Anna Plunkett – Editor-in-Chief, Strife Blog and Journal
Anna is a doctoral researcher at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. She received her BA in Politics and Economics from the University of York, before receiving a scholarship to continue her studies at York with an MA in Post-War Recovery. She was the recipient of the Guido Galli Award for her MA dissertation. Her primary interests include conflict and democracy at the sub-national level, understanding how various political orders are impacted by transitions at the sub-national level.
Anna’s main area of focus is Myanmar’s ethnic borderlands and ongoing conflicts in the region. She has previously worked as a human rights researcher focusing on military impunity and its impact on the community in Myanmar. Over the past few years, she has worked on several large research projects and has conducted field research evaluating Bosnia’s post-war recovery twenty years after the Dayton Peace Accords. She works as a strategic consultant and trainer with NGOs and CSOs in South East Asia building capacity and sustainability within small organisations.
Anna started at Strife as a Senior Editor, after managing the journal over the past year she has taken on the role of Editor in Chief at Strife Blog and Journal. You can follow her @AnnaBPlunkett or find her on LinkedIn.
Axel Dessein — Managing Editor, Strife Blog
Axel Dessein is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Grand Strategy (War Studies) at King’s College London and the Managing Editor of the department’s academic blog, Strife. A recipient of the Leverhulme Trust Scholarship on Post-Western Visions, his research takes a conceptual approach to “China’s rise” and the socialist modernisation, the aim of the Chinese Communist Party, that is visible therein. His main argument contends that China’s rise is currently moving from aspiration to actuality, a period in time where the country’s capabilities have grown considerably yet challenges to fulfil this rise to power remain legion. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in Oriental Languages and Cultures: China from Ghent University (Belgium). During these studies, he furthered his Mandarin-Chinese language skills at Liaoning University (PR China) and National Chengchi University (Taiwan). You can follow him on Twitter @AxelDessein.
Joe Jarnecki – Coordinating Editor, Strife Blog
Joseph is an MA International Conflict Studies student at King’s College London and graduate of the International Relations BA program, also at King’s. He recently undertook a Fellowship, held in the context of the GUARDINT project – which is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council- in which he analysed mechanisms of oversight in British intelligence. His research interests focus on methods of studying conflict, transmigration as a form of violence, and national narratives. You can follow him on Twitter @jarnecki.
Krisztina Csortea — Managing Editor, Strife Journal
Krisztina is a part-time PhD researcher in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. She received her BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and her MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. After graduating from the LSE, Krisztina joined Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, where she is now the Deputy Editor of the journal International Affairs. This journal is co-published by Chatham House and Oxford University Press and is a top-five ranked journal in the field based on impact factor. Krisztina’s research focuses on the Responsibility to Protect. She is particularly interested in prevention and protection under the second pillar of the concept.
Michael C. Davies — Coordinating Editor, Strife Journal
Michael C. Davies is a Ph.D. candidate in Defence Studies at King’s College London, focusing on the theory and practise of strategic victory.
Until recently, he was an editor for Jones Day. He previously worked at the U.S. National Defense University, conducting lessons learned research on the Wars of 9/11. He co-authored Human Terrain Teams: An Organizational Innovation for Sociocultural Knowledge in Irregular Warfare and Revolution Abandoned: The Civilian Expeditionary Workforce at War, and co-edited Changing Mindsets to Transform Security: Leader Development for a Complex and Unpredictable World. He is one of the progenitors of the Human Domain doctrinal concept.
He studied at the Australian National University, receiving a Master of Strategic Affairs at the Strategic and Defence Studies Center and a B.A. in International Relations and Political Science.
Nikolai Gourof — Book Reviews Editor, Strife Journal
Nikolai is a historian and a PhD researcher at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Formerly a lawyer and a corporate consultant, he has first-hand knowledge of contemporary Greece and Russia. It is the early modern world, however, that has stolen his heart. His current research focuses on the evolution of the culture and practice of war in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain. Additionally, he retains a strong interest in the history of sixteenth-century Russia, and its reception and projection in the post-Soviet world. The treatment of war and history in art, literature and cinema has been a lifelong fascination.
Hillary Briffa – Communications Manager
Hillary Briffa is a Lecturer in Defence Studies at King’s College London, working primarily with the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom (the Royal College of Defence Studies and the Joint Services Command and Staff College). She is a founding member of the Centre for Grand Strategy at King’s College London, where she read for her Ph.D in War Studies. Previously, she taught at University College London, Birkbeck University of London, and Queen Mary University of London.
Beyond academia, she served as Youth Ambassador for Malta to the OSCE for three years, and worked at the Malta High Commission to the UK throughout Malta’s tenure as Commonwealth Chair-in-Office. After running peace-building projects in Eastern and Central Europe, in 2015 she was appointed an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, and in 2016 became a recipient of the U.S. State Department’s inaugural Emerging Young Leaders award.
