author of the recent book, ‘Russia’s Military Revival’, argues that although Russia’s recent actions have created serious concerns, this so-called ‘military revival’ may not appear to be as significant of a turning point when put into historical context. So, what is the significance of Russia’s ‘military revival’? On the 16th of November, the DWS an

Date of Publication: 09/11/2018 Description: The impact of the First World War can be observed throughout history and is even felt today as we commemorate the sacrifices made during this devastating war. In light of the end of the First World War Centenary, Kirk Allen met up with Drs. Aimee Fox and Nick Lloyd from the School of Security Studies' Defence Studies Department to discuss the importance of commemoration and the FWW's influence on the future of warfare. Additionally, this podcasts includes a short interview with William Philpot, Professor of the History of Warfare in the Department of War Studies, on the significance of the ending of the FWW and the lessons we can reasonably draw. __________________ After listening to this podcast, check out one of our past event recordings on the complexities of the First World War: http://bit.ly/2un6EFG __________________ For more news and information on upcoming events, please visit our website at KCL.AC.UK/WarStudies.

Date of Recording: 15/10/2018 Description: Three recently retired top military leaders debate key security issues from North Korean brinkmanship to Cross Strait relations and China's rise as a maritime power. Speakers: - Admiral Chen Yeong-Kang, former Chief of Staff of the Republic of China's Navy and former President of the National Defence University - Admiral Tomohasi Takei, International Fellow with the US Naval War College and former Chief of Staff of the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force - Admiral Scott Swift, MIT Center for International Studies Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow and former Commander of the US Pacific Fleet Chair: - Alessio Patalano, Reader in East Asian Warfare & Security at the Department of War Studies ________________ For more news and information on upcoming events, please visit our website at KCL.AC.UK/WarStudies or follow us on Twitter.

Date of publication: 26/10/2018 Description: Since the year 2000, the UN Security Council has adopted 8 resolutions which make up what is known as the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. These resolutions work to promote gender equality and strengthen women’s rights, protections, and participation in mending conflict-torn societies. The first of these historic UNSC resolutions, 1325, provides a political framework that outlines how women and gender perspectives are crucial for negotiating sustainable peace, planning refugee camps, implementing peacekeeping operations, and recovering conflict-torn societies. The advent of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda has been followed by a growing emphasis on the need to ‘mainstream’ gender into the institutions that govern and practice war and conflict management. Additionally, universities are seen to be increasingly incorporating more feminist teaching, courses and programmes on gender and Int’l relations in response to student demand. As the need for gender educ

Date of recording: 24/09/2018 Description: On the 24th of September, the Department of War Studies and the Conflict, Security and Development Research Group welcomed Jeff Colgan, Associate Professor at Brown University, for his talk titled, 'Should the US withdraw from the Middle East.' According to Prof. Colgan, ‘over the past 25 years, US foreign policy outcomes in the Middle East have gone from more or less acceptable to downright awful.’ Arguably, the most notable US foreign policy failure in the region was the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, but to this day, US success in the Middle East is further challenged by complex conflicts, including those in Afghanistan and Syria, and is also impacted by the presence of terrorist organizations within Middle Eastern states faced with instability. Due to undesirable and costly outcomes in the past, many in Washington DC have contemplated whether the US should withdraw from the Middle East. However, if the US were to withdraw, this decision could not only impact US

Date of publication: 21/09/2018 Description: On 4-6 Sept, the Connections UK wargaming conference, hosted by King’s College London, once again succeeded in bringing together wargaming users, practitioners and academics "to advance and sustain the art, science and application of wargaming." In light of this event, we are once again going to talk wargaming. Despite how it sounds, Wargaming is not necessarily a leisure activity. Although war games are interesting and thrilling to play, many of these games are played in order to simulate and model armed conflict without the actual use of force. Through these wargames practitioners in the armed forces and academics alike often seek to better understand the dynamics of past and even future conflicts. In this edition of the War Studies Podcast, we are going hear from three of this year’s Connections UK organisers and participants broadly about wargaming in the academic and professional contexts as well as wargame design. Interviewees: - Prof Philip Sabin, Pro

