Contributor(s): William Hague MP, Angelina Jolie Pitt, Professor Christine Chinkin | LSE today hosted First Secretary of State William Hague and UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie Pitt to launch the UK’s first academic Centre on Women, Peace and Security, to be based at the School. Mr Hague and Ms Jolie Pitt announced the establishment of the ground-breaking initiative to students and academic colleagues with LSE Director Professor Craig Calhoun and Professor Christine Chinkin, who will lead the new centre. It will focus on the participation of women in conflict-related processes and on enhancing accountability and ending impunity for rape and sexual violence in war. The Centre marks a collaboration between LSE, Mr Hague, Ms Jolie Pitt and the UK Government. It will support the aims of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI), co-founded in 2012 by Mr Hague and Ms Jolie Pitt, by bringing academic expertise to bear on preventing crimes of sexual violence, holding perpetrators to account and protecting the rights of survivors. From 2016 the Centre will provide a post-graduate teaching programme in Women, Peace and Security, leading to an MSc degree. LSE has recently announced the creation of a new Institute of Global Affairs which will host the Centre on Women, Peace and Security. The choice of LSE as host university for the Centre reflects both its international reach and its focus on issues of global concern.