As of August 2020, she is currently one of the inaugural non-resident Hans J. Morgenthau Fellows at The Notre Dame International Security Center, studying grand strategy in its larger conceptual and historical context. You can follow her on Twitter @h1llz
Isabela Betoret Garcia – Social Media & Outreach Coordinator
Matthew Ader – Social Media Officer
Matthew is a third-year student doing War Studies. He has worked as an intern in a number of security consultancy firms. His academic interests gravitate loosely towards understanding challenges and opportunities for Anglo-American strategy in the 21st century (and also being snide about Captain America’s command ability). He is also an editor for Roar News, and has written for a number of security publications – most especially Wavell Room. You can follow him on Twitter: @AderMatthew.
Bryan Strawser – Web Manager & Series Editor
Bryan is an MA candidate in International Relations and Contemporary War in the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London. He holds appointments as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at Auburn University and as an Associate Member at the Forum for Private Security Research at the Department of Defence Studies at King’s College. In 2019, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was previously a Humphrey Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. In 2020, Bryan was elected to the Academic Board of King’s College, London as the postgraduate taught representative for the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy.
His research interests center on the collaboration and intersections between the public and private sectors related to cybersecurity and warfare and national/homeland security issues, particularly in the use of intelligence, the rise of private security involvement in public conflicts, and coordination in national-scale disruptions.
Bryan holds a BA in Criminal Justice Administration from the University of Phoenix and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He is a graduate of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative Executive Program (NPLI) at Harvard University’s JFK School of Government. You can follow him on Twitter @bryanstrawser.
Sally Adams – Operations and Development Assistant
Sally is a third-year International Relations student. She has interned within the humanitarian and consultancy sector. Sally’s research interests lie in the East Asian development model and its potential application elsewhere. She is a Staff Writer at Roar News, Founder and President of the King’s Australasian society, and a keen backpacker – 75 countries and counting!
Ankita Banerjee – Senior Editor
Ankita is a PhD scholar at the Indian Institute King’s College London. Funded by the Tagore Centre Studentship at King’s, her thesis focuses on the Santiniketan ashram of Rabindranath Tagore and critically analyses his educational philosophy as the expression of his political will. Currently, she teaches undergraduate students at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at King’s. Her wider research interests span global intellectual history, South Asian politics, histories of nationalism, and conflict. Her MPhil and Masters in Political Studies were from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She graduated from St. Xavier’s College Kolkata where she was awarded a certificate of merit for standing first in semester I-VI examinations.
Martina Bernardini – Senior Editor
Martina is a PhD Candidate at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She has been awarded the Leverhulme Scholarship “Interrogating Visions of a Post-Western World: Interdisciplinary and Interregional Perspectives on the Future in a Changing International Order”. Her research focuses on the history of U.S. foreign policy towards China, particularly on the role of China in U.S. President George H.W. Bush’s Grand Strategy for a post-Cold War World Order. She is an alumna of the School of Politics founded by former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, and she holds a first-class honors Master’s degree in International Studies from Roma Tre University, where she also completed her BA in Political Science and International Relations. Throughout her studies, she won different grants to study and do research at the University of Montpellier, the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Montréal, which awarded her with an additional scholarship of the Confucius Institute in Québec to complete a teaching-and-study experience in China.
Sam Erkiletian — Senior Editor
Sam Erkiletian is a PhD candidate at University College London’s Department of Political Science. His research focuses on the changing identities of combatants during conflicts and in postwar environments. In particular, he is interested in how the military socialization processes of armed groups affect the behavior and postwar identity of former combatants. Sam employs comparative case studies and utilizes primary sources from conflict archives in his research designs. He is also broadly interested in military history, particularly in the Second World War and Cold War conflicts. He holds an MSc in Security Studies from UCL and a BA in History and Ancient Studies from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
Gareth Jonas – Senior Editor
Gareth Jonas is a part-time Masters of Research (MRes) student studying at the University of Exeter. He is currently in the process of finishing his postgraduate dissertation, which combines natural language processing and quantitative content analysis methods to investigate the securitisation of Islam and Muslims in British newspapers between 1988-2019. Previously, he studied History and Political Science at the University of Birmingham, completing a dissertation on the relationship between the securitisation of the Muslim Brotherhood and the intensification of neoliberal economics in Egypt since 2013.
Gareth’s main areas of interest centre around conflict and (in)security in both Europe and the Middle East and North Africa. His research interests primarily concern securitisation theory and social-psychological approaches to conflict; particularly the study of radicalisation and terrorism. He also occasionally forays into neorealist approaches to Grand Strategy.
Having previously worked and volunteered as a research assistant on a number of projects concerning ethnic conflict and UN intervention across the world, Gareth now interns as a regional security analyst at Le Beck International, a geopolitical risk advisory firm specialising in the MENA region. You can follow him on Twitter @jonas_gareth.
Natasia Kalajdziovski – Senior Editor
Natasia Kalajdziovski is a PhD candidate at Middlesex University, where she was awarded a fully-funded research studentship to complete her studies. She holds a first-class MA from the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, and an Honours BA from the Department of History at the University of Toronto. Broadly speaking, her research examines the role and conduct of intelligence practice in counterterrorism in the national security context, using historical case studies as the foundation of her research.