Date of recording: 13/06/2018 Description: On the 13th of June, the School of Security Studies hosted its annual Understanding Complex Conflicts research conference, which showcased some of the research currently underway in the Departments of War Studies and Defence Studies. As the centenary of the First World War is nearing a close, the first panel of this research conference was dedicated to the exploration of the complexities of the Great War. This panel covered topics such as military innovation and politics in the British Army and the resolution and commemoration of the First World War. Let's listen in on this fascinating panel, starting with an introduction of our panelists by panel chair and Director of the First World War Centenary Cultural Programme, Jenny Waldman. _____________________ Panel: The First World War Chair: Jenny Waldman, Director of the First World War Centenary Cultural Programme. Panelists: Aimee Fox: ‘Military Innovation and the Politics of Command in the British Ar

Event recording from 28/02/2018 Since 2015 NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence has developed a successful and long-lasting partnership with the King's Centre for Strategic Communications(KCSC) at King's College London. Based on this rewarding experience, the KCSC and the NATO StratCom COE have been developing new ways to put their cooperation into practice. The book “Fake News: A Roadmap’ is one of them. In this project, a group young talented students from the Strategic Communications Masters at King’s College London were encouraged to try and bring some clarity to the ongoing discussion on fake news. Introductory remarks by Dr Neville Bolt, Director of the KCSC and Jānis Sārts, Director of the NATO StratComms COE. Discussion with Jente Althuis and Leonie Haiden (editors of the book "Fake News: A Roadmap"), moderated by Alex Aiken, Executive Director, UK Government Communications. The book's authors are Iona Allan, Jente Althuis, Alexander Averin, Giulia Conci, Sarah Dooley, Erin Duffy, Dou

Here at the Department of War Studies, we are particularly concerned with contemporary and historical security challenges – all kinds of war, terrorism and more. What these security challenges have in common is that at the heart of each is some aspect of conflict. So, it is not surprising that international organisations and governments have invested billions of dollars in funding projects in post-conflict settings. These projects are supposed to help war-torn and divided societies to reconcile. But what is reconciliation? How can it be achieved and measured? And what role do art projects play in the process of so-called ‘reconciliation’? In this podcast, we hear from Dr Milena Michalski and Professor James Gow, discussing the Art & Reconciliation project. This is a pioneering, multi-disciplinary research initiative, funded by the AHRC, which brings together King’s College London, University of the Arts London and the London School of Economics, in order to explore these issues. To find out more about the

Event recording from 4/12/2017; introductory remarks by Dr Natasha Kuhrt. Professor Sakwa explores how the tension between Russia and the Atlantic community mirrored a fundamental realignment of the international system from the late 1980s onwards. He provides a new analysis of the end of the Cold War and the subsequent failure to create a comprehensive and inclusive peace order in Europe. The end of the Cold War did not create a sustainable peace system. Instead, for a quarter of a century a 'cold peace' reflected the tension between cooperative and competitive behaviour. None of the fundamental problems of European security were resolved, and tensions accumulated. Speaker biography: Richard Sakwa is Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent. Prof. Sakwa is an Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES) at the

What made the transition of hegemonic power from British to American dominance uniquely cooperative and nonviolent? In this podcast, Dr Kori Schake analyses the so-called “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom. One of her main argument is that the transition of hegemonic power between the United Kingdom and the United States was peaceful primarily because both countries shared similar domestic ideologies. But how will this special relationship continue under the Trump administration? Dr Kori Schake is a distinguished research fellow at the Hoover Institute. She is the editor, with Jim Mattis, of the book Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military. She teaches "Thinking About War" at Stanford University, is a contributing editor at the Atlantic, and also writes for War on the Rocks and Foreign Policy. The KCL Centre for Grand Strategy hosted a public lecture by Dr. Kori Schake on the subject of her most recent book, Safe Passage: The Transition from British to A

