Podcasts about changing character

In this episode of the ChinaPower Podcast, Dr. Ryan Berg joins us to discuss China's relations with Latin America. Dr. Berg discusses both Chinese and U.S. interests in the region, emphasizing that while the U.S. has tended to approach the region with “strategic neglect,” China seems to view Latin America as highly important in terms of both its strategic and economic goals. Dr. Berg explains his view that President Xi is personally invested in the region and believes it holds high economic complementarity to the Chinese economy, specifically in relation to China's Belt and Road Imitative (BRI). Dr. Berg notes that although the U.S. is still the preferred security partner among Latin American countries, China is becoming more competitive in this space and is viewed among many countries as providing more opportunities, specifically in the economic realm. Dr. Berg also discusses the public opinion of China in Latin America, noting that China's image has not fully recovered since its decline during COVID-19, and describes the U.S. efforts to not only warn Latin American countries of the risks of investment and economic deals with China but also the US attempt to compete with China as the preferred economic partner. Dr. Berg provides insights on President Xi's most recent trip to the region for the APEC Leader's Summit, specifically discussing his inauguration of a new massive port in Peru, and other ways Xi seemed to overshadow President Biden. Finally, Dr. Berg discusses some of the concerns surrounding China's growing presence in the region and suggestions for U.S. policymakers. Dr. Ryan C. Berg is director of the Americas Program and head of the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also an adjunct professor at the Catholic University of America and a course coordinator at the United States Foreign Service Institute. His research focuses on U.S.-Latin America relations, strategic competition and defense policy, authoritarian regimes, armed conflict and transnational organized crime, and trade and development issues. Previously, Dr. Berg was a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he helped lead its Latin America Studies Program, as well as visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford's Changing Character of War Programme. Dr. Berg was a Fulbright scholar in Brazil and is a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member.

National security is an all-encompassing, cross-society endeavour: Any national security strategy must be that too, or it will miss critical elements and levers. In conversation with Maria de Goeij Reid from the Changing Character of War programme at Oxford University, the often-ignored aspects of resilience and economics within SDRs is brought starkly to the fore. By relying on convenient threats (ie those that have a military and foreign policy solution), policymakers, military and political leaders return to their comfortable intellectual spaces of known-knowns and simply reprioritise some policy and military capability: the result is a series of surprises (that have previously been predicted by other arms of government), for which the state is ill-prepared or not equipped to respond to. At the heart of all this lies an inability to understand adversaries, or our own decision-making. Maria makes a compelling case for putting more emphasis on strategic empathy using the lessons from advances in complexity economics.

Over the course of the past 170 years, the world has experienced many different forms of terrorism designed to create fear, push for political aims, and recruit followers. Groups of varying political ideologies have used terrorism over the years, making this an issue that never really goes away, it simply morphs and changes. However, one thing remains the same... all of these groups eventually come to an end. It may surprise you that the average lifespan of a terrorist group is 8-10 years, which can seem unbelievable with the staying power of groups like al-Qaeda (founded in the 1980s), the "Provisionals" of the IRA (who used Terrorist attacks in Ireland for over 20 years), and the New People's Army (which has utilized terrorist tactics in the Philippines since 1969). These are the outliers rather than the norm. This episode takes a look at amazing research conducted by Dr. Audrey Kurth Cronin, Director of the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology, who has collated the ways in which terrorist groups come to an end. Spoiler alert, sometimes these groups morph into something worse, so it is important to understand why terrorist groups exist, what their goals are, and how the global community can work to hasten these groups' turn away from targeting civilians. Take a listen to engage in this global conversation on understanding how terrorism ends. Purchase Dr. Kurth Cronin's book How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns and her second book Power to the People:  How Open Technological Innovation is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists to dive even deeper into the topic.Audrey Kurth Cronin is Trustees Professor of Security and Technology and Director of the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology (CMIST).  Cronin's best-known book is How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns (Princeton, 2009), which the New Yorker called a “landmark study.”  Her latest book, Power to the People:  How Open Technological Innovation is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists (Oxford, 2020), analyzes emerging technologies and devises a new framework for analyzing 21st century military innovation. It was short-listed for the Lionel Gelber prize and won the 2020 Neave prize.    Cronin was a Marshall Scholar from Princeton, earned a DPhil from Oxford, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard. Formerly Distinguished Professor at American University, she founded and directed the Center for Security, Innovation and New Technology in Washington, DC.  She also gained accreditation, founded, and ran the International Security graduate program at George Mason University.  She has been director of the core course on War and Statecraft at the National War College, Director of Studies for the Changing Character of War program at Oxford University, and Specialist in Terrorism at the Congressional Research Service. She has also served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy and frequently advises at senior levels. She was Chairman of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Terrorism and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Russia's actions in and around Ukraine in 2014, as well as its activities in Syria and further afield, sparked renewed debate about the character of war and armed conflict, and whether it was undergoing a fundamental shift. One of the enduring features of conflict over the centuries has been its state of flux. This perpetual state of evolution requires states to regularly monitor how military force is being wielded, either by allies or adversaries, in order to be able to plan and prepare for future war. Tracey German's Russia and the Changing Character of Conflict (Cambria Press, 2023) explores Russian views of the changing character of conflict and the debates that have emerged about how future wars might evolve. Since 2014 there has been wide-ranging discussion about Russia's "new way of war", with labels such as hybrid warfare, grey-zone operations and the Gerasimov doctrine dominating Western analyses. However, there has been scant analysis of Russian perspectives on the changing character of conflict and what future wars may look like: Western attempts to understand how and why Russia uses force have tended to rely upon mirror-imaging and an expectation of similar strategic behaviors. There is a paucity of literature examining Russian views of conflict and war, particularly literature based on Russian-language sources. Using a range of Russian sources, this book helps us develop a greater understanding of Russian military thought, the range of perspectives a peer competitor holds and the particular analytical processes that take place, rather than mirror-imaging. It sets out the trends and debates in Russian military thought, tracing the evolution of this thinking in open-source material, particularly military journals, formal policy documents and speeches, and outlines the implications of Russian conclusions regarding the characteristics of contemporary and future conflict. The experiences of individual states foster different visions of future conflict and how states envisage military force being used, either by themselves or potential adversaries. It is vital to understand the process of observation and assessment that other states are engaged in. Tracey German is a Professor of Conflict and Security in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London. Her research focuses on Russian foreign and security policies, particularly Russia's use of force, and how its neighbors have responded, as well as Russian strategic culture and military thought. She speaks Russian and has traveled extensively across the post-Soviet area. Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar whose research areas are related to Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, military history, War studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, as well as Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Russia's actions in and around Ukraine in 2014, as well as its activities in Syria and further afield, sparked renewed debate about the character of war and armed conflict, and whether it was undergoing a fundamental shift. One of the enduring features of conflict over the centuries has been its state of flux. This perpetual state of evolution requires states to regularly monitor how military force is being wielded, either by allies or adversaries, in order to be able to plan and prepare for future war. Tracey German's Russia and the Changing Character of Conflict (Cambria Press, 2023) explores Russian views of the changing character of conflict and the debates that have emerged about how future wars might evolve. Since 2014 there has been wide-ranging discussion about Russia's "new way of war", with labels such as hybrid warfare, grey-zone operations and the Gerasimov doctrine dominating Western analyses. However, there has been scant analysis of Russian perspectives on the changing character of conflict and what future wars may look like: Western attempts to understand how and why Russia uses force have tended to rely upon mirror-imaging and an expectation of similar strategic behaviors. There is a paucity of literature examining Russian views of conflict and war, particularly literature based on Russian-language sources. Using a range of Russian sources, this book helps us develop a greater understanding of Russian military thought, the range of perspectives a peer competitor holds and the particular analytical processes that take place, rather than mirror-imaging. It sets out the trends and debates in Russian military thought, tracing the evolution of this thinking in open-source material, particularly military journals, formal policy documents and speeches, and outlines the implications of Russian conclusions regarding the characteristics of contemporary and future conflict. The experiences of individual states foster different visions of future conflict and how states envisage military force being used, either by themselves or potential adversaries. It is vital to understand the process of observation and assessment that other states are engaged in. Tracey German is a Professor of Conflict and Security in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London. Her research focuses on Russian foreign and security policies, particularly Russia's use of force, and how its neighbors have responded, as well as Russian strategic culture and military thought. She speaks Russian and has traveled extensively across the post-Soviet area. Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar whose research areas are related to Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, military history, War studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, as well as Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

