War Studies

“The USSR as a geopolitical reality and subject of international law has ceased to exist.” In December 1991, the Presidents of Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus came together in the forests of the Polish-Belarussian border to agree this statement. On Christmas Day two weeks later, the USSR, one of the world’s two super powers as well as a centuries-old Russian Empire was dissolved, with no large-scale violence, civil war or nuclear weapons. But what led to this seismic event in geo-politics? Was the collapse inevitable after the fall of the Berlin Wall? And what were the major consequences of this tidal wave of change for the people of the former Soviet Bloc and Russian relations with the West, that we’re still grappling with today? In this special bumper episode of the War Studies Podcast marking 30 years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Professor Sam Greene, Director of King’s Russia Institute, talks to Dr Ruth Deyermond, Senior Lecturer in Post-Soviet Security, and Dr Natasha Kuhrt, Lecturer in International Peace & Security, about how and why the USSR collapsed. They explain why its death surprised many in the East and the West, the chaotic and overwhelming changes people had to deal with almost overnight, and why the West’s response to the collapse of communism sowed the seeds of rising tensions in relations between Russia and the West today.

What is climate engineering? How and why are certain shifting geoengineering policies engendering conflict? How do we differentiate between and prioritise the multitude of governance factors? How does funding affect the outcome of policy implementation and how are traditional concepts still being utilised, in tandem with more modern ideas. In the fifth and final episode of this five-part mini-series on Climate Change and National Security focuses on these challenges. Dr Duraid Jalili from the King’s Environmental Security Research Group and Professor Matt McDonald from the University of Queensland, speak to Professor Olaf Corry, Professor of Global Security Challenges at the University of Leeds and expert in international politics and geoengineering, and Dr Naho Mirumachi, Reader in Environmental Politics and Convenor of the King’s Water Hub Research Group. They will discuss the challenges, risks and potential controversy facing proposed solution mitigation and adaptation of implementing large and small scale geoengineering policies.

Vulnerable nations are really feeling the negative effects and implications of climate change and the associated security repercussions. To what extent is climate change a security issue in vulnerable states? How are the coalitions between under-developed nations helping in the fight against climate change? What are the key issues and divisions in the approaches of the global north and south? Recorded just after COP 26, the fourth episode of this five-part mini-series on Climate Change and National Security focuses on these challenges. Dr Duraid Jalili from the King’s Environmental Security Research Group and Professor Matt McDonald from the University of Queensland, speak to Dr Hillary Briffa, Lecturer in National Security Studies, Assistant Director of the Centre for Defence Studies and Co-founder of the Centre for Grand Strategy at King’s College London and Dr Simon Chin-Yee, Lecturer in International Development at University College London and Research Associate at King’s College London. They will discuss how we understand the unique challenges facing small island states and the global south more broadly on the existential problem of climate change and securitization, and the struggle of how these nations fight to get their voices heard and their successful influence on higher powers.

Did British men and women react in the same way to the imminence of the Second World War? How did women feel about the Munich agreement - the notorious false dawn of ‘peace in our time’? Since they had been given the vote in 1928, women’s political power and influence was a matter of concern, coinciding in the 1930s with the deepening anxieties about the potential and increasing probability of another world war. In this episode we talk to Professor Julie Gottlieb, historian of modern British political history, including women's history and gender studies, from the University of Sheffield, about her book Guilty Women’, Foreign Policy, and Appeasement in Inter-War Britain. Casting new light on the gendered representation of appeasement, it looks at the so-called ‘woman’s peace’ – the perception that women were behind the push for appeasement and that their emancipation through the vote had “sown the seeds of national decline”. We discuss whether there’s any truth behind these claims as well as how the rhetoric of women’s pacifist movements in the late 1930s started to blur uncomfortably with that of anti-war Nazi-sympathising women on the far right. We also take a look at the turn to international affairs in feminist politics between the wars, and the extent to which it reveals how British women were deeply invested in foreign policy and diplomacy at the time.

The three major powers at the centre of COP26 - China, India and the USA, have differing perspectives on the link between climate and security. Yet how does this impact their climate policy? What are the drivers behind the ways the different countries think about the relationship between security and the environment? How does this impact the vital cooperation needed to make COP 26 a success? Recorded just as COP 26 was getting underway, the third episode of this five-part mini-series on Climate Change and National Security focuses on these questions. Dr Duraid Jalili from the King’s Environmental Security Research Group and Professor Matt McDonald from the University of Queensland, speak to leading climate security experts including Erin Sikorsky, Director of the Center for Climate and Security and the International Military Council on Climate and Security, Dhanasree Jayaram, Assistant Professor in the department of Geopolitics and International Relations at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education in India, and Karl Hallding, Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environmental Institute. In this honest discussion, reveals where the governments are going wrong the experts reflect on the barriers and obstacles of different climate security approaches as well as emerging opportunites. Including whether China’s Belt and Road initiative is actually as ‘green’ as they claim, how territorial contestations undermine climate cooperation and how bringing a climate lens to security can help strengthen relationships with partners and allies.