Outside of academia, Natasia frequently contributes to publications in the counterterrorism field, and she consults with various organisations as a subject-matter expert in her areas of research expertise. Most recently, her work can be found in the Georgetown Security Studies Review, the British Council’s “Extremism Research Forum” and the Berghof Foundation’s “Community Perspectives on Violent Extremism” project. She is also a junior research affiliate with the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (TSAS).
Li Lin – Senior Editor
Lin is a fully-funded doctoral researcher in the War Studies Department at King’s College London. Her research interest includes: Strategic Studies, Chinese Studies, and National IdentityLi Lin did her BA in Law at School of International Studies, Peking University in Beijing; MA in Geopolitics, Territory and Security at Department of Geography, KCL; MA in History of Warfare, Department of War Studies, KCL. She has previously worked as TA for School of International Studies and RA for the Institute of International and Strategic Studies of PKU, and in her gap year as Program Manager for Office of International Affairs. She is an Observer of PKU Youth Think Tank since 2018. Li Lin is also an international Chinese Zheng musician who has published concerto CDs and held a series of concerts internationally. She also writes as a columnist.
Sylvia Mishra — Senior Editor
Ms. Mishra is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Defence Studies, King’s College London (KCL) and her research focuses on nuclear strategy and nonproliferation, Southern Asian security and emerging and disruptive technologies. At KCL she serves as the Senior Editor for the Strife journal and is an ED&I Officer in the Women in War & International Politics Committee. She Chairs the CBRN Working Group for Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS); the Indian Women in International Relations (IWIR) at Global Policy Insights and is a N-Square Innovators Network Fellow, and a Mid-Career Cadre Scholar at CSIS. Sylvia was an India-US Fellow at New America, Accelerator Initiative Fellow at the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, a Scoville Fellow at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Visiting Fellow at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Carnegie New Leader and worked in New Delhi at the Observer Research Foundation on India-US defense and security ties.
She has been invited to present papers, deliver talks and participate in crisis simulation and Track II dialogues at various national and international forums like the Ford Foundation, Columbia University, Stanford University, Council on Foreign Relations, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the United States Strategic Command, Air Force Technical Applications Center Patrick Air Force Base (Florida), Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Asia Foundation, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory among others. Her publications include chapters in books, articles in journals, and commentaries/opinion pieces and she was featured in Women in Foreign Policy.
Mishra holds a B.A. in Political Science from Hindu College, University of Delhi; MSc in International Relations from London School of Economics and Political Science and M.A. in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
Timothy Moots — Senior Editor
Tim is a PhD candidate at the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London.
His research examines how the Royal Navy maintained access to overseas naval bases during the interwar period, in light of naval arms treaties, constitutional developments across the British Empire, and emerging threats from new naval powers.
Orion Noda – Senior Editor
Orion is a doctoral researcher currently at the Department of War Studies – King’s College London. He joined the Department of War Studies in 2019, as part of the Joint PhD-programme between King’s College London and the University of São Paulo, his home institution. He holds an MA (Hons) in International Security from the University of Groningen and a BA in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, with a period at the Sorbonne University – Paris XIII.
His current doctoral research is on nuclear weapons and politics, particularly the symbolism behind nuclear weapons. He analyses the overarching relationship between symbolism, identity, and behaviour within the nuclear arena, focusing on the history of US nuclear strategy post-Hiroshima. Consequentially, Orion’s areas of interest are nuclear security, non-proliferation, arms control, interdisciplinary approaches to International Relations (drawing from areas such as Anthropology and Psychology), as well as International Security in its broader sense. His doctoral research is being funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), and he is currently affiliated to the Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS) – King’s College London and the Centre for International Relations Research (NUPRI) – University of São Paulo.
Orion is currently a Senior Editor at Strife. You can follow him on Twitter @orionoda
John A. Pennell – Senior Editor
John is a doctoral researcher in the Defence Studies Department (DSD) within the School of Security Studies at King’s College London. His PhD is focused upon asymmetric warfare as it relates to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. In addition to specific research interests in Ukraine, Russia, and other former Soviet states, his broader research interests include the role of soft power in conflict; strategic thought; unconventional warfare; and the Middle East.
John is also a Career Member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, currently serving in Kyiv, Ukraine. His prior assignments have included Afghanistan, El Salvador, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, and Uzbekistan. He has an M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National Defense University/National War College (Washington, D.C.), an MA in Political Science from American University (Washington, D.C.), and a BA in Politics from The Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.).
You can follow him on Twitter @jpennell1970 .
Maia Otarashvilli – Senior Editor
Maia Otarashvili is a PhD candidate at the War Studies Department, King’s College London (KCL). Her research is focused on Black Sea/Caucasus region and the post-Soviet frozen conflicts in Georgia and Moldova. Maia is Deputy Director of Research and Deputy Director of the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) in Philadelphia. She is co-editor of FPRI’s 2017 volume Does Democracy Matter? The United States and Global Democracy Support and co-editor of Summer 2020 issue of Orbis, FPRI’s scholarly journal of global affairs. She holds an M.A. in Globalization, Development and Transition from the University of Westminster in London, with emphasis on post-authoritarian transitions. You can follow her on Twitter @MaiaVanRijn
Daria Platonova – Senior Editor
Daria is a PhD student at King’s College London. Her research focuses on violence and the unfolding of conflict across several regions in eastern Ukraine, 2013 – 2014. She also leads one of the Causes of War seminars in the War Studies Department. Prior to joining King’s, she worked as a teacher. She graduated with a degree in History from the University of Cambridge in 2011. Her broader interests include European history, war studies, and interdisciplinary methods.