Russia's actions in and around Ukraine in 2014, as well as its activities in Syria and further afield, sparked renewed debate about the character of war and armed conflict, and whether it was undergoing a fundamental shift. One of the enduring features of conflict over the centuries has been its state of flux. This perpetual state of evolution requires states to regularly monitor how military force is being wielded, either by allies or adversaries, in order to be able to plan and prepare for future war. Tracey German's Russia and the Changing Character of Conflict (Cambria Press, 2023) explores Russian views of the changing character of conflict and the debates that have emerged about how future wars might evolve. Since 2014 there has been wide-ranging discussion about Russia's "new way of war", with labels such as hybrid warfare, grey-zone operations and the Gerasimov doctrine dominating Western analyses. However, there has been scant analysis of Russian perspectives on the changing character of conflict and what future wars may look like: Western attempts to understand how and why Russia uses force have tended to rely upon mirror-imaging and an expectation of similar strategic behaviors. There is a paucity of literature examining Russian views of conflict and war, particularly literature based on Russian-language sources. Using a range of Russian sources, this book helps us develop a greater understanding of Russian military thought, the range of perspectives a peer competitor holds and the particular analytical processes that take place, rather than mirror-imaging. It sets out the trends and debates in Russian military thought, tracing the evolution of this thinking in open-source material, particularly military journals, formal policy documents and speeches, and outlines the implications of Russian conclusions regarding the characteristics of contemporary and future conflict. The experiences of individual states foster different visions of future conflict and how states envisage military force being used, either by themselves or potential adversaries. It is vital to understand the process of observation and assessment that other states are engaged in. Tracey German is a Professor of Conflict and Security in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London. Her research focuses on Russian foreign and security policies, particularly Russia's use of force, and how its neighbors have responded, as well as Russian strategic culture and military thought. She speaks Russian and has traveled extensively across the post-Soviet area. Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar whose research areas are related to Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, military history, War studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, as well as Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs

Russia's actions in and around Ukraine in 2014, as well as its activities in Syria and further afield, sparked renewed debate about the character of war and armed conflict, and whether it was undergoing a fundamental shift. One of the enduring features of conflict over the centuries has been its state of flux. This perpetual state of evolution requires states to regularly monitor how military force is being wielded, either by allies or adversaries, in order to be able to plan and prepare for future war. Tracey German's Russia and the Changing Character of Conflict (Cambria Press, 2023) explores Russian views of the changing character of conflict and the debates that have emerged about how future wars might evolve. Since 2014 there has been wide-ranging discussion about Russia's "new way of war", with labels such as hybrid warfare, grey-zone operations and the Gerasimov doctrine dominating Western analyses. However, there has been scant analysis of Russian perspectives on the changing character of conflict and what future wars may look like: Western attempts to understand how and why Russia uses force have tended to rely upon mirror-imaging and an expectation of similar strategic behaviors. There is a paucity of literature examining Russian views of conflict and war, particularly literature based on Russian-language sources. Using a range of Russian sources, this book helps us develop a greater understanding of Russian military thought, the range of perspectives a peer competitor holds and the particular analytical processes that take place, rather than mirror-imaging. It sets out the trends and debates in Russian military thought, tracing the evolution of this thinking in open-source material, particularly military journals, formal policy documents and speeches, and outlines the implications of Russian conclusions regarding the characteristics of contemporary and future conflict. The experiences of individual states foster different visions of future conflict and how states envisage military force being used, either by themselves or potential adversaries. It is vital to understand the process of observation and assessment that other states are engaged in. Tracey German is a Professor of Conflict and Security in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London. Her research focuses on Russian foreign and security policies, particularly Russia's use of force, and how its neighbors have responded, as well as Russian strategic culture and military thought. She speaks Russian and has traveled extensively across the post-Soviet area. Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar whose research areas are related to Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, military history, War studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, as well as Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/russian-studies

Russia's actions in and around Ukraine in 2014, as well as its activities in Syria and further afield, sparked renewed debate about the character of war and armed conflict, and whether it was undergoing a fundamental shift. One of the enduring features of conflict over the centuries has been its state of flux. This perpetual state of evolution requires states to regularly monitor how military force is being wielded, either by allies or adversaries, in order to be able to plan and prepare for future war. Tracey German's Russia and the Changing Character of Conflict (Cambria Press, 2023) explores Russian views of the changing character of conflict and the debates that have emerged about how future wars might evolve. Since 2014 there has been wide-ranging discussion about Russia's "new way of war", with labels such as hybrid warfare, grey-zone operations and the Gerasimov doctrine dominating Western analyses. However, there has been scant analysis of Russian perspectives on the changing character of conflict and what future wars may look like: Western attempts to understand how and why Russia uses force have tended to rely upon mirror-imaging and an expectation of similar strategic behaviors. There is a paucity of literature examining Russian views of conflict and war, particularly literature based on Russian-language sources. Using a range of Russian sources, this book helps us develop a greater understanding of Russian military thought, the range of perspectives a peer competitor holds and the particular analytical processes that take place, rather than mirror-imaging. It sets out the trends and debates in Russian military thought, tracing the evolution of this thinking in open-source material, particularly military journals, formal policy documents and speeches, and outlines the implications of Russian conclusions regarding the characteristics of contemporary and future conflict. The experiences of individual states foster different visions of future conflict and how states envisage military force being used, either by themselves or potential adversaries. It is vital to understand the process of observation and assessment that other states are engaged in. Tracey German is a Professor of Conflict and Security in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London. Her research focuses on Russian foreign and security policies, particularly Russia's use of force, and how its neighbors have responded, as well as Russian strategic culture and military thought. She speaks Russian and has traveled extensively across the post-Soviet area. Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar whose research areas are related to Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, military history, War studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, as well as Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security

Russia's actions in and around Ukraine in 2014, as well as its activities in Syria and further afield, sparked renewed debate about the character of war and armed conflict, and whether it was undergoing a fundamental shift. One of the enduring features of conflict over the centuries has been its state of flux. This perpetual state of evolution requires states to regularly monitor how military force is being wielded, either by allies or adversaries, in order to be able to plan and prepare for future war. Tracey German's Russia and the Changing Character of Conflict (Cambria Press, 2023) explores Russian views of the changing character of conflict and the debates that have emerged about how future wars might evolve. Since 2014 there has been wide-ranging discussion about Russia's "new way of war", with labels such as hybrid warfare, grey-zone operations and the Gerasimov doctrine dominating Western analyses. However, there has been scant analysis of Russian perspectives on the changing character of conflict and what future wars may look like: Western attempts to understand how and why Russia uses force have tended to rely upon mirror-imaging and an expectation of similar strategic behaviors. There is a paucity of literature examining Russian views of conflict and war, particularly literature based on Russian-language sources. Using a range of Russian sources, this book helps us develop a greater understanding of Russian military thought, the range of perspectives a peer competitor holds and the particular analytical processes that take place, rather than mirror-imaging. It sets out the trends and debates in Russian military thought, tracing the evolution of this thinking in open-source material, particularly military journals, formal policy documents and speeches, and outlines the implications of Russian conclusions regarding the characteristics of contemporary and future conflict. The experiences of individual states foster different visions of future conflict and how states envisage military force being used, either by themselves or potential adversaries. It is vital to understand the process of observation and assessment that other states are engaged in. Tracey German is a Professor of Conflict and Security in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London. Her research focuses on Russian foreign and security policies, particularly Russia's use of force, and how its neighbors have responded, as well as Russian strategic culture and military thought. She speaks Russian and has traveled extensively across the post-Soviet area. Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar whose research areas are related to Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, military history, War studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, as well as Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/eastern-european-studies

Russia's actions in and around Ukraine in 2014, as well as its activities in Syria and further afield, sparked renewed debate about the character of war and armed conflict, and whether it was undergoing a fundamental shift. One of the enduring features of conflict over the centuries has been its state of flux. This perpetual state of evolution requires states to regularly monitor how military force is being wielded, either by allies or adversaries, in order to be able to plan and prepare for future war. Tracey German's Russia and the Changing Character of Conflict (Cambria Press, 2023) explores Russian views of the changing character of conflict and the debates that have emerged about how future wars might evolve. Since 2014 there has been wide-ranging discussion about Russia's "new way of war", with labels such as hybrid warfare, grey-zone operations and the Gerasimov doctrine dominating Western analyses. However, there has been scant analysis of Russian perspectives on the changing character of conflict and what future wars may look like: Western attempts to understand how and why Russia uses force have tended to rely upon mirror-imaging and an expectation of similar strategic behaviors. There is a paucity of literature examining Russian views of conflict and war, particularly literature based on Russian-language sources. Using a range of Russian sources, this book helps us develop a greater understanding of Russian military thought, the range of perspectives a peer competitor holds and the particular analytical processes that take place, rather than mirror-imaging. It sets out the trends and debates in Russian military thought, tracing the evolution of this thinking in open-source material, particularly military journals, formal policy documents and speeches, and outlines the implications of Russian conclusions regarding the characteristics of contemporary and future conflict. The experiences of individual states foster different visions of future conflict and how states envisage military force being used, either by themselves or potential adversaries. It is vital to understand the process of observation and assessment that other states are engaged in. Tracey German is a Professor of Conflict and Security in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London. Her research focuses on Russian foreign and security policies, particularly Russia's use of force, and how its neighbors have responded, as well as Russian strategic culture and military thought. She speaks Russian and has traveled extensively across the post-Soviet area. Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar whose research areas are related to Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, military history, War studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, as well as Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of DISINFORMATION WARS, host Ilan Berman speaks with Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor of The Economist, regarding the challenges of accurately covering global conflicts in an era of rampant disinformation and digital manipulation. Bio: Shashank Joshi is The Economist‘s defence editor. Prior to joining The Economist in 2018, he served as Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and Research Associate at Oxford University's Changing Character of War Programme. He has published books on Iran's nuclear programme and India's armed forces, written for a wide range of newspapers and journals, and appeared regularly on radio and television. He holds degrees from Cambridge and Harvard, where he served as a Kennedy Scholar from Britain to the United States.

