dev_gefcoral_org

Category: About

  • Editors and Associate Editors

    Editor

     
     Ben Zala

    Ben Zala is the Manager of the Sustainable Security Programme at the Oxford Research Group. He is also a PhD candidate in International Relations and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Birmingham and holds a Bachelor of International Relations with first class honours from La Trobe University, Melbourne. He has previously worked at Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) in the Energy, Environment and Development Programme and the La Trobe University Centre for Dialogue where he was also the editorial assistant for the scholarly journal Global Change, Peace and Security.  He has also previously worked for the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia). He has worked on security issues for a number of years and has published and spoken at conferences on issues of nuclear proliferation, arms control and disarmament and multilateral institutions.

     

    Associate Editors

     

    Chris Abbott

    Chris AbbottChris Abbott is a freelance writer and researcher and Executive Director of Open Briefing. He is an honorary Sustainable Security Consultant at Oxford Research Group, where he was the organisation’s Deputy Director and Director of their sustainable security programme until June 2009 (a programme he initiated in 2006 and remains on the advisory board for). During his time at ORG he founded SustainableSecurity.org and was the author or co-author of numerous sustainable security publications, including An Uncertain Future: Law Enforcement, National Security and Climate Change (ORG, 2008), Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World (Rider, 2007) and Global Responses to Global Threats: Sustainable Security for the 21st Century (ORG, 2006). Since leaving ORG he has been appointed as an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford and written a second book, 21 Speeches That Shaped Our World: The People and Ideas That Changed the Way We Think (Rider, 2010).

    Paul Rogers

    Paul RogersPaul Rogers is Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford and Global Security Consultant to Oxford Research Group. Much of the sustainable security analysis is based on three decades of Professor Rogers’ work in the field of international security, arms control and political violence. He lectures at universities and defence colleges in several countries and has written or edited 26 books, including Global Security and the War on Terror: Elite Power and the Illusion of Control (Routledge, 2008) and Losing Control: Global Security in the Twenty-first Century (Pluto Press, 2002). Paul is also a regular commentator on global security issues in both the national and international media, and is openDemocracy’s International Security Editor.

      

    John Sloboda

    John SlobodaJohn Sloboda is Director of Oxford Research Group’s Recording Casualties in Armed Conflict programme. He is also Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Keele, and an Honorary Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London. Since 2003, he has been co-director of the Iraq Body Count project. He is the co-author of Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World (Rider, 2007) and Global Responses to Global Threats: Sustainable Security for the 21st Century (ORG, 2006). He undertakes regular speaking engagements, and is an occasional author for openDemocracy. In July 2004, John was elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy.

     

  • Sustainable Security

    Sustainablesecurity.org is space to debate, discuss and develop understandings of modern insecurity within a  ‘sustainable security’ framework, which realises the interconnected underlying drivers of challenges to global security and seeks to counter them with preventive policy solutions.

    The blog is a project of the Sustainable Security programme of Oxford Research Group, originally launched in September 2009, and re-launched with a new look in 2013.

    Sustainablesecurity.org is space to debate, discuss and develop understandings of modern insecurity within a  ‘sustainable security’ framework, which realises the interconnected underlying drivers of challenges to global security in the 21st century. Through topical discussion pieces, we aim to explore the integrated, preventive policies that are needed to solve these threats at source.

    As well as covering a range of pertinent modern security challenges, the website highlights four key interconnected drivers of global insecurity:

    Articles and resources are allocated to one or more of these headings, but the overall emphasis is on the interconnected nature of these threats and the need for comprehensive, multilateral approaches to them.

    The views and opinions discussed do not necessarily reflect the views of Oxford Research Group or the Remote Control project, which collaborates with us on the Remote Control Warfare series.

    Editorial Staff

    Alasdair McKay is the Communications Officer for ORG.

    Alasdair is available at [email protected]

  • Sustainable Security

    Sustainablesecurity.org is a project of the Sustainable Security Programme at Oxford Research Group (ORG). ORG, which is now based in two offices in London, is one of the UK’s leading of advocates for alternatives to global conflict. By combining in-depth political and technical expertise and experience in promoting serious analysis, dialogue and change, we develop alternative thinking on security issues.

    With 30 years of building trust between policy-makers, military and civil society and academics,  ORG works to address the toughest security questions using detailed research and drawing on deep understanding of how human beings behave. Our consultants combine detailed knowledge of global security issues together with a deep understanding of political decision-making, and many years of expertise in facilitating constructive dialogue.

    ORG is a registered charity, and a public company limited by guarantee under English law. It was first established in 1982 by Dr. Scilla Elworthy.  ORG, and its founder, was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003. The Independent newspaper named ORG as one of the top 20 think-tanks in the UK in 2005.

    The Sustainable Security Programme

    The programme aims to develop the sustainable security concept and promote it to a wide international audience, ensure that voices from the global South play a central role in its development, and define specific options for sustainable security policies. These aims are achieved via in-depth research, dialogues with analysts and decision makers and providing new avenues for creative thinking and discussion on the real threats to global security in the 21st century.