Will Reynolds — Senior Editor
William Reynolds is a Leverhulme Scholar Doctoral Candidate with the Centre of Grand Strategy and Laughton Unit in the War Studies Department, Kings College London. Graduating with a Bachelor’s in War Studies, and Masters in National Security Studies from the same department, William’s interests have evolved from military history to maritime security and grand strategy, particularly regarding Britain and the Indo-Pacific area. William’s research focuses on British and Japanese interactions in the grand strategic space post-1945. Over the years, William has conducted work with the King’s Japan Programme regarding maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region, with a particular focus on the maritime arena as a domain for interstate interactions. This has included United States Navy carrier and amphibious group deployments, Royal Navy deployments in the region from 1998 and, more recently, Chinese and Japanese Coast Guard procurement, history and interactions in the East China Sea. Outside of University, he has worked as a research analyst for an IED threat mitigation company, with a focus on Europe and Syria. You can follow him on Twitter @war_student.
Shounak Set – Senior Editor
Shounak Set is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow at King’s College London, specialising in Foreign Policy Analysis and Strategic Studies; and his work focuses on Outer Space and Nuclear Proliferation, with reference to India. Primarily inclined towards understanding the global dynamics shaping the emerging era, his interests encompass issues of statecraft, warfare and diplomacy.
In addition to academic publications, Shounak has authored policy papers (Carnegie Endowment, Royal United Service Institution and Observer Research Foundation) and contributed to media outlets (Business Standard, The Hindu: Business Line and The Diplomat). His research has received the support of the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research and the University Grants Commission in India, where he served as a university academic prior to joining KCL. He can be followed @shounakset.
Talia Shoval – Senior Editor
Talia Shoval is a PhD candidate in Politics (Political Theory) at the University of Edinburgh.
She received her BA in Political Science and Communication Studies, and her MA in Political Science, from Tel-Aviv University. Talia is an Alice Brown scholar, and an Associate and Fellow of the Centre for Ethics and Critical Thought (Critique) at Edinburgh University. Her research interests include political theory, moral philosophy and applied ethics, with a particular emphasis on Just War Theory and environmental thought. Her research focuses on the interplay between environmental ethics and the ethics of war. She explores the duties we owe to the natural world in the context of war and armed conflict. More specifically, as part of her project, she scrutinises the notions of environmental immunity and environmental intervention for the protection of natural values and non-human interests. You can follow her on Twitter @TaliaShoval.
Silvia Tieri – Senior Editor
Silvia Tieri is a political scientist and ethnographer in training based at King’s India Institute. In 2019 she joined the King’s College London-National University of Singapore Joint PhD Programme. Her doctoral research concerns the politics of linguistic identity in contemporary India and Pakistan. Before joining KCL, she was a Research Analyst at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), Singapore. She holds a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Pisa (Italy) and a Master’s by Research in South Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore.
Matthew Wiger — Senior Editor
Matthew Wiger is an active duty United States Army Officer and a doctoral researcher in the School of Security Studies at King’s College, London. He has deployed to Eastern Europe, Southwest Asia, and Central America and was formerly an assistant professor at the American University of Afghanistan. Matthew holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from West Point, a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, and a Master of Public Administration with concentration in international security policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. His research interests include irregular warfare, surrogate warfare, and insurgency.
Constance Wilhelm— Senior Editor
Constance Wilhelm is an experienced researcher and Public and Humanitarian Policy consultant, specialising in conflict-affected areas and fragile states. She has worked with think tanks at Princeton University and New York University, with the Afghan Mission to the UN in New York, the OECD in Paris, humanitarian and international development organisations and consulting firms in Lebanon (leading teams in Syria), in Jordan (leading teams in Yemen), in Afghanistan, in Libya, as well as across both the Horn of Africa and the Sahel-Lake Chad region. She has conducted research and analysis work for the EU, the U.S. government, European and African governments, the World Bank, and UN agencies. Constance has an MA in Conflict Management and International Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a BA from McGill University.
As a doctoral researcher with the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, her research interests at King’s include the foreign women that have joined IS, and socio-legal approaches for their return.
Jaya Yadav – Senior Editor
Jaya Yadav is a PhD scholar at the University of Delhi, working on reimagining South Asia through an interdisciplinary lens focusing on literary representations of intersections of historiography, migration, and borders
She received her BA from Lady Shri Ram College for Women in English Literature, before completing her Master’s and MPhil at the Department of English, University of Delhi. She has traveled extensively in the region, in order to chronicle oral histories of the Partition and the Liberation War of 1971, namely in Bangladesh, and was in Dhaka at the onset of the Rohingya crisis.