Today's guest is the funny and brilliant Matthias Strohn. Matthias is Head of the Historical Analysis Program at the Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research and an Honorary Visiting Professor at the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Buckingham. Matthias has also served as a senior lecturer in War Studies at the UK Ministry of Defence and a Military History Instructor at the German Staff College in Hamburg. He is a Lieutenant-Colonel in the German Bundeswehr and as a member of the German Military Attaché Reserve served in Paris, London, and Madrid. Matthias deployed to Iraq with the British Army and Afghanistan with the British Army and Bundeswehr. In 2022, he was awarded the Golden Cross of Honour, the German Armed Forces' highest non-combat decoration. Matthias was educated at the University of Münster before earning his MSt and DPhil at the University of Oxford. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books, including The German Army and the Defence of the Reich (Cambridge), How Armies Grow: The Expansion of Military Forces in the Age of Total War 1789-1945 (Casemate), Winning Wars: The Enduring Nature and Changing Character of Victory from Antiquity to the 21st Century (Casemate), and World War I Companion (Osprey). His forthcoming book Blade of a Sword: Ernst Jünger and the 73rd Fusilier Regiment on the Western Front, 1914–18, will be published by Osprey in 2025. Outside of his military and academic life, Matthias gives battlefield tours through The Cultural Experience. “So join us for an energetic and wide-ranging discussion of speaking English, studying at Oxford, growing up in Muenster (the “most livable place on Earth”), being a historian while deployed, Stalingrad staff rides, pink Stetsons, and Johnny Cash! Rec. 02/08/2024

Die Debatte mit Natascha Freundel, Rikola-Gunnar Lüttgenau, Peter R. Neumann und Christiane Schulz --- "Rechtsextreme muss man von ihren Unterstützern unterscheiden." (Peter R. Neumann) --- Kinder, die den Hitlergruß zeigen – nicht nur an einer Schule im Brandenburgischen Burg; Hakenkreuz- und Neonazi-Schmiereien – nicht nur an der Gedenkstätte Buchenwald. Wachsende Umfragewerte für die AfD, vor allem im Osten der Republik. Rechtsextremismus wird salonfähig, das zeigt auch die neue „Mitte-Studie“ der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Dass Rechtsextreme von Krisen profitieren und Ängste systematisch verstärken, zeigt der Politikwissenschafter Peter R. Neumann in seinem Buch „Logik der Angst“. Gegen diese Logik arbeitet die evangelische Pfarrerin Christiane Schulz aus Neuruppin tagtäglich an. Sie plädiert für Spaß an direkten Streitgesprächen und Vertrauen in die Pluralität der Menschen. Der Historiker und Gedenkstättenkurator Rikola Gunnar-Lüttgenau wirbt für ein kritisches Geschichtsbewusstsein und mehr politische Bildung. Rechtsextremismus ist gerade heute extrem gefährlich; doch es gibt Mittel und Wege, ihn einzuhegen. --- Rikola-Gunnar Lüttgenau ist seit 30 Jahren wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter der Stiftung Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora. Er leitet dort die Strategische Kommunikation und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit. --- Peter R. Neumann ist Professor für Sicherheitsstudien am King's College London und Fellow am Centre for the Changing Character of War (CCW) der Universität Oxford. Sein neues Buch analysiert die "Logik der Angst. Die rechtsextreme Gefahr und ihre Wurzeln" (2023, beide Rowohlt Berlin). --- Christiane Schulz leitet als Kreisdiakoniepfarrerin des Kirchenkreises Wittstock-Ruppin den gemeindediakonischen Verein ESTAruppin e.V., koordiniert die Arbeitsstelle für ev. Erwachsenenbildung im Landkreis Ostprignitz-Ruppin und ist mobile Beraterin und Mitarbeiterin für Migrations- und Integrationsarbeit der Ev. Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz (EKBO) für Westbrandenburg. --- Mehr Infos unter www.rbbkultur.de/derzweitegedanke --- Schreiben Sie uns an derzweitegedanke@rbbkultur.de.

Michael Neiberg is back in the studio for the next installation of the On Writing series. This week's guest is Shashank Joshi, Defense Editor for The Economist. This episode is a slight variation from the normal On Writing discussion because Shashank is a journalist writing a much shorter form than our usual guests, and then there's the little issue of the deadlines associated with a fast-paced news cycle. Their conversation turns to the organization and formulation of an interesting and accessible article, avoiding personal injury when dealing with demanding editors, and what sort of formal and informal research is necessary to build a mental database useful for informing a news-oriented writing format. Editors vary wildly. I can tell you that even good ones they're good in their different ways...But the best ones will say to you, 'What are you trying to say here? Because you know you haven't said it terribly well. But let's find a better way to say it.' Shashank Joshi is The Economist‘s defense editor. Prior to joining The Economist in 2018, he served as Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and Research Associate at Oxford University's Changing Character of War Program. He has published books on Iran's nuclear program and India's armed forces, written for a wide range of newspapers and journals, and appeared regularly on radio and television. He holds degrees from Cambridge and Harvard, where he served as a Kennedy Scholar from Britain to the United States. The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Army, or Department of Defense. Photo Credit: Image by fabrikasimf on Freepik, Inset courtesy of The Economist

Dr. Milo Jones is currently a Senior Advisor for Geopolitics and Technology at Arcano Partners in Madrid, and a Visiting Researcher at the Changing Character of War Centre at Pembroke College Oxford.  In addition, he teaches at both IE Business School in Madrid and at Imperial College London.  Previously, he worked at Accenture in London, for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in New York, and served as an officer in the US Marine Corps.  He is the co-author of Constructing Cassandra:  Reframing Intelligence Failure at the CIA, 1947-2001, published in 2013 by Stanford University Press.  A native of Manhattan, he currently lives in Warsaw, Poland. https://www.linkedin.com/in/inveniam/ https://twitter.com/Inveniam   We talk about Milo's eight years in the Marine Corps, the study of intelligence agencies' failures that come from the failure of imagination. Milo discusses his work reframing those failures. Milo emphasizes the importance of the quality of questions and diversity in analyzing complex problems. We talk about the big-picture geopolitical situation and so much more.   The mental models we examine can help us make better decisions in all areas of our life, including investing.   What can we learn from intelligence agencies' failures? Please help me welcome Milo Jones.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/inveniam/ https://twitter.com/Inveniam ---- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Crisis Investing: 100 Essays⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - My new book. To get regular updates and bonus content, please sign-up for my substack: ⁠⁠⁠https://bogumilbaranowski.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ Follow me on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/bogumil_nyc⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bogumil Baranowski⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sicart Associates, LLC⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. NEVER INVESTMENT ADVICE. IMPORTANT: As a reminder, the remarks in this interview represent the views, opinions, and experiences of the participants and are based upon information they believe to be reliable; however, Sicart Associates nor I have independently verified all such remarks. The content of this podcast is for general, informational purposes, and so are the opinions of members of Sicart Associates, a registered investment adviser, and guests of the show. This podcast does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any specific security or financial instruments or provide investment advice or service. Past performance is not indicative of future results. More information on Sicart Associates is available via its Form ADV disclosure documents available ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠adviserinfo.sec.gov⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/talking-billions/message

Lawrence of Arabia is legendary status, Britain's most romantic strategic theorist-cum-practitioner; as ‘al-Lorans', he won the hearts of many Arabs in their fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Dr Rob Johnson, the author of T.E. Lawrence's most recent biography, joins Beatrice and Paul for this week's episode. T.E. Lawrence's great classic article on ‘guerrilla warfare' published after the First World War is that of a practitioner who could, from his own experience, note that much about this form of war is counter-intuitive. It is better that guerilla fighters own their flawed strategy and application, rather than execute ‘perfect' strategy seen as a foreign achievement. This crucial tenet developed by Lawrence still holds true and must be kept in mind, whichever side one is on. He ‘went native' – and wrote about insurgency strategy from the point of view of the insurgent, not, as Major-General Sir Charles Edward Callwell did, from the point of view of the counter-insurgent. Dr Rob Johnson has written T.E. Lawrence's most recent biography: Lawrence of Arabia on War: The Campaign in the Desert 1916–18 (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020). A scholar at the University of Oxford, Dr Johnson has for many years now run the prestigious “Changing Character of War” programme originally created by Professor Sir Hew Strachan. But he is now applying his great energy to directing the British Ministry of Defence's office of Net Assessment. The opinions expressed here are entirely his own as an Oxford scholar, and must not be seen to represent the British defence establishment.

