War Studies

In just four short years the Trump administration overturned the foundational national narrative of American exceptionalism – the US’ reputation as global exemplar and promoter of democracy. Far from drawing distinctions between the US and authoritarian states like Russia, he tried to show equivalence, marking a start contrast with every one of his predaceous since the end of the Cold War.

As Biden’s first week as 46th President of the United States draws to a close, Dr Ruth Deyermond, Senior Lecturer in the Department of War Studies and expert on the post-Soviet and post-Cold war US-Russia relationship, joins us to discuss whether Biden can re-build the US’ damaged reputation and fulfil the promises set out in his inauguration speech.

We also explore Trump’s close relationship with Putin and why so few White House records were kept on this, what another four years of Trump would have meant for US security and what the future might hold next for the historically fraught US and Russia relationship.

Who were the shadowy figures and unsung heroes that lay behind the extraordinary story of the Norwegian resistance during World War II? What were the extreme conditions they worked under? And how did they contribute to major allied intelligence-gathering operations, including helping to stall German efforts in producing atomic bombs?

In this episode we speak to Dr Tony Insall, Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, on his recent book ‘Secret Alliances: Special Operations and Intelligence in Norway 1940-1945’. Credited with shining a new light on the story of the Norwegian resistance movement, British intelligence and special operations in war-time Norway, it draws on hitherto unpublished materials buried deep in Norwegian and British intelligence archives.

He discusses the uniquely close Anglo-Norwegian political relationship and cooperation that gave rise to the successful resistance movement, the desolate conditions agents based in Norway operated under, the role of code breakers and the story behind one of the world’s most famous Christmas trees – a festive gift from Oslo to London which is displayed in Trafalgar Square every year.

‘We are telling a story as great as that of the Bible’, wrote Tony Essex to Gordon Watkins in 1964. These television producers had been given the opportunity of a lifetime - to bring to life the first major multi-episode television documentary on the Great War for the 50th anniversary.

In this episode, we talk to Dr Peter Busch, historian and expert in propaganda and strategic communication, about how the ‘Great War’ made TV history and transformed historical documentaries going forwards.

He discusses how the BBC used innovative techniques, including eye-witness testimonies to represent the voices of ‘ordinary’ people, but also the extent to which televised or cinematic representations of war can blur fact and fiction, in ways that aren’t always clear to us.

In the final episode of our special three-part series celebrating 20 years since resolution 1325 was passed by the UN Security Council on Women, Peace and Security, we take a look at how we can help shape reform in moving Global North policy, dominating WPS, to more grassroots and how we can push the agenda in communities of the Global South.

Although the WPS agenda has led to significant changes in the way women are considered in times of conflict and peace-brokering activities, there are still many challenges that remain.

In this episode, we explore whose voices actually count in pursuing the aims of the WPS agenda and how the agenda is viewed in countries of the Global South.

Experts in the field, Dr Soumita Basu (South Asian University) and Dr Swarna Rajagopalan (The Prajnya Trust & Women’s Regional Network) discuss the opportunities needed to allow women to take a seat at the table of conversations on war and peace, as well as illustrating the need for women to be included in every stage of conflict resolution, conflict prevention, conflict management and peacemaking processes.

How do secular Jewish Israeli millennials feel about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? How has coming of age during a series of wars, in which many of them fought, and the shadow of the failed Oslo Peace Process impacted this generation? Why have their attitudes changed so significantly since their parents’ youth, that they no longer believe in a two state solution and see Occupation as ‘reasonable if regrettable’?

In this episode we talk to Dr Stacey Gutkowski, Senior Lecturer in Conflict Studies and Co-Director for the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies in War Studies, about her new book – ‘Religion, War and Israel’s Secular Millennials: Being Reasonable?'.

Based on fieldwork, interviews and surveys conducted after the 2014 Gaza War, it offers a close reading of the lived experience and generational memory of participants and a new explanation for why attitudes to Occupation have grown increasingly conservative over the past two decades.

In the second episode of our three-part series celebrating 20 years of Women, Peace and Security (WPS), we look at the escalating threat that private companies, hired to provide military and security services, pose to the rights of women and minorities in conflict settings.

This privatisation of war can have incredibly damaging consequences. Private companies often occupy a murky territory outside the legal frameworks of states and international organisations, meaning human rights abuses, including gender-based and sexual violence, are committed under their watch with little or no comeuppance for the perpetrators.

Dr Jamie Hagen, Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, and Professor Saskia Stachowitsch, from the University of Vienna, join Dr Amanda Chisholm from our own School, to discuss the challenge of this threat, in particular for women and the LGBTQ community. And how Women, Peace and Security might be leveraged to highlight these atrocities and bring justice to the communities affected.

In 2001 Tony Blair introduced what would become a controversial, expensive and ultimately disastrous policy programme to stamp out the drugs trade in Afghanistan in just ten years.

Dr Philip Berry, Lecturer in War Studies, joins us to discuss his new book, ’The War on Drugs and Anglo-American Relations: Lessons from Afghanistan’, which reveals the inside story on the Blair Government's mission to destroy opium production at source. We explore why counter-narcotics became such a key foreign policy objective for Blair, his overconfidence in setting such unrealistic timelines and why this whole episode caused considerable tension in UK-US relations, putting significant strain on the ‘Special Relationship’.

31 October 2020 marks 20 years since resolution 1325 was passed by the UN Security Council on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). In a special three-part podcast series, we’re celebrating this landmark achievement by looking at how the WPS agenda can support women’s struggle for better inclusion and representation in matters relating to international conflict and peace, over the next 20 years.

In this episode, we explore how Women, Peace and Security (WPS) could be leveraged to address the plight of refugee women and girls at Europe’s borders.

Experts working in WPS, Dr Aiko Holvikivi (LSE) and Dr Audrey Reeves (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) argue that in the wake of Europe’s so-called refugee crisis, the whole notion of who is affected by conflict and insecurity, and where those people are, is increasingly under challenge. They state that overlooking women refugees reveals the ‘colonial underbelly’ of the WPS agenda; its tendency to think that conflict-affected people are ‘over there’, not ‘over here’. By identifying these women as worthy of international attention, protection and inclusion under the WPS agenda, we can unsettle the colonial thinking that still sticks to a range of WPS-inspired policies.

Cold War Moscow was a place like no other. The eyes and ears of the Soviet secret police, the KGB, were everywhere; the only place that was really safe, one political prisoner would later write, was in your dreams...

Professor Mike Goodman, Head of the Department of War Studies, and expert in the history of intelligence joins us for the first episode in our new series. We discuss who were the individuals who turned traitor against their own country to spy for the other side during the Cold War, what impact they had on stopping the conflict from becoming 'hot' and the gizmos and gadgets they used that wouldn't look out of place in a James Bond film.

This is the part 2 of a 2 part special podcast series produced by BA IR students Julia Thommessen and Adam Beswick. In these podcasts King's students discuss different perspectives on COVID-19 and share their experiences. And as an Easter bonus: Sally shares her blueberry muffin recipe. Hosted by Adam Beswick, Peter Busch and Sally Horspool.