She works as an Assistant Professor, teaching English literature to undergraduate students and is currently engaged with the research project, ‘Covid Chronicles’ which aims to delineate trajectories of social, psychological, and economic changes in the city amongst students and other groups of people. She grew up in Turkmenistan, England and Nepal, before relocating to India for university and continues to connect with diaspora from Afghanistan and Nepal, who reside in Delhi.
Konstantinos Xipolitos – Senior Editor
Konstantinos is a doctoral student at the Department of History, Koç University, Istanbul. He received his BA in War and Security Studies from the University of Hull, before continuing his studies at SOAS with an MA in Turkish Studies. His primary interests include strategic studies and strategic history, Ottoman history, the First World War, and civil-military relations.
His main area of focus is the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 and its strategic history. He is currently working as a researcher on the Urban Occupations OETR Project conducted by Koç University and the Cambridge Group for the Study of Population and Social Structure, focusing on social and economic history.
He trained as a Sapper with the Hellenic Army where he served as a staff officer. He is currently a reserve officer with the Army Engineer Corps. You can follow him on Twitter @_Maneas_
Harry Axelson – Copy Editor
Harry is a War Studies MA student within the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. He has a First Class Honours degree in BA Politics and International Relations from Royal Holloway, University of London. He has a broad interest in issues surrounding postcolonialism, insurgency, and the security implications of climate change in vulnerable regions. Developing a critical approach to conflict and security discourses is paramount, and this is something Harry will advocate for within Strife.
You can follow him on Twitter: @AxelsonHarry
Benjamin Flosi – Copy Editor
Benjamin Flosi is a Ph.D. student at King’s College London, where his work focuses on economic structures and policies and their effects on producing military capability and national defense industries. Before King’s College London, Benjamin was a foreign policy professional with experience in the Pentagon, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels. As a military officer, Benjamin has served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Republic of Korea. He was also a Foreign Language and Area Studies Scholar in Yemen, a Center for Strategic and International Studies AILA fellow, a National Endowment for Democracy Penn Kemble Fellow, and Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs Young Leaders fellow.
Adrian Green – Copy Editor
Adrian is currently pursuing an MA in Strategic Communications at King’s College after having completed an undergraduate degree in French Studies with History at the University of London Institute in Paris. Outside of his academic studies in Paris he also wrote several articles on the Middle East and Asia for the Sorbonne student Magazine.
Prior to joining King’s he spent 6 months as an Intern Journalist at Radio France Internationale in Paris where he helped to prepare the daily radio show ‘Appels sur l’actualité’, a current international affairs programme that specialises in Francophone Africa. During this radio show Francophone Africans engage and debate amongst each other on issues varying from security in the Sahel to political developments throughout the African continent.
His main areas of interest gravitate towards Geopolitics, European History, the Middle East and the Gulf Arab States in particular. You can follow him on Twitter: @adrienmrgreen
James Holtby – Copy Editor
James is a part-time Masters student at the War Studies Department at King’s College London.
He is interested in exploring the long-term organisation of national and international intelligence gathering institutions, especially concerning future efforts to combat global pandemics and climate change. As part of such a long-term strategy, James is interested in assessing how intelligence organisations should interact with and educate the public on issues relating to security, whilst still remaining effective at covertly gathering and collating information when necessary.
Hassan Kabalan – Copy Editor
Hassan is a second year PhD candidate at King’s College London’s War Studies department. His thesis examines sectarianism from an inter-group perspective. His main research focus is on sectarian relations/ sectarian identity , geopolitics and international relations. Hassan previously completed an MA in Geopolitics, Territory and Security from King’s Department of Geography in 2018. He currently works as a teacher assistant at KCL.
Jorge Medina – Copy Editor
Jorge is a Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies MA student at King’s. During his undergrad, Jorge spent time in the Middle East conducting research about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Jorge also spent time in South Korea studying the Northeast Asian security dynamics in the region. Jorge also interned at the Office of Border Affairs at the Mexican Embassy in Washington DC during the 2019 Migrant Crisis. Jorge is very passionate about the influence that diasporic and immigrant movements perpetuate and/or prevent conflict. Jorge also enjoys growing his knowledge about the East Asia region. In the future, he hopes to be able to work in foreign policy and continue growing his knowledge about the world.
Marianna Patat – Copy Editor
Marianna is currently pursuing an MA in International Conflict Studies within the Department of War Studies of King’s College London. Prior to this, she completed her BA in Social and Political Sciences at Sciences Po and an exchange year at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Modern and Medieval Languages. In 2019/20, while studying for her MSc in International Relations (Research) at LSE, she also worked as an editorial board member for the International Studies Journal Millennium. She is particularly interested in discursive, empire-focused approaches to war, the epistemic interrelationship between the knower/the known/the knowing and the dynamics of language, subjectivity, international law and violence within frameworks of international conflict and transitional justice.
Sophia Rigby – Copy Editor
Sophia Rigby is a Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Defence Studies at King’s College, London. Her research is focusing on realist-constructivist theories of international relations and how it relates to Russian foreign policy in Europe.
She holds a BA in Modern Languages and a Masters focusing on Russia and Eastern Europe. Since graduating, she has been working in political strategies and communications.