Peggy Smedley and Daniel Dobrygowski, head of governance and trust, World Economic Forum, talk about how the character of cyber threats has changed. He says the Forum looks at cyber risk over time and how perceptions of cyber risk are changing and what their expectations are—and it is expecting an increase in both impact and severity to businesses. They also discuss: What a catastrophic cyber event might entail. How cyber risks are making companies reevaluate which countries to invest in and which companies to partner with in the supply chain. The importance of a skilled cyber workforce and a mindset shift in the C-Suite. weforum.org  (3/7/23 - 812) IoT, Internet of Things, Peggy Smedley, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, digital transformation, cybersecurity, blockchain, 5G, cloud, sustainability, future of work, podcast, Daniel Dobrygowski, World Economic Forum This episode is available on all major streaming platforms. If you enjoyed this segment, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts.

Peggy Smedley and Daniel Dobrygowski, head of governance and trust, World Economic Forum, talk about how the character of cyber threats has changed. He says the Forum looks at cyber risk over time and how perceptions of cyber risk are changing and what their expectations are—and it is expecting an increase in both impact and severity to businesses. They also discuss: What a catastrophic cyber event might entail. How cyber risks are making companies reevaluate which countries to invest in and which companies to partner with in the supply chain. The importance of a skilled cyber workforce and a mindset shift in the C-Suite. weforum.org  (3/7/23 - 812) IoT, Internet of Things, Peggy Smedley, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, digital transformation, cybersecurity, blockchain, 5G, cloud, sustainability, future of work, podcast, Daniel Dobrygowski, World Economic Forum This episode is available on all major streaming platforms. If you enjoyed this segment, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts.

Joining Kaye & Karen on the How To Be 60 Podcast this week, Sue Cleaver, whose focus in life has changed. Get in touch with your thoughts by emailing podcast@htb60.com!Grab tickets to How To Be 60: Live at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival at https://www.glasgowcomedyfestival.com/events/kaye-adams-how-to-be-60-live/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Pallas Athena's Future of War special podcast of the War Studies Research Centre we give an impression of a few of the guests of the Future of War conference that took place from 5-7 October in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Future of War Conference 2022 was organized by the Netherlands Defence Academy War Studies Research Centre (WSRC) in collaboration with the University of Oxford's Changing Character of War (CCW) Centre. In this third episode of three the following scientists share their thoughts: Beatrice Heuser (https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/beatriceheuser/); Azar Gat; David Betz (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/professor-david-j-betz); Frank Hofman; Martijn Kitzen (https://faculteitmilitairewetenschappen.nl/user/3bb6bedb-f0b6-45e0-bf47-fa68ec6c5c12/profile); and Nicolas Gardner.

Hur kan de som kämpar för sin frihet bäst ges hjälp och stöd? Kring dessa frågor resonerar Rob Johnson, som är chef för Changing Character of War Centre vid University of Oxford och senior forskare vid Pembroke College. Johnson har nyligen tillträtt ett chefsjobb vid Office of Net Assessment vid Storbritanniens försvarsministerium. Den brittiske journalisten Iain Martin intervjuar tio av talarna på Engelsbergsseminariet 2022 som hade temat "Liberty". Ämnena för intervjuerna spänner från hur Kina och Ryssland påverkar den frihet vi länge tagit för given till betydelsen av frihet för författare. Intervjuerna spelades in på Engelbergs bruk i juni 2022.

In this Pallas Athena's Future of War special podcast of the War Studies Research Centre we give an impression of a few of the guests of the Future of War conference that took place from 5-7 October in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Future of War Conference 2022 was organized by the Netherlands Defence Academy War Studies Research Centre (WSRC) in collaboration with the University of Oxford's Changing Character of War (CCW) Centre. In this second episode of three you will hear a short impression of the key note speech by the Netherlands Chief of Defence, general Onno Eichelsheim (https://english.defensie.nl/organisation/central-staff/netherlands-chief-of-defence). Major general (ret.) Mick Ryan gives a key reflection about science fiction and the future of war (https://www.csis.org/people/mick-ryan). Dr. Frank Hoffman pitches the conclusions of the panel The Future as People's War (https://www.fpri.org/contributor/frank-hoffman/). Ronald Ti summarizes his paper ‘Logistics on the Future Battlefield: Disperse, Disaggregate, or Die.' (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/dr-ronald-ti). Professor Audrey Kurth Cronin explains her keynote ‘Military Technological Innovation in the Digital Age.' In a nutshell (https://www.wcl.american.edu/impact/initiatives-programs/techlaw/our-team/audrey-kurth-cronin/). Dr. James D. Kiras talks about ‘Special Operations in Galaxies and Metaverses: Reality or Fantasy?' (https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/SAASS/Display/Article/1587149/school-of-advanced-air-and-space-studies-leadership-and-faculty/). Don't forget to listen in for the last episode to follow soon. For the programme see faculteitmilitairewetenschappen.nl/cms/vie…ce-2022

In this Pallas Athena's Future of War special podcast of the War Studies Research Centre we give an impression of a few of the guests of the Future of War conference that took place from 5-7 October in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Future of War Conference 2022 was organized by the Netherlands Defence Academy War Studies Research Centre (WSRC) in collaboration with the University of Oxford's Changing Character of War (CCW) Centre. In this is episode 1 of 3 you will hear dr. Tim Sweijs (https://faculteitmilitairewetenschappen.nl/user/ce503951-2eeb-4278-bb62-1d4bd0ded52b/profile), dr. Rob Johnson (http://www.ccw.ox.ac.uk/robert-johnson), dr. Florence Gaub (https://www.futurate.institute/about), professor Beatrice Heuser (https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/beatriceheuser/), dr. Jeff Michaels (https://www.ibei.org/en/jeffrey-michaels_194068) and associate professor Antoine Bousquet (https://www.fhs.se/sc/profilsida.html?identity=400.e32d0a1179806b08bf9f3f0). Stay tuned for the other episodes to follow soon. For the programme see https://faculteitmilitairewetenschappen.nl/cms/view/d4ad93da-a81e-4f97-8711-3d5167ec2026/the-future-of-war-conference-2022

Dr. Thomas F. Lynch III, Dr. Todd Greentree, and Dr. Conrad Crane – “Deconstructing the Collapse of Afghanistan National Security and Defense Forces” Released 12 September, 2022 The rapid collapse of Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in August 2021 was widely anticipated and due to its structural constraints and qualitative decline from 2018–21. This article provides a targeted analysis of ANDSF operational liabilities and qualitative limitations, referencing often overlooked statements by US and Afghan political and military officials, data from official US government reports, and prescient NGO field analyses. The painful ANDSF experience illuminates several principles that must be considered as US policymakers turn toward security force assistance for proxy and surrogate military forces in conflict with the partners of America's emerging great-power geostrategic competitors—China and Russia. Click here to read the review and reply to the article. Keywords: Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), Taliban, Doha Accord, collapse, security force assistance  Episode Transcript: “Deconstructing the Collapse of Afghanistan National Security and Defense Forces” Stephanie Crider (Host)  Decisive Point introduces Conversations on Strategy, a US Army War College Press production featuring distinguished authors and contributors who explore timely issues in national security affairs. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Department of the Army, the US Army War College, or any other agency of the US government. Conversations on Strategy welcomes Dr. Thomas F. Lynch III, Dr. Conrad C. Crane, and Dr. Todd Greentree. Lynch is the author of “Deconstructing the Collapse of Afghan National Security and Defense Forces” (“Deconstructing the Collapse of Afghanistan National Security and Defense Forces”), which was featured in the autumn 2022 issue of Parameters. Lynch is a distinguished research fellow in the Institute of National Strategic Studies (Institute for National Strategic Studies) of the National Defense University. A retired Army colonel with Afghanistan tours, Lynch publishes frequently on Afghanistan. Crane is currently a research historian in the Strategic Studies Institute of the (US) Army War College. A retired Army officer, Crane holds a PhD from Stanford University Greentree is a former US foreign service officer. Currently, he is a member of the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University, and he teaches at the Global and National Security Policy Institute at the University of New Mexico. Thanks so much for making time for this today. Tom, would you please just give us a brief synopsis of your article? (Thomas F. Lynch III) Yeah, hi, Stephanie. Thanks for having me here, and great to be with, uh, Con and Todd. I thought it was a good time to publish something that reviewed the history of why it was not surprising that the Afghan national military wound up where it is. And so my article kind of goes into that, focusing in three substantive areas. First, it's to define the fact that the Afghan military was never designed by the US and its partners to stand alone. There were critical capabilities that it would have required to stand alone against an autonomous insurgency with external patrons that were never present and could not have been expected to be present. Second, I thought it important to chronicle the fact that the important linkages between the Afghan military and, particularly, American support military structures—these were already pulling apart as early as 2018—not in the last year, not subsequent to the Doha Accord (Doha Agreement) of February 2020, but have been pulling apart pretty visibly for those that were paying attention, starting at least in 2018. So I kind of go through what those were as well. And then, finally,