In this week’s episode, we are bringing you interviews with Professor Vivienne Jabri and Amanda Faber, founder of the Soldiers and Arts Academy, talking about the interface between arts and academia and how the arts can support war veterans. If you would like to watch the live-streamed video of the Remember Dance performance, you can find it here: http://bit.ly/2AjjVAK. UPCOMING EVENTS AT KING’S COLLEGE LONDON THE MARJAN MARSH LECTURE 14th November 2017 (18:00-20:00) War Studies Meeting Room (K6.07) Registration URL: http://bit.ly/2xCU4BY Join Adrian Garside to learn about the interface between politicised violence and natural resources in South Sudan's ongoing civil war. (DE)VILIFICATION OF THE FARC AND THE LINGUISTIC CEASE-FIRE 27th November 2017 (12:30-14:00) FWB (Franklin Wilkins Building), FWB 1.10 Registration: http://bit.ly/2zK1IQD Villains need to be de-villainised for talking to begin; this is a cornerstone of negotiation literature. But what happens when villains are proscribed, or listed

In light of the recent attacks in the UK, Dr Shiraz Maher and Dr Nina Musgrave comment on the issues of radicalisation and counterterrorism. Dr Maher is a lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and Deputy Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. Dr Nina Musgrave acts as Assistant Director at the Centre for Defence Studies. She is also the course tutor for the MA module on National Security in the Department of War Studies.

Event recording from 6th of June 2017 Inaugural Annual Lecture with Guest Speaker Professor Joseph Nye, with introduction by Dr Neville Bolt, Director of the King's Centre for Strategic Communications. Joseph S. Nye Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor, and former Dean of the Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Event recording from 19th of May 2017 Dr Patricia M Lewis is the Research Director, International Security at Chatham House. Her former posts include Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence at the Center for Non-proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies; Director of UNIDIR; and Director of VERTIC in London. Dr Lewis served on the 2004-6 WMD Commission chaired by Dr Hans Blix; the 2010-2011 Advisory Panel on Future Priorities of the OPCW chaired by Ambassador Rolf Ekeus; and was an adviser to the 2008-10 International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) chaired by Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi. She holds a BSc (Hons) in physics from Manchester University and a PhD in nuclear physics from the Birmingham University. She is a dual national of the UK and Ireland. Dr Lewis is the recipient of the American Physical Society’s 2009 Joseph A Burton Forum Award recognizing 'outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution of issues inv

Event recording from 18th of May 2017 Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman has been Professor of War Studies at King's College London since 1982, and Vice-Principal since 2003. He was educated at Whitley Bay Grammar School and the Universities of Manchester, York and Oxford. Before joining King's he held research appointments at Nuffield College Oxford, IISS and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1996 and was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997. He was awarded the KCMG (Knight Commander of St Michael and St George) in 2003. He was appointed in June 2009 to serve as a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War.

Event recording from 04/05/2017 PASSCHENDAELE - A NEW HISTORY Speaker: Dr Nick Lloyd Chair: Professor Bill Philpott Hosted by the Sir Michael Howard Centre The Sir Michael Howard Centre: smhc@kcl.ac.uk Between July and November 1917, in a small corner of Belgium, more than 500,000 men were killed or maimed, gassed or drowned - and many of the bodies were never found. The Ypres offensive represents the modern impression of the First World War: splintered trees, water-filled craters, muddy shell-holes. The climax was one of the worst battles of both world wars: Passchendaele. The village fell eventually, only for the whole offensive to be called off. But, as Nick Lloyd shows, notably through previously unexamined German documents, it put the Allies nearer to a major turning point in the war than we have ever imagined. Dr Nick Lloyd FRHistS is Reader in Military & Imperial History at King's College London, based at the Joint Services Command & Staff College in Shrivenham, Wiltshire. He is the author of thr

In this week’s episode, we’re bringing you a special feature with Dr Lola Frost speaking about the value of studying art in war studies. According to her, studying art is important in war studies because art can convey knowledge in a way that is not accessible to the social sciences. Dr Frost is an artist and a visiting research fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Her career as an artist spans nearly four decades working and exhibiting in South Africa and in the UK. Currently, she is teaching a 20-credit MA module on Art and War at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. For more information about Dr Frost, visit http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/warstudies/people/lolafrost/index.aspx. UPCOMING EVENTS STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP AT NORMANDY: LESSONS ON INTELLECTUAL COURAGE Location: Anatomy Museum (6th Floor) King's Building Strand Campus Category: Conference/Seminar When: 09/05/2017 (16:00-18:00) Registration URL: http://bit.ly/2p4IKeo This event will bu