Anton Svensson – Copy Editor
Anton is an MA candidate in Conflict, Security and Development at the War Studies Department, King’s College London. After completing his BA in War Studies at King’s College London in 2018, he went on to work for the European Medicines Agency, where he developed an interest in the role of pharmaceutical companies in the provision of medicines in conflict zones. Other research interests include the dynamics of political transitions in the aftermath of civil wars, the efficiency of counterinsurgency, and the ‘small wars’ of the 19th century
Anna Tan – Copy Editor
Anna Tan is an MSc postgraduate for Global Affairs at King’s College London. Her research is focused on Western human rights diplomacy in fragile states and how that influences democratisation, gross violations and war crimes. During her time at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), she has the experience of working on communications across UN agencies, civil society and government officials in the context of legalising Myanmar’s national youth policy. She has had numerous field experiences in conflict zones during her tenure at the American Red Cross.
Anna was also a Programme Coordinator for the Conflict, Security and Development (CSD) Conference 2020 hosted by the Department of War Studies and the Department of International Development (DID).
Anna holds a BSc (Hons) in Neuroscience from the University of Leicester. She graduated as Top 3 of her Faculty (School of Biological Sciences) for the Class of ’19 and a recipient of an Oxford University Press (OUP) Award for 2019.
André Carvalho – Series Editor
André is an MA candidate in International Relations in the International Relations Graduate Program at the State University of Paraíba (PPGRI/UEPB), receiver of the Exclusive Dedication Scholarship purveyed by the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Level Personnel (CAPES). He holds an appointment as Research Fellow at the South American Institute of Policy and Strategy (ISAPE). André’s MA thesis addresses whether middle and regional powers can devise and implement a grand strategy by assessing the case of Brazil between 2003 and 2010.
Although the centre of his research is on grand strategy and hegemonic shift in world order, his research interests are quite diverse: comparative grand strategy; history of warfare; realist theory of international relations; military transformation and RMA; air power; NATO enlargement; remilitarisation process of Japan; defence cooperation.
He holds a 2:1 (equivalency) BA degree in International Relations from the State University of Paraíba.
Anas Ismail – Series Editor
Anas Ismail is a medical doctor originally from Gaza, Palestine, where he received his education and training. As a citizen of Gaza, and later as a medical student, he personally lived the impact that conflict has on life in general and on healthcare in specific. This led him to an interest in global health as a means of learning more about the relationship between conflict and health. With a joint scholarship from the Chevening Awards and the Said Foundation, Anas is currently studying MSc Global health with conflict and security at King’s College, London.
Luciana Martinez – Series Editor
Luciana Martinez is a PhD student at Centre for Social Studies of University of Coimbra. She holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from PUC-Rio (Brazil), where she has studied postcolonial theory, the memory of colonization in Brazil and conceptions of time and space. She has also worked as a journalist for over 10 years, mostly in the fields of international politics and culture. Her current research interests revolve around the memory of Portuguese colonialism both in actual Portugal and Brazil through the analysis of cultural objects.
Walker Mills – Series Editor
Walker is a United States Marine infantry officer currently working as an instructor at the Colombian Naval Academy in Cartagena, Colombia. He is currently a non-resident master’s degree student at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center For Homeland Defense and Security and is a graduate of Brown University and the War Studies Department at King’s College London.
Walker is an Associate Editor at the Center For International Maritime Security and co-host of the Sea Control podcast. He has been published in War on the Rocks, Defense News, USNI Proceedings, the Marine Corps Gazette, West Point’s Modern War Institute, and many other publications. His writing focuses on emerging trends, technology, and tactics on land and at sea. You can follow him on Twitter @WDMills1992.
Anna Nedey – Series Editor
Anna Nedey is an MSc student at the London School of Economics in Conflict Studies. Before graduating from King’s College London with a BA in Religion, Politics, and Society, she completed three years of ‘hypokhagne/khagne’ preparatory classes in Paris in classic humanities. Her main areas of interest are divided societies, civil wars, and post-conflict reconstruction. She focuses particularly on Islam (theology, philosophy, politics) in the Middle East and southeast Asia. With a background in literature, philosophy, theology, social sciences, and now international politics; her approach to conflicts is multidisciplinary.
Prachi Aryal – Staff Writer
Prachi Aryal is a MA student in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.
Her research interest is inclined towards Gender, Human Rights, and Cross border conflicts in transitioning nations and how visuals from conflict zones play a role in communicating the realities of conflict to the broader world, impacting the global reaction to conflicts. She holds a degree in BA (Hons) Journalism from the University of Delhi, India. She was a recipient of the University Medal for outstanding academic performance in her subject at the University.
James Brown – Staff Writer
James Brown is a PhD candidate in history at Northumbria University. His focus is on Soviet dissidents and their use in the politics and international relations of the Cold War. He previously studied at Glasgow University, doing a Master’s in East European, Russian, and Eurasian studies. During this time he studied Russian and wrote his thesis, ‘Returning to Machiavelli: Giving Belarus-Russia relations the Original Realist Treatment’, which received the prize for best dissertation from the Centre for East European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at Glasgow.