In episode 35 of The Gradient Podcast, guest host Sharon Zhou speaks to Jack Shanahan.John (Jack) Shanahan was a Lieutenant General in the United States Air Force, retired after a 36-year military career. He was the inaugural Director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). He was also the Director of the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team (Project Maven). Currently, he is a Special Government Employee supporting the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence; serves on the Board of Advisors for the Common Mission Project; is an advisor to The Changing Character of War Centre (Oxford University); is a member of the CACI Strategic Advisory Group; and serves as an Advisor to the Military Cyber Professionals Association.Subscribe to The Gradient Podcast:  Apple Podcasts  | Spotify | Pocket Casts | RSSFollow The Gradient on TwitterOutline:(00:00) Intro(01:20) Introduction to Jack and Sharon(07:30) Project Maven(09:45) Relationship of Tech Sector and DoD(16:40) Need for AI in DoD(20:10) Bringing the tech-DoD divide(30:00) ConclusionEpisode Links:John N.T. Shanahan WikipediaAI To Revolutionize U.S. Intelligence Community With General ShanahanEmail: aidodconversations@gmail.com Get full access to The Gradient at thegradientpub.substack.com/subscribe

Today's guest is retired Indian Air Force General Dr. Arjun Subramanium. Arjun is the President's Chair of Excellence & Mentor at National Defence College, New Delhi, and a former Air Vice Marshal of the Indian Air Force. He commissioned as a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force in 1981 and accumulated more than 3000 flying hours in fighter aircraft, including all variants of the Mig-21 and Mirage-2000. He is a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College and the National Defence College, New Dehli, and also served as senior faculty at the National Defence College. Arjun earned his B.A. in History and Humanities at Jawaharlal University, a Masters in Defence and Strategic Studies at the University of Madras, and a Ph.D. in Defence and Strategic Studies at the University of Madras. Arjun has published widely, including A Military History of India Since 1972: Full Spectrum Operations and the Changing Contours of Modern Conflict (University Press of Kansas, 2021), Full Spectrum: India's Wars 1972-2020 (Harper Collins, 2020), India's Wars: A Military History 1947-1971 (Harper Collins, 2016, Published in the US with US Naval Institute Press in 2017). He also writes op-eds for a variety of publications, including India Today, Times of India, Indian Express, and The Tribune. Arjun has held visiting professorships at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, Ashoka University, and the Jindal School of International Affairs. In addition, he held fellowships at Harvard University's Asia Center, the University of Oxford's Changing Character of War Programme, and the D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University in Boston. He's also done his own podcast - Wars and Warriors! Arjun brings an array of diverse experiences and perspectives on military history to the table, and has solid recommendations on Indian food, beer, and film, as well as a surprise BBQ preference and brief review of Top Gun! Follow Arjun on Twitter @rhinohistorian! We are delighted and honored to have our first general officers and fighter pilot on the pod! Rec.: 05/31/2022

Maria de Goeij provides a brilliant introduction to reflexive control theory, a Soviet theory of influence. Listen to learn more and appreciate how it can help us better understand today's world, including strategic decision making in hybrid warfare. Reflexive control theory is a theory of influence that was developed in the 1960s, in Soviet Russia. During this lecture Maria will talk about the cybernetic origins of the theory, what we know about reflexive control, and what we do not know about it. She'll then talk about why this under-researched theory from Soviet times is important to take into account in the todays world and how it can help us think about strategic decision making in hybrid warfare. Maria works as an analyst for Thomson Reuters Special Services International and is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Changing Character of War Centre. Before joining TRSSI, Maria has worked for several think tanks in the Netherlands, the UK, and Montenegro. In addition to this, she has been working for several organisations as an analyst and advisor, and has considerable experience of all issues relating to hybrid and grey zone warfare. Throughout her career, Maria specialised in the analysis of military thought and grand strategy, and strategic influence and statecraft. Her specific interest has been focused on improving contextual situational awareness, finding (qualitative and quantitative) patterns in conflict, including patterns of state and non-state actor behaviour, and the development of early warning systems. Together with the foregoing, her academic interests include the modelling of reflexive control theory. Maria has a BA degree in European Studies, with a specialism in diplomacy, from The Hague University and an MSc degree in Crisis and Security Management from Leiden University.

Dr Milo Jones joins us this week on The Value Perspective. Currently a Visiting Fellow at the Changing Character of War Centre, Pembroke College, Oxford, a Visiting Professor at IE in Madrid, and an adjunct professor at Imperial College Business School, London. Before all this, he also served as a US Marine, a consultant, and an archaeologist.  Milo focused his PHD dissertation on decision making in intelligence communities which lead to his book, Constructing Cassandra: Reframing Intelligence Failure at the CIA, 1947–2001, which caught our eye. Milo speaks with Juan and Emily on decision making in intelligence communities, the importance of cognitive diversity and his participation in a super forecasting competition.    NEW EPISODES: We release main series episodes every two weeks on Mondays. You can subscribe via Podbean or use this feed URL (https://tvpschroders.podbean.com/feed.xml) in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and other podcast players. GET IN TOUCH: send us a tweet: @TheValueTeam  Important information. This podcast is for investment professionals only. This information is not an offer, solicitation or recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or to adopt any investment strategy. Any data has been sourced by us and is provided without any warranties of any kind. It should be independently verified before further publication or use. Third party data is owned or licenced by the data provider and may not be reproduced, extracted or used for any other purpose without the data provider's consent. Neither we, nor the data provider, will have any liability in connection with the third party data. Reliance should not be placed on any views or information in the material when taking individual investment and/or strategic decisions. Any references to securities, sectors, regions and/or countries are for illustrative purposes only. The views and opinions contained herein are those of individual to whom they are attributed, and may not necessarily represent views expressed or reflected in other communications, strategies or funds. The value of investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and investors may not get back the amounts originally invested. Exchange rate changes may cause the value of any overseas investments to rise or fall. Past Performance is not a guide to future performance and may not be repeated. The forecasts included should not be relied upon, are not guaranteed and are provided only as at the date of issue. Our forecasts are based on our own assumptions which may change   These many hats have resulted in Milo 

Dr Iacovos Kareklas, Visiting Fellow at the Changing Character of War Centre (CCW), presents a strongly argued thesis that there is a legal and moral right to unilateral humanitarian intervention which dates back to the Peloponnesian War. The presented paper adopts a fresh approach on unilateral humanitarian intervention, and purports to demonstrate that, in certain cases, not only is permissible, but also legally and morally imperative. This academic venture is predominantly based on authoritative state practice, which in the view of the author should constitute reliable international legal custom, as well as theoretical groundwork; namely the well-established notion that violation of human rights necessitates intervention for the restoration of moral order, and applicable theories of deterrence (and just retribution) rendering humanitarian military intervention unobjectionable on grounds of the possibility of imminent humanitarian catastrophes. Iacovos Kareklas got his B.A. and M.A. Degrees (Honours) in Law from Cambridge University, Magdalene College. He holds a Ph.D. in International Law from London University (London School of Economics and Political Science). He specialized in all fields of Public International Law and every aspect of the Cyprus problem. He conducted sustained and in depth research in the United Kingdom Foreign Office Archives with regard to the critical phases of the Cyprus Question. In the academic year 2003-2004 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Government, Harvard University. He did postdoctoral studies in International Relations Theory with special reference to the Use of Military Force under the worldwide distinguished political scientist, Professor Stanley Hoffmann. At Harvard, he also taught the course Classical Theories of International Relations. In the year 2004-2005, Dr. Kareklas was appointed Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. In 2006 and 2007 he was elected Fellow of the Faculty of Law in the University of Oxford, where he specialized in the Philosophy of Law. From 2013 to 2020 he was Associate Professor at the European University Cyprus, where he taught Public International Law, Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law, and International Politics. He spent a year as researcher in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICS) of London (2001-2002), the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (2003), the Oxford Centre for Criminology (2006), and has been a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Iacovos is the author of numerous books and articles in the fields of his specialization. His latest book entitled Thucydides on International Law and Political Theory was published in New York by Rowman and Littlefield: Lexington Books, in 2020. As a Visiting Research Fellow at CCW, he is conducting further research on the Law of War with emphasis on military humanitarian intervention.