    For more information, please click HERE

  • Sustainable Security

    Our expanding group of contributors comes from a wide range of specialist backgrounds, and includes researchers,  academics, security and development practitioners and NGO staff based around the world. Some of our most recent authors include:

    Chris Abbott
     Chris is the founder and executive director of Open Briefing, the world’s first civil society intelligence agency.  He is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Social and International Studies at the University of Bradford and the former deputy director of Oxford Research Group.

    Phillip Bruner
     Phillip is Founder of the Green Investment Forum and a guest lecturer in global political economy at the University of Edinburgh.

    Matt Budd
     Matt is a security analyst at RESDAL (Red de Seguridad y Defensa de America Latina – Latin American Security and Defense Network) in Buenos Aires, where he focuses on public security issues in Central America. Matt holds an honours degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics. Matt has most recently been working on RESDAL’s  Public Security Index, which provides information on public security challenges and institutional responses to them in Central America.

    Mabel González Bustelo
     Mabel is a journalist, researcher and international consultant specialized in international peace and security, with a focus on non-State actors in world politics, organized violence, conflict and peacebuilding. She has worked as a researcher on peace and security  in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Angola and the Palestinian territories and holds an MLitt in terrorism Studies from the University of St Andrews. Mabel blogs at The Making of War and Peace.

    David Cliff
     David Cliff works as a researcher at the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC) in London. There, his work focuses on research into the verification, implementation and compliance aspects of nuclear and chemical arms control and disarmament treaties. He holds a BA in Geography and an MA in International Affairs, both from the University of Exeter in the UK.

    Lisa Dittmar
     Lisa is the CEO and founder of NitrogenWise,  a website that brings together research and straightforward communication to explain the complexities of nitrogen in a meaningful and relevant way.

    Bernard Harborne
     Bernard Harborne is lead of the Violence Prevention Team in the World Bank, having joined in 2004. He has worked for over 20 years on conflict-affected countries for the UN, World Bank, NGOs and the British Government. He has a background in law, including a Masters in International Law from the LSE, and is an adjunct professor at George Washington University. Opinions expressed in his article represent his personal views and not those of the World Bank.

    Cameron Harrington
     Cameron  is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at King’s University College and Brescia University College, at Western University (Canada), where he teaches in the areas of environmental politics and international relations. His Ph.D thesisbuilds a framework to combat water insecurity in the 21st century by focusing on the ethics of security.

    Anna Alissa Hitzemann
     Alissa is a Peaceworker with Quaker Peace and Social Witness. In this capacity, she previously wortked with Oxford Research Group as a Project Officer for the Sustainable Security Programme, with a focus on the  ‘Marginalisation of the Majority World’ project.

    Andrew Holland
     Andy is Senior Fellow for Energy and Climate at American Security Project, a Washington D.C based think tank. He is an expert on energy, climate change, and infrastructure policy. He has over seven years of experience working at the center of debates about how to achieve sustainable energy security and how to effectively address climate change. He tweets regularly via @TheAndyHolland.

    Sarah Kinosian
     Sarah is a program associate for Latin America at the Center for International Policy, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington D.C. that promotes transparency and accountability in U.S. foreign policy and global relations. She works on their Just the Facts project, monitoring U.S. defense and security assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean.

    Jenny Nielsen
     Jenny Nielsen is a Research Analyst with the Non-proliferation and Disarmament Programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Previously, she was a Programme Manager for the Defence & Security Programme at Wilton Park and a Research Assistant for the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies (MCIS) at the University of Southampton. At MCIS, Jenny was tasked with the co-editing the 2004-2012 editions of the NPT Briefing Book. She holds a PhD from the University of Southampton which focused on US nuclear non-proliferation policy vis-à-vis Iran in the 1970s.

    Zoë Pelter
     Zoë is a Research Officer of Oxford Research Group’s (ORG) Sustainable Security Programme, where she works on a number of projects including ‘Rethinking UK Security and Defence’ and Sustainable Security and the Global South’.

    Edward Rackley
    Edward Rackley is a Security and Governance consultant for the World Bank, based in Washington DC. He provides periodic technical and strategic advice to the Security Sector Accountability and Police Reform Programme program  in Democratic Republic of Congo via DAI Europe, one of the program’s managing agents.

    Richard Reeve
     Richard  is the Director of Oxford Research Group’s Sustainable Security programme. He works across a wide range of defence and security issues and is responsible for the strategic direction of the programme. Richard has particular expertise in global security, Sub-Saharan Africa, peace and conflict analysis, and the security role of regional organisations.

    Rachel Staley
     Rachel Staley is currently the Programme Manager for the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) in their London office. Since 2011, Rachel has managed the operations of the office and assisted in developing the organisation’s programmes working on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament in the Middle East, as well as engaging directly in the Trident renewal debate in the United Kingdom. Rachel holds an MA with Distinction in Non-Proliferation and International Security from King’s College London and a BA with Honours in International Affairs and Anthropology from Northeastern University.

    Sonja Wolf 
    Sonja Wolf is a researcher at the Institute for Security and Democracy (INSYDE), Mexico City. She has acted as project coordinator and principal investigator of INSYDE’s Assessment Study of Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM), the first comprehensive study to examine the INM’s institutional and migration management and the ways in which it facilitates corruption and migrant abuse.

    Ben Zala
     Ben is a Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Leicester and former Director of the Sustainable Security Programme at Oxford Research Group.