What's the UN's role in addressing the security risks of climate change? And what are the obstacles faced by UN bodies in meeting these challenges? In the second episode of this five-part mini-series on Climate Change and National Security, Dr Duraid Jalili from the King’s Environmental Security Research Group and Professor Matt McDonald from the University of Queensland, speak to Dr Lucile Maertens, Senior Lecturer at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. As a leading expert on the actions being taken by international organisations relating to climate change and securitisation, Dr Maertens will discuss the ways in which the climate change agenda is being driven at the UN and the obstacles affecting the implementation of these principles. From the fear that bringing climate change at the UN Security Council will give too much power for the UN over national sovereignty, to the ignorance, competition and collaboration of different UN entities, she shares how much the UN is engaging with wider perspectives on the security implications of climate change, beyond its potential status as a driver of conflict

What did the British empire, it’s history and legacy mean for Britain’s fascists? And what does this tell us about where the radical right fits into the politics of race in Britain today? From the creation of the pro-Empire British Fascisti by Rotha Lintorn-Orman in the 1920s to Enoch Powell’s ominous Rivers of Blood speech in 1968, the language of white supremacy and imperialism has been on the lips and in the actions of the British Radical Right historically, and still permeates aspects of political discourse on immigration today. Yet our guest, Dr Liam Liburd, Historian in Colonial/Postcolonial British History, argues that the study of British fascism has so far failed to recognise the imperial obsession of British fascists and the Far Right, or to approach it through critical race theory. In this special Black History Month episode of the War Studies podcast, he unpicks the reasons behind this and calls for the excavation of critical black perspectives to understand the motivations and impact of Britain’s fascist movement on the country.

Throughout October and November we're bringing you the special podcast mini-series ‘Climate Change and National Security’, in the run up to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), hosted by the Environmental and Security Research Group in the School of the Security Studies. How do different states view the relationship between climate and security? Is there a best practice for climate security and a sense of momentum as we move into COP26? Should we be worried about the securitisation of the climate agenda? In the first of this five part mini-series Climate Change and National Security, Professor Matt McDonald from the University of Queensland and Dr Duraid Jalili from the King's Environmental Security Research Group consider different governmental responses to climate change and national security from '50,000 feet’.

There is widespread agreement that world order is in transition. The Liberal International Order (LIO), established in the aftermath of World War II, is in decline. In the summer of 2008, just 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, China’s lavish opening ceremony at the Olympic Games in Beijing showed the world a ‘glorious civilisation’ with a desire to reconquer what was lost. Just a few weeks later, on 15 September, Lehman Brothers crashed, and the West was thrown into a deep financial crisis. With American hegemony and its interventionist strategy of spreading liberalism around the globe on the back foot, so too is the LIO. But what’s causing these major global shifts and how might they shape global politics going forward? In this episode of the podcast, Dr Zeno Leoni, Teaching Fellow in the Defence Studies Department at King’s, joins us to discuss his new publication, American Grand Strategy from Obama to Trump: Imperialism After Bush and China's Hegemonic Challenge. He shares what it says about the rise of China and the decline of the US, how recent US governments have attempted to stem the tide of change, and why he’s approached all of this through a Marxist reading of imperialism and foreign policy.

Women’s efforts were indispensable in the Second World War effort, yet their stories are often missing from the general narratives. The nature of the job they did, the unabating dangers they faced and how they experienced the ups and downs of professional and personal war life, is still under-researched and under-reported. In this special episode we’re joined by Lucy Fisher, the Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Telegraph and author of a new book 'Women in the War: The Last Heroines of Britain’s Greatest Generation'. Interviewed by War Studies PhD Candidate Sarah-Louise Miller, Lucy shares the poignant and inspiring first-hand stories of ten of the last surviving heroines of the era, who dedicated their young adulthood to the war effort. Whether flying Spitfires to the frontline, aiding code breaking at Bletchley Park, plotting the Battle of the Atlantic or working with Churchill in the Cabinet War Rooms, Lucy recounts their remarkable experiences, shaped by danger and trauma. She explores how the insight that comes with age enables them to contemplate how the conflict helped women prove their worth, transformed society and sparked the later battles for equal rights. You can find out more and purchase a copy of the book via the Harper Collins website: harpercollins.co.uk/products/women-in-the-war-lucy-fisher

Billions of dollars are spent every year on pacifying conflict zones by international organisations and NGOs. However, the past five years have seen the worst refugee crisis in the world since World War II, and conflicts continue to erupt despite unabated these massive peacekeeping missions. So why is the aid industry failing to deliver lasting peace and what can we instead? In a special episode of the podcast we talk to Professor Séverine Autesserre, professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University. An award-winning researcher and author, writing on conflict, peacebuilding and international aid, her research has helped shape the intervention strategies of several United Nations departments, foreign affairs ministries, and non-governmental organisations. Interviewed by guest host, MA student Gizem Yurtseven, Séverine discussed her latest book The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider’s Guide to Changing the World, which across 12 different conflict zones, shares her discovery that pockets of peace can be found everywhere, from Congo to Colombia to Afghanistan. Her inspiring accounts turn on its head traditional notions of peacebuilding, revealing success stories of grassroots initiatives led by local people which have led to long-lasting peace in some of the worst conflict zones around the world.