A discussion on the need for the UN to refocus its mission and retool itself to address increased incidence of intra-State conflict. Raja Karthikeya is a Political Affairs Officer in the United Nations Secretariat supporting the General Assembly's deliberations on the Middle East. He has previously served with UN special political missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and led the Global Programme on Preventing Violent Extremism at the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism where he supported governments across Asia and Africa in developing inclusive policies to counter violent extremism. His work has included engaging civil society and youth to ensure inclusive political negotiations, facilitation of national unity government formation efforts, and design of transitional justice mechanisms. As part of his personal efforts to raise awareness about the peace & security dimension of climate adaptation, he crossed the Arctic and Antarctic circles in 2018. Prior to the UN, he has worked with international affairs thinktanks and has published widely on public policy challenges. Please note that Raja was speaking in his personal capacity as a visiting fellow at CCW and his comments do not reflect any position of the UN.

Released 24 January, 2022. Critics of the Afghan war have claimed it was always unwinnable. This article argues the war was unwinnable the way it was fought and posits an alternative based on the Afghan way of war and the US approach to counterinsurgency in El Salvador during the final decade of the Cold War. Respecting the political and military dictates of strategy could have made America's longest foreign war unnecessary and is a warning for the wars we will fight in the future. Click here to read the article. Episode Transcript: Stephanie Crider (Host) Welcome to Decisive Point, a US Army War College Press production featuring distinguished authors and contributors who get to the heart of the matter in national security affairs. Decisive Point welcomes Dr. Todd Greentree, a former US Foreign Service officer who served as a political military officer in five conflicts, including El Salvador and Afghanistan. He's a member of the Changing Character of War Center at Oxford University and teaches in the Global and National Security Policy Institute at the University of New Mexico. Greentree is the author of "What Went Wrong in Afghanistan," featured in Parameters winter 2021-2022 issue. Welcome, Todd. I'm so glad you're here. Let's talk about your article. Some people would argue the Afghan war was unwinnable. You assert it was unwinnable the way it was fought. What do you mean by that? Dr. Todd Greentree Thank you, Stephanie. Great to be here. The idea that it was unwinnable the way it was fought is really tied to the purpose, sort of the reason why I was writing it, which is not just about what went wrong in Afghanistan, what lessons can be derived about counterinsurgency. This is really an article about US strategic behavior. Afghanistan was my fifth war. And I like to write what I know. So really, the origin of the article is from my own story. I   got the idea that we were maybe not doing this right, sort of when I stepped off the helicopter at Bagram in 2008. My first war had been El Salvador in the early 1980s. And so everything I learned were all from guys who had been in Vietnam. There's more about that in the article. For the next four years, though, I served with people who were…most of the people were from the 9/11 generation, and I was a political adviser to combat units out in the field and was super impressed with the astuteness that everybody was showing. So first, I was in Regional Command East, where General Mark Milley was the deputy commander for operations. But there was a problem with the entire effort in Afghanistan. We were on economy of force. But that economy of force was not being exercised for a strategic purpose, just to minimize the cost, because Iraq had sucked up all the attention and the bulk of the resources. Then I moved to Regional Command South into Taliban home country, and they had been raging there since 2006. It took three years for the US to adapt. I came back to Kandahar in 2010, at the height of the surge, with the 10th Mountain Division. They were in command of Regional Command South. And this was the main effort at the height of the surge. It was a strong coalition team. They knew what to do, how to partner with the Afghan army. They took it seriously. They were serious about aligning political and military strategies, which was my part of this. The overall strategy of the US, by 2009, was coming into focus, we'd had Stan McChrystal's math, the idea, here's our most experienced Special Operations commander who had come to the realization, as had many of the SOF guys, that attrition generates more insurgents. This led to a shift in the understanding of focus on the population rather than exercising firepower. General Petraeus, following McChrystal with Field Manual 3-24 and counterinsurgency doctrine and all of that. The problem was that when Obama announced the surge, he time-limited at the same time, which was a strategically incorrect thing to do ...

Pulling out of Afghanistan was the top foreign policy event of 2021. Perhaps overlooked in the collective relief to be done with this twenty-year war is the fact that the US had to negotiate with terrorists to get there. In fact, it ceded an entire country to a violent, extremist group. Throughout history, leaders—including those from the US—have vowed never to negotiate with terrorists, but then reverse course. In this two-part episode, three scholars of history, international relations, and foreign policy discuss historic examples and the complexities of negotiating with violent—even murderous—groups.While part 1 explores the caveats of labeling a group “terrorist,” part 2 addresses how to negotiate with terrorists without legitimizing their methods or ideology, and address what happens to a nation's reputation when they give in, give up, or back down in the face of extremist groups. If the US is willing to negotiate with the Taliban, should it also be open to negotiating with Hamas or ISIS or Al-Qaeda? Jytte Klausen points out that if the demands of the adversaries are reasonable and pragmatic, there is usually an opportunity to work together, the operative word being “if.” Annette Idler describes the successful negotiations with the FARC in Colombia as an example of careful planning and evaluation before the actual talks, and emphasizes the importance of understanding the attitudes, opinions and experiences of local citizens in a conflict zone.The concern that negotiating with groups that use terror and violence will somehow encourage or legitimize their methods does not bear out, according to Fredrik Logevall. He compares the US retreat from Vietnam to that of Afghanistan and finds fascinating similarities, but also key differences, such as lack of public engagement on the latter.Non-state armed groups are part of the new global security picture, Klausen believes, and she highlights regions that are volatile today, such as India/Pakistan/Kashmir. We should not underestimate the importance of Afghanistan in regional stability, she warns. Since extremists groups are likely here to stay, Idler describes a multilevel approach to incorporating non-state actors into foregin policy strategies.Host:Erin Goodman, Director, Weatherhead Scholars Program.Guests:Annette Idler, Weatherhead Center Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead Scholars Program. Director, Global Security Programme, Pembroke College, Oxford University. Jytte Klausen, Lawrence A. Wien Professor of International Cooperation, Brandeis University.  Fredrik Logevall, Weatherhead Center Faculty Associate. Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School; Professor of History, Department of History, Harvard University. Producer/Director:Michelle Nicholasen, Editor and Content Producer, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.Related Links:Transforming the War on Drugs: Warriors, Victims and Vulnerable Regions edited by Annette Idler and Juan Carlos Garzón Vergara (Hurst, 2021)The Changing Character of Conflict PlatformCONPEACEJytte Klausen's Western Jihadism ProjectWestern Jihadism: A Thirty Year History by Jytte Klausen (Oxford University Press, 2021)JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956 by Fredrik Logevall (Penguin Random House, 2021)“How to Talk to Terrorists” by Jonathan Powell (The Guardian, October 2014)Follow the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs:WCFIA WebsiteEpicenter WebsiteTwitterFacebookSimplecastSoundcloudVimeo

