DR MIKE FINCH Donald Trump’s war of words with Kim Jong-Un’s North Korea has dominated the international news cycle for the last several weeks. Yet here in South Korea if you didn’t turn on the news channels, you wouldn’t know it. There is no public panic. There are no obvious signs of intensified military activity.… Read More Despatch from Korea: reflections on this Summer’s crisis
This is one in a series of occasional posts from scholars outside of the Defence Studies Department. If you would be interested to contribute to this series please contact the editors: Dr Ben Kienzle and Dr David Morgan-Owen. DR JAMES PUGH James Pugh is a Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Birmingham, UK. His… Read More Amphetamines and the Second World War: Stimulating Interest in Drugs and Warfare
You can learn more about the Second World War Research Group on their website and by following them on Twitter (@SWWresearch). DR RICHARD HAMMOND Since its formation in 2014, the Second World War Research Group has grown exponentially in terms of its membership, brand and executive. From a humble beginning under two Co-Directors and a membership numbering… Read More Conference Report – When East meets West: The Second World War in Global Perspective
DR NICOLA LEVERINGHAUS is a Lecturer in War Studies (East Asian Security and International Relations). She is the author of China and Global Nuclear Order (Oxford University Press). China is today both a resurgent power and valued member of the global nuclear order. It is a member of key nuclear institutions like the Non Proliferation… Read More Resurgent China and Global Nuclear Politics
DR ROD THORNTON On the day that the UK’s new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, put to sea for the first time in June, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon compared it to what he called the ‘old and dilapidated’ Russian carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov – seen recently operating off Syria. A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman… Read More Today’s Russian Navy taking the asymmetric route – with caveats
DR AMIR M. KAMEL This post is based on a research project, the activities for which I initiated during my role as a Visiting Scholar in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, in Washington, DC. Analysts and scholars of US foreign policy have long argued that Washington, DC’s engagement with foreign states have… Read More A Two-Faced US Foreign Policy?
DR VANDA WILCOX Vanda Wilcox completed a DPhil at the University of Oxford in 2006 before moving to Rome, where she now teaches at John Cabot University. She has published on Italian military leadership, training and battlefield performance as well as the popular experience and memory of the First World War in Italy. A member… Read More Conference Report: Two Day Conference in War and Peace Studies, School of History, University of Leeds, 15-16 June
Dr Daniel Salisbury is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California. He completed his PhD at the King’s College London Department of War Studies in 2016. This blogpost draws on research which will be published in the Nonproliferation Review later in the year. As North Korea demonstrated by… Read More What Drives the Middlemen? Exploring Involvement in WMD-related Illicit Trade
DR BEN KIENZLE On 23 June 2016, the British people voted to leave the European Union (EU). This has been widely seen as one of the most important strategic decisions of the UK in a generation. In the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum, Ellen Hallams and Ben Kienzle have brought together researchers from King’s… Read More No news is good news? The field of security & defence one year after the Brexit referendum
DR DEBORAH SANDERS One of the key challenges of military reform for any military organisation is the question ‘are we preparing for the right war?’ In my article ‘”The War We Want; The War That We Get”: Ukraine’s Military Reform and the Conflict in the East’, I examine this issue in the context of Ukrainian… Read More Ukraine’s Military Reform and the Conflict in the East