Jack is a postgraduate student within the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, having previously graduated with an undergraduate degree in history from the University of East Anglia. His main research interests centre on diplomatic history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century concerning the decline of the Ottoman Empire, as well as current Turkish foreign policy and the Middle East more broadly.
Hannah Papachristidis – Staff Writer
Hannah Papachristidis is a project officer at Transparency International Defence & Security, where she manages research outputs for the 2020 Government Defence Integrity Index. She holds an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University and is an Emerging Expert at Forum on the Arms Trade.
Rafaela Piyioti – Staff Writer
Rafaela is a part-time MA student in the Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies programme at King’s College London. She received her BA in War Studies and Philosophy. She is a Staff Writer for the Shield and writes for a Cypriot newspaper. Currently, she is a Research Analyst for London Politica. Her main academic interest is on the role of intelligence in policymaking. She also has a passion for Human Rights and has interned at the Cyprus Refugee Council. Rafaella enjoys traveling and learning about new cultures in her free time.
Carlotta Rinaudo – Staff Writer
Carlotta is a MA candidate in International Affairs at the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London. After completing her BA in Interpreting and Translation, she moved to the Middle East and developed a strong interest in the MENA region, North Korea, Cybersecurity, and the implications of the rise of China. Carlotta has written on a number of Italian publications on the Hong Kong protests and other forms of political unrest.
Owen P. Saunders – Staff Writer
Saunders is an MA Candidate at King’s College London, Department of War Studies, in International Peace and Security. He graduated his BA (Hons.) at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada in June of 2020. He previously held a position at the Royal Military College of Canada as a research assistant, while working on an undergraduate research fellowship on the topic of cyber electoral interference in the FVEY Alliance. He was able to present this research at SERENE-RISC Cybersecurity Network at the University of Ottawa, and have the work accepted to the Midwest Political Science Association in Chicago, Illinois. Saunders is currently working toward the completion of his MA where he will continue to think critically about security implications and threats in a technologically evolving world. His aim is to examine security in a multifaceted and interdisciplinary way, gaining experience researching and writing about the evolution and mitigation of security threats both in Canada and the United Kingdom.
Adedeji Ademola – External Representative at Obafemi Awolowo University
Adedeji Ademola is a Doctoral student at the Department of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. His main research interests include international relations, security, governance and development issues in West Africa as well as civilian casualties, and counterinsurgency. He has served as Adjunct Lecturer at the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria and was Staff Contributor for Face2FaceAfrica for many years where he pitched several research driven articles with a focus on trade and governance within the pan-African community. He is a Fellow of the Institut Francais de Recherche en Afrique (IFRA-Nigeria) and African Change makers fellow. He has authored and co-authored published biographical works and articles in local and international journals. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Diplomatic Studies from the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, a Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in International Relations both from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Mehak Burza – External Representative at Jamia University
The author is a doctoral research scholar of Holocaust Studies in the Department of English, Jamia University (New Delhi, India). Her thesis title is Literary Representations of The Holocaust; An Assessment. Her primary interests include Holocaust/Genocide Studies, Gender Studies, Holocaust Trauma and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). She has presented papers in international conferences in Texas and Gettysburg. Her creative works have been published in Trouvaille Review, Visual Verse and Galaxy International Multidisciplinary Research Journal. She also translates from Hindi/Urdu into English and her translations are published in Purple Ink Magazine, the online magazine of Brown University, Los Angeles. She is also associated with LLIDS Journal as a peer reviewer, CLRI journal as an editor for research papers and as a copy editor (part time) in Journal of International Women’s Studies. Apart from academics she is trained classical dancer, with Kathak being her forte.
Amy Ertan — External Representative at Royal Holloway
Amy Ertan is a PhD researcher within the Centre for Cyber Security at Royal Holloway, University of London. Amy previously studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford, where she first developed an interest in international security. Amy was part of the winning team in Atlantic Council’s international relations / cyber security 9/12 competition, and was also awarded Cyber Security Student of the Year at the 2018 SC Media Awards. Her main research interests continue to focus on international relations and cyber-warfare, as well as emerging cyber security threats relating to artificial intelligence. You can follow her on Twitter: @AmyErtan.
Bryce Farabaugh — External Representative at University of Chicago
Bryce Farabaugh is a master’s student at the University of Chicago’s Committee on International Relations. Previously, Bryce was a research assistant with the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) where he worked on a range of programs designed to develop the next generation of nuclear professionals. His research and analysis at PONI focused on emerging technologies and their implications for situational awareness and strategic stability. Bryce is currently a fellow with the N Square Innovators Network, an interdisciplinary group working to develop strategies for nuclear risk reduction. He also serves on a strategic advisory board for Foretell, a crowdsourced forecasting project exploring technology-security policy at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
Prior to working at CSIS, Bryce held positions as a research intern at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a policy intern in the Defense and Foreign Policy Department at the Niskanen Center, and worked for several years at the United States Department of the Treasury. He holds a BA in political science from the University of Washington. You can follow him on Twitter @brycefarabaugh.