Pulling out of Afghanistan was the top foreign policy event of 2021. Perhaps overlooked in the collective relief to be done with this twenty-year war is the fact that the US had to negotiate with terrorists to get there. In fact, it ceded an entire country to a violent, extremist group. Throughout history, leaders—including those from the US—have vowed never to negotiate with terrorists, but then reverse course. In this two-part episode, three scholars of history, international relations, and foreign policy discuss historic examples and the complexities of negotiating with violent—even murderous—groups.Part 1 explores the caveats of labeling a group “terrorist.” Jytte Klausen explains the importance of having an internationally recognized designation, while Annette Idler notes that labels can be used for political reasons such as to garner aid or rally public support. Using Indochina and the Viet Cong as examples, Fred Logevall sheds light on early terrorist tactics. Sometimes violent groups evolve into conventional political actors, as did Sinn Fein, the political faction of the IRA, or the FARC in Colombia. (A few days after this recording the Biden Administration took FARC off the State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations because it no longer engages in violence.) From Nixon, Reagan, and Thatcher to leaders in Spain, Turkey, and China: many heads of state have taken an absolutist position against working with violent groups, only to renege on that promise later. Our scholars discuss why leaders change their minds, and how timing can be a critical factor in determining when conditions are ripe for productive talks.Part 2 takes up the questions of how to negotiate with terrorists without legitimizing their methods or ideology, and what happens to a nation's reputation when they give in, give up, or back down in the face of extremist groups.Host:Erin Goodman, Director, Weatherhead Scholars Program.Guests:Annette Idler, Weatherhead Center Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead Scholars Program. Director, Global Security Programme, Pembroke College, Oxford University. Jytte Klausen, Lawrence A. Wien Professor of International Cooperation, Brandeis University.  Fredrik Logevall, Weatherhead Center Faculty Associate. Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School; Professor of History, Department of History, Harvard University. Producer/Director:Michelle Nicholasen, Editor and Content Producer, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.Related Links:Transforming the War on Drugs: Warriors, Victims and Vulnerable Regions edited by Annette Idler and Juan Carlos Garzón Vergara (Hurst, 2021)The Changing Character of Conflict PlatformCONPEACEJytte Klausen's Western Jihadism ProjectWestern Jihadism: A Thirty Year History by Jytte Klausen (Oxford University Press, 2021)JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956 by Fredrik Logevall (Penguin Random House, 2021)“How to Talk to Terrorists” by Jonathan Powell (The Guardian, October 2014)Follow the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs:WCFIA WebsiteEpicenter WebsiteTwitterFacebookSimplecastSoundcloudVimeo

No programa de hoje, Luis Felipe Herdy e o professor de Relações Internacionais e historiador Márcio Scalercio conversaram sobre a vida, o contexto histórico e a obra do militar e filósofo prussiano Carl Von Clausewitz. Apresentamos quem foi Clausewitz e a influência do Iluminismo e da Revolução Francesa em seu pensamento. Também abordamos a definição de guerra de Clausewitz e especificamos aspectos importantes de seu projeto teórico, como o papel da política, a dupla natureza da guerra, a trindade da guerra, a diferença entre elementos universais e características momentâneas, os conceitos de acaso e fricção, o papel do ser humano e a diferença entre a guerra teórica e a prática. Ainda, discutimos possíveis comparações a Maquiavel, críticas à obra de Clausewitz e sua aplicação nos dias de hoje. Apresentação: Luis Felipe Herdy Entrevistado: Márcio Scalercio Produção: Heitor Loureiro Edição: 20 a 20 Feed: http://onomedissoemundo.com/feed/podcast/ Streaming: Spotify — Booking — Reserve seu hotel pelo Booking.com. — Links — ONDE Política #029 - Games ONDE Política #021 - Maquiavel, a política e o Brasil Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa sobre o Oriente Médio On War | Amazon.com.br Clausewitz: A Very Short Introduction: 61 | Amazon.com.br Construtores da Estratégia Moderna - TOMO I - BIBLIEx (eb.mil.br) The Changing Character of War - YouTube René Girard: O Sentido da História - Clausewitz e Napoleão - YouTube Pensar a guerra, clausewitz | Estante Virtual ‪Domício Proença Júnior‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬ Apoia.se do ONDEM Grupo do ONDEM no Facebook Telegram do ONDEM Você pode entrar em contato com a gente pelo Twitter, Instagram e Facebook. Para não perder nenhum episódio, assine o podcast no iTunes, no seu agregador de podcast preferido ou no Spotify. Para apoiar o ONDEM, acesse apoia.se/ondem e contribua com nosso projeto.

Episode 51:This week we're continuing our reading of Women, Race & Class by Angela Y. Davis.The full book is available online here:https://archive.org/details/WomenRaceClassAngelaDavisContent warnings for this week:RapeLynching[Part 1 - 2]1. THE LEGACY OF SLAVERY: STANDARDS FOR A NEW WOMANHOOD[Part 3]2. THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT AND THE BIRTH OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS[Part 4 - 5]3. CLASS AND RACE IN THE EARLY WOMEN'S RIGHTS CAMPAIGN (first half)[Part 6]4. RACISM IN THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT[Part 7]5. THE MEANING OF EMANCIPATION ACCORDING TO BLACK WOMEN[Part 8]6. EDUCATION AND LIBERATION: BLACK WOMEN'S PERSPECTIVE[Part 9]7. WOMAN SUFFRAGE AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY: THE RISING INFLUENCE OF RACISM[Part 10]8. BLACK WOMEN AND THE CLUB MOVEMENT[Part 11]9. WORKING WOMEN, BLACK WOMEN AND THE HISTORY OF THE SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT[Part 12]10. COMMUNIST WOMEN• Lucy Parsons - 06:58• Ella Reeve Bloor - 13:05• Anita Whitney - 20:31[Part 13]10. COMMUNIST WOMEN• Elizabeth Gurley Flynn• Claudia Jones[Part 14]11. RAPE, RACISM AND THE MYTH OF THE BLACK RAPIST- First half[Part 15 - This Week]11. RAPE, RACISM AND THE MYTH OF THE BLACK RAPIST- Second half - 00:44[Part 16 - 17]12. RACISM, BIRTH CONTROL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS[Part 18-19]13. THE APPROACHING OBSOLESCENCE OF HOUSEWORK: A WORKING-CLASS PERSPECTIVEFootnotes:36) 01:06Ibid., p. 501.37) 01:52Ibid.38) 02:30Ibid.39) 04:16Ibid., p. 502.40) 04:45Collins, op. cit., p. 58.41) 05:38Gager and Schurr, op. cit., p. 163.42) 05:52Ibid.43) 07:00Wells-Barnett, On Lynching, p. 59.44) 08:12Foner, The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Vol. 4, p. 503.45) 09:15Ibid, p. 499.46) 10:19Lynchings and What They Mean, General Findings of the Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching (Atlanta: 1931), p. 19.47) 11:08Quoted in Lerner, Black Women in White America, pp. 205–206.48) 11:20Franklin and Starr, op. cit., p. 67.49) 11:46Wells-Barnett, On Lynching, p. 57.50) 12:48Ibid., p. 8.51) 13:48Wells, Crusade for Justice, p. 149.52) 14:26Ralph Ginzburg, One Hundred Years of Lynchings (New York: Lancer Books, 1969), p. 96.53) 15:46Wells, Crusade for Justice, p. 63.54) 15:57See Chapter 8.55) 17:01Wells, Crusade for Justice, p. 218.56) 17:41Lerner, Black Women in White America, pp. 205–211.57) 18:27Ibid., p. 215.58) 19:06See Jessie Daniel Ames, The Changing Character of Lynching, 1931–1941 (New York: AMS Press, 1973).59) 19:31Ibid., p. 19.60) 20:24White, op. cit., p. 3.61) 22:23Ames, op. cit., p. 64.62) 24:09White, op. cit., p. 159.63) 24:56Foner, Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Vol. 4, p. 496.64) 25:49Brownmiller, op. cit., p. 255.65) 27:39Ibid., pp. 248–249.66) 28:41Ibid., p. 237.67) 28:59Ibid., p. 233.

Telos Editor David Pan talks with Jay Gupta, Mark G.E. Kelly, and Timothy W. Luke about the changing character of the public sphere.

Lord John Alderdice gives a talk for the Changing Character of War seminar series.

Oscar Jonsson, Stockholm Free World Forum, gives a talk for the Changing Character of War Programme.

Sara Polo, University of Essex, gives a talk for the Changing Character of War seminar series.

Ricardo Nogales gives a talk for the Changing Character of War seminar series.

About the Book: A path-breaking work on Chinese global strategy, China's Vision of Victory brings the reader to a new understanding of China's grand-scale planning and ambitions. From seabed to space, from Africa to the Antarctic, from subsurface warfare to the rise of China's global corporations, this book illuminates the greatest challenge of our lifetimes – the Chinese Communist Party's ambition to end the American-led world and to bring about a century defined by Chinese power. China's Vision of Victory a is landmark book on Chinese global strategy. It brings together numerous primary sources, both contemporary and historical, unveiling the grand strategic vision of China's leaders, laying out the ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party and their project for the creation of a new world order, built on the ‘resurrection' of China's supremacy among nations. China's leaders envision a turning point in history, the breaking up of the American-led global order, and the vanquishing of American power in the Pacific and beyond. Only when China has returned to its seat at the head of all nations, both in Asia and around the world, as the supreme power of the 21st Century, can the ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation' as China's leaders call it, then be complete. About the Speaker: Dr. Jonathan D. T. Ward is the Founder of Atlas Organization, a consultancy focused on the rise of China and India, the new geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, and US-China global competition. He completed his D.Phil. at Oxford in China-India relations and has traveled widely throughout China, India, and the Indo-Pacific Region. Dr. Ward has consulted for the Pentagon on Chinese long-term strategy and began studying Chinese global strategy, the Indian Ocean Region, and Maritime Asia for Oxford Analytica, the UK's leading political risk consultancy. Dr. Ward's travels in the Indo-Pacific include traversing the South China Sea on an Indonesian cargo ship, hitch-hiking with truck drivers in the China-India Himalayan border regions, and getting stuck on a mountaintop in the Strait of Hormuz during travels with Omani fishermen in the Persian Gulf. As an undergraduate, Jonathan studied Philosophy, Russian, and Chinese language at Columbia University. He speaks Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic and has lived in Russia, China, India, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. Dr. Ward is a member of the 2018 Next Generation National Security Leaders Fellowship program at the Center for a New American Security. He is a frequently invited speaker for public and private audiences in the United States, Europe, and Asia, on China, India, and the Indo-Pacific. He is also a Research Associate at the University of Oxford's Changing Character of War Programme.

