On Tuesday 2 February 2016 the Changing Character of War Programme was delighted to host Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach GBE KCB ADC DL to chair the fourth meeting of CDS’ Strategy Forum, exploring the theme ‘UK Defence: International By Design’. The eighty delegates at the Forum, drawn from the armed forces, government, academia, and the private sector, will be also be addressed by Professor Janne Matlary (Professor of International Relations at the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Command and Staff College and former State Secretary, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
Oxford Research Fellow Wins Prestigous Smith Richardson Fellowship to Study Baltic Defence
CCW Annual Lecture 2016
In Conversation with Rob Wainwright
Rob Wainwright has been the Director of Europol since 2009. Prior to joining Europol, Wainwright worked with a number of national agencies in the UK including MI5, where he specifically focused on issues of terrorism. Wainwright’s presentation, just weeks after the terrorist attacks in Paris by suspected Islamic State extremists, touched on the organizational roles and responsibilities of Europol, particularly relating to counterterrorism; the fluid and fluctuating nature of the international terrorist threat; and the troubling (or confounding) issues relating to terrorist and criminal organizations’ use of the “dark web.” This CCW interview expands on these central themes.
In Conversation with Kai Htang Lashi
Kai Htang Lashi is the foreign affairs spokesperson for the Kachin National Organisation (KNO), an organisation established to be the Kachin people’s international representation. Her presentation spanned a wide range of subjects relating to the armed struggle for greater autonomy from Burma and ethnic minority rights conducted by the Kachin Independence Organisation/Army. Topics covered both the history of the conflict and modern concerns, such as the KIO/A’s refusal to participate in the October 2015 ceasefire. They spanned many issues, such as the relationship between the KIO/A and Kachin society, the relationships between the KIO/A and other ethnonationalist insurgent movements in Burma, and the difficulties of promoting the Kachin cause abroad. Given Kai Htang Lashi’s role as one of the chief conduits of knowledge on life in Kachin state, CCW delves into what that life is like and what being Kachin means.
CCW Director of Studies Annette Idler awarded a Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange Fellowship
Europe's Response to the Jihadist Threat
New CCW Roundtable event
Major-General P.M. Nakasone speaking at the CCW on the 10th November.
Nordic-Baltic Defence conference announced
New website launched!
CCW Director Rob Johnson speaks at the British Embassy in Paris
CCW Director of Studies Annette Idler awarded the 2015 Cedric Smith Prize
CCW Director of Studies Dr Annette Idler, has been awarded the 2015 Cedric Smith Prize for the best piece of peace and conflict research by a UK-based student. For more information on the Conflict Research Society's Cedric Smith Prize, please click here.
Annette won for her paper entitled 'Complex Cooperation: Shifting Alliances among Rebels, Paramilitaries and Criminals'.