There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world today in at least 20 countries. “At times I would cry while on the frontline, especially when I thought about my family. When I cried, my friends in the group would lock me up and tell me that I am no longer a child. I should not cry, when I see people dying.” These are the words of Timothy Sunday, a child forcibly recruited into armed conflict in the Liberian civil war in 2002. In this episode of the podcast we chat to Dr Sukanya Podder, Senior Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department, to explore the world-wide issue of children affected by armed groups, including in civil wars to violent extremism. She shares case studies of personal experience with affected youths and describes the evolving global recruitment methods including social media, the violence children are subjected to and the complexities involved in rehabilitating them back into society post-conflict. We’re also joined by Rocco Blume from NGO War Child, who shares how the problem has evolved over the past decade and their dedication and Professor Funmi Olonisakin, Vice-President and Vice-Principal (International), King’s College London, who shares insights from her time in the Office of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, including the vital role the UN played in drawing international attention to and combatting the issue of child recruitment into armed groups.

We’re only ever one hour away from full scale nuclear war, a war that would be absolutely catastrophic to human welfare, the economy and the environment. With the world’s nine nuclear-armed states and their allies continuing to spend over 70 billion US dollars a year on their nuclear arsenal, where to from here for nuclear disarmament and a more peaceful world? In this episode of the podcast we talk to Dr Lyndon Burford who believes the technology blockchain may have the answers. A data storage method which stores data in a highly secure, cryptographic way, blockchain has the the potential to revolutionise the world in the same way that the internet has – changing the way in which we think about society and solving global issues, from cryptocurrency to charity donations to nuclear disarmament. Dr Burford, a Visiting Research Associate at the Centre for Science and Security Studies, King’s College London, explores the political, legal and ethical challenges of nuclear weapons, the truth behind growing nuclear stockpiles and explains how blockchain technology might work to increase trust and confidence in nuclear disarmament programmes, as well as the role new technologies in general can enable us to work towards a more peaceful future. He also talks about his fascinating career changes, from a native New Zealander landing himself a role on the set of the Lord of the Rings films as an Armour Weapons Technician to pursuing a career researching nuclear disarmament and now researching the role of new technologies for peace for Pope Francis.

The unsung heroes of World War Two risked everything to ensure naval manoeuvres were fulfilled and convoys, sending vital food and supplies to Britain, were safe. Much is left untold of the incredible logistics that were at play - crossing the inhospitable North Sea, escaping under fire and extricating hundreds of thousands of troops from Dunkirk beaches in just a few days. In this episode, Professor Malcolm Murfett, a visiting professor at the Department of War Studies, shares insights into naval operations that have gone down in history for the infamy, tragedy or glory associated with them and the naval figures that led such missions. Offering narrative on First Sea Lords, such as Sir Dudley Pound, Malcolm highlights the scale of naval tasks, the challenges at sea and how crucial mistakes led to some of history’s biggest naval disasters. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography exists as almost magisterial volumes in refereeing notable figures from British History. As an Associate Editor, Malcolm reveals the personal endeavours of individuals he’s come across - the good, the bad and the ugly.

The UK government's 2021 Integrated Review of security and defence outlines Russia as the "most acute threat to our security". This follows the rise of an increasingly resurgent and highly unpredictable Russia under Putin, with many in the West raising the spectre that Russia’s military actions are leading to a restoration of the former Soviet Union in a new shape and form. But how credible is this interpretation of Russian foreign policy over the last 30 years and how careful should we be before jumping to conclusions about what lies behind the Russian state’s actions? In this episode, Dr Domitilla Sagramoso, Lecturer in Security and Development at the Department of War Studies, shares insights from her recently published book 'Russian Imperialism Revisited: From Disengagement to Hegemony'. Offering rigorous and objective analysis of Russia’s policies in its closest neighbourhood over a 30 year period up to 2017, she hopes to provide a closer look at the drivers and motivations behind foreign-policy formulation and provide accurate analysis of Russian actions in the former Soviet space. An invaluable resource to anyone grappling with the increasing tensions in Western-Russian relations, her findings highlight the missed opportunities for building bridges between Russia and the West, and underline how and why Russian foreign policy took a different, more assertive tack under Putin.