Within the context of modernity and globalisation, this research project investigates the processes by which governance arises in territories subjected to illicit forms of social order that contest state sovereignty and authority. Within the context of modernity and globalisation, this research project investigates the processes by which governance arises in territories subjected to illicit forms of social order that contest state sovereignty and authority. Drawing from recursive theoretical and empirical research rooted in the ‘abductive' method of Pragmatism, the analysis has three principal objectives: First, it offers a different conceptual approach by moving away from negative categorisation of the phenomena, e.g. failed states, ungoverned spaces, limited statehood etc., towards a positive conceptualisation, i.e. illicit orders. By casting off the legal-rational, sovereign-territorial lens, the pursuant conceptual reconfiguration of territory, authority, and institutions recognises and more directly conveys the existence of local social organisation apart from the modern state via the agency of social groups acting in violation of domestic and/or international legal norms, rules, and institutions. Second, it seeks to explain the constitution of ‘illicit orders' by offering a sociologically-cognisant analytical framework capable of elucidating the ‘micro' processes inherent to governance in territories where state institutions remain nominal and ineffective. Based on insights from theoretically-informed empirical fieldwork in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I maintain that inter-subjective relations of authority can be produced when a given actor asserts predominance in three co-constitutive domains; namely, organised violence, socioeconomic security, and social legitimacy. Resultant authority then gives rise to the ‘structuration' of norms, rules, and institutions, which also recursively reinforces the institutionalisation of authority – a process inherent to the constitution of social order in these circumscribed territories. Third, it provides an understanding of how inherently local ‘illicit orders' at once form part of a diffuse mosaic of social, political, and economic structures that collectively constitute ‘global society', while simultaneously existing in dramatic juxtaposition to the ‘international order' of states within it. Dr Christopher Lilyblad is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Changing Character of War Centre. He returns to academic life after spending working at European Union Delegation in Cape Verde (2014-16), the Luxembourg Development Cooperation Agency – LuxDev (2016-2017), and Luxembourg's national NGO platform, the Cercle de Coopération (2017-2018). In October 2017, Dr Lilyblad was elected as Councillor in his native municipality of Betzdorf, Luxembourg.

Dr Katerina Tkacova, member of CCW, introduces the seminar series based on the CCW research project - Changing Character of Conflict Platform project: New approach to quantitative analysis of protracted conflicts. The interdisciplinary project aims to create a knowledge-based platform for academics, practitioners, policy-makers and the wider public to understand the changing character of conflicts across different epistemologies and methodologies. While we might not be able to stop some conflicts, we may well be able to prevent a drastic increase in casualties or erosion of social fabric if we understand the main patterns of organized violence. In our work, we focus on the following dimensions of conflict and the changes within them: actors involved in conflicts, methods used in conflicts, resources that drive conflicts, environments in which conflict takes place, the impact of conflict on individuals and societies. In the presentation, we introduce a new approach to quantitative analysis of protracted conflicts, which is one of the components of the project. Those conflicts often change their location, spread across borders and create new spin-off conflicts or escalate the old ones. To capture the dynamic and complexity of protracted conflicts, we draw new geographical units based on the activity of carefully identified relevant conflict actors. Using data from various sources including the Georeferenced Events Dataset (UCDP) and the PRIO-GRID (PRIO), we select important indicators to convene a comprehensive yet concise analysis which is designed to inform policy-makers involved in violence reduction and conflict reconciliation. The new approach to quantitative conflict analysis allows us to identify patterns of changes in time and space in the five dimensions of conflicts – actors, methods, resources, environments and impact. Katerina Tkacova is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Changing Character of Conflict Platform at the University of Oxford since May 2018. Before joining the University of Oxford, Katerina taught at the University College London, King's College and the University of Essex. Her teaching experience ranges from Quantitative Methods, Comparative Politics and Conflict Analysis. Katerina's research interests include political violence, ethnic groups and quantitative research methods.

Professor Anthony King gives a talk for the Changing Character of War seminar series. Command has long been a major concern for military historians and security studies scholars. Focusing on the divisional headquarters and specifically on staff procedure, the 'decision point', this paper analyses the transformation of command in the 21st century. It claims that in contrast to the 20th century, when forces institutionalised a relatively individualised system of command, command in the 21st century has become a highly professionalised and collectivise practice. Specifically, through devices like the Decision Point, staff play an increasingly important role in structuring and directing the decision-making process. Professor Anthony King is Professor in War Studies at the University of Warwick. He specialises in the study of the war and the armed forces and is particularly interested in the question of small unit cohesion. His most recent publications include The Combat Soldier: Infantry Tactics and Cohesion in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries (Oxford, 2013) and (ed.) Frontline: Combat and Cohesion in the Twenty-first Century (Oxford, 2015).

Dr Richard Connolly gives a talk for the Changing Character of War seminar series. After Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014, Western powers and their allies responded by imposing sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy. Richard Connolly, author of a forthcoming book on the subject, will discuss the impact of sanctions on targeted sectors, and how the response by policy-makers has shaped the development of political economy in Russia since 2014. Based on his findings, he will also consider how new US sanctions are likely to affect the Russian economy and how the Russian policy elite is likely to respond. Dr Richard Connolly is director of the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies at the University Birmingham and Senior Lecturer in political economy. His research and teaching are principally concerned with the political economy of Russia and Eurasia.

'Limited War' is one of the terms making a frequent appearance in the strategic studies, international relations, and military history realms over the last 70 years. What does 'Limited War' mean? When do we know we are in one? What unique problems arise when waging one? What are the problems with ending them? And what should states do to secure a lasting peace? Distinguished Vienna Diplomatic Academy Fulbright Professor Donald Stoker discusses these issues and others by drawing upon what he has learned researching the subject for his forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press. Donald Stoker, PhD, was Professor of Strategy and Policy for the US Naval War College's Monterey Program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, from 1999 until 2017. The author or editor of eight books, his Carl von Clausewitz: His Life and Work (Oxford University Press, 2014), is on the British Army professional reading list. His The Grand Design: Strategy and the US Civil War, 1861-1865 (Oxford University Press, 2010), won the prestigious Fletcher Pratt award, was a Main Selection of the History Book Club, and is on the US Army Chief of Staff's reading list. In 2016, he was a Fellow of the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford's Pembroke College. He is currently writing a book on limited war for Cambridge University Press and is the Fulbright Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, Austria. This event was part-sponsored by the US-UK Fulbright Commission

Is de-radicalisation of former terrorists helpful or even possible? This presentation explores the processes involved in leaving social movements or disengaging from terrorist activities. This presentation explores the processes involved in leaving social movements or disengaging from terrorist activities by providing an analysis of transformation away from politically motivated violence towards a civilian non-military role as part of the wider Northern Irish peace process amongst Loyalist and Republican paramilitary groups. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to gain an understanding of participant accounts of leaving violence behind and disengaging from terrorism. Analysis of the interview transcripts revealed the interplay of individual, organization and societal level processes in incentivizing and obstructing disengagement from politically motivated violence. The findings resonate with other case studies exploring the processes involved in disengagement from political violence among other terror groupings across the globe. The results are discussed in relation to a number of topics, including the implementation DDR in post-conflict societies, the dynamic role of collective identity in the engagement in and disengagement from politically motivated violence, the role of prison in shaping disengagement from politically motivated violence and whether the de-radicalization of former combatants is helpful or indeed possible. Neil Ferguson is Professor of Political Psychology at Liverpool Hope University and a Visiting Research Fellow to the Changing Character of War Programme at Pembroke College, Oxford.

A 'deliberately provocative' assessment of contemporary conflict. In 'The End of Peace and Optimism: Assessing the Changing Character of War', CCW Director Dr Rob Johnson discusses a broad range of subjects pertinent to understanding the evolution of modern war - from the changing impact of religion to the increasing centrality of the civilian dimension - and does so with reference to several competing disciplinary approaches.

Professor David Galbreath gives a talk for the Changing Character of War seminar series.