Carissa Goodwin – External Representative at University of St. Andrews
Carissa Goodwin received her MLitt in Terrorism and Political Violence from the University of St. Andrews at the Centre for Terrorism and Political Violence and was awarded distinction. Her dissertation was a network analysis mapping far-right websites and analyzing how mainstream social media platforms are leveraged to direct to these more niche hate websites. While at St. Andrews, she’s been working as a consultant on a Facebook Phase Two Content Policy Research Grant, titled “Exploring the Internationalization of Extreme Right Public Spheres” with Dr. Dror Walter and Dr. Yannick Veilleux-Lepage. Previously, she worked on two U.S. Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative grants under Dr. Mia Bloom at Georgia State University. Her primary work at GSU focused on coding images, videos, and text collected from ISIS through the encrypted online platform, Telegram. Her research interests include emerging technologies, online extremism, disinformation, and political violence broadly. She holds a BA in Political Science and a BA in Public Health from Emory University. You can follow her on Twitter @carissahgoodwin
George Loh – External Representative at The London School of Economics
George is a Masters’s student at the Department of Methodology at The London School of Economics (LSE). He received his double bachelors in Political Science and International Relations from The Australian National University, before furthering his studies at the LSE. His interests include examining the phenomenon of democratic backsliding across Southeast Asian states, and the study of the political systems of Southeast Asian states from a comparative perspective. Prior to the commencement of his graduate studies, George held roles in various research capacities, notably an internship stint at Control Risks’ Global Risks Analysis (GRA) team as well as AKE International’s, covering the broader Asia Pacific region.
Philip Mayne — External Representative at University of Hull
Philip is a final year PhD candidate at the University of Hull. He has a special interest in strategy, counterinsurgency, military ethics, military history, international security and relations. His thesis examines the relationship between military ethics and military effectiveness. Specifically, his work focuses on adherence to the Just War Tradition, and success in counterinsurgencies; through analysing the case studies of the Malayan Emergency, the Kenyan Emergency, the Algerian War and the Vietnam War.
Philip ran a second-year module in 2018; focusing on international security and defence policy at the University of Hull. This module focused on international security theory in general, then examined a number of security issues; from human security to nuclear security. The module also discussed defence policy broadly and also focused on the US and UK defence policies. Philip has contributed to the Huffington Post, and is an active member of the Hull University War Studies Research Group. Twitter: @phil_mayne
Andrew Scanlon – External Representative at University of Edinburgh
Andrew is a MSc candidate in International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to postgraduate studies, he completed is B.A. in Political Science from the University of Dayton. During his undergraduate, Andrew worked for the Ohio Attorney General’s office and in the United States House of Representatives. His areas of research interest includes blockchain and its use as a tool for diplomacy, the impacts of the conflict in the South China Sea on the current international order, and international political economy.
Anindita Shome – External Representative at University of Hyderabad
Anindita Shome is a Ph.D. Candidate at the UGC Centre for the Study of Indian Diaspora, University of Hyderabad, India. Her research interests lie in the literary and socio-cultural aspects of the South Asian migration and diaspora from the pre-modern times to the contemporary era. She takes a keen interest in the areas of Conflict Studies, Youth Studies, Digital Humanities, Environmental Studies, and Transnational Studies.
Farley Sweatman – External Representative at University of Toronto
Farley is a Master of Global Affairs Candidate (MGA ’21) at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto. Prior to his Masters, Farley graduated in 2017 from Queen’s University in Kingston with a Bachelor of Arts, Major in History and Minor in Political Studies. While in undergrad, he was an active member of Queen’s Model Parliament, serving as a delegate for their annual conference in Ottawa for three consecutive years. Farley has since interned at the American Chamber of Commerce in Morocco and was the Feature Contributor for the Middle East and North African (MENA) Affairs section of the Global Conversations media organization. Farley is eager to apply his background in history and politics to contemporary global challenges, with a particular focus in the areas of global security, global capital markets, and international political economy.
Sangay Tamang — External Representative at Indian Institute of Technology
Sangay Tamang is a PhD scholar at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam. His doctoral thesis looks at the interaction of ecology and ethnicity in the eastern Himalayas where he focuses on the history of forest, wildlife and landscape in Darjeeling Himalayas. He has contributed articles to journals like Economic and Political Weekly, Sociological Bulletin, Indian Anthropologist, etc, and also short commentaries and op-ed in various online forums like The Third Pole, Raiot, Sikkim Express, Countercurrent, etc.
Giuseppe Grieco — External Representative at Queen Mary
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Strife would also like to thank, for all their wonderful work, the previous editorial committee: Harris Kuemmerle, Hemant Shivakamur, Devorah Margolin, Bradley Lineker, Sabina Ciofu, Lauren Dickey, Lauren Mellinger, Sarah Choong Ee Mei, Iona Allan and those before them. We are also grateful to the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, as well as Dr. Christine Cheng, Professor Vivienne Jabri, Professor Mervyn Frost, Professor Jack Spence, OBE and Professor Joe Maiolo for their continuous support.
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DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on this blog are attributable to their individual authors writing in their personal capacity only, and not to any other author, the editors, or any other person, organizations or institutions with which the author might be affiliated unless explicitly stated as such.