Up until 2000 it was illegal in Britain to be LGBTQ+ and serve in the armed forces. If suspected of being gay, service personnel would be interrogated, imprisoned, dismissed in disgrace and stripped of their livelihoods, medals and ultimately their dignity Over 20 years on what was the impact of this ban on LGBTQ+ people in the armed forces? And what is being done to bring justice and support to those veterans who were suffered criminalisation and shame as a result of their sexuality? In this sp...
Feb 23, 2022•36 min
A century ago in 1922, British historian and strategist Sir Julian Corbett died. Sir Julian’s contribution as a historian places him amongst the great scholars and thinkers of military history and strategic studies, alongside the likes of theorist Carl Von Clauzwitz. This episode features Professor Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies, on his new book 'The British Way of War, Julian Corbett and the Battle for a National Strategy'. He talks to guest...
Feb 11, 2022•32 min
Once expected to guarantee the ‘salvation of mankind’, by ensuring a peaceful, healthy and prosperous global order, international organisations such as the UN, NATO, the EU have increasingly lost trust and legitimacy over recent decades. They are often accused of corruption, embezzlement, sexual scandals, poor and immoral performance, and their ability to take on pressing global challenges is compromised. Alongside this, a wave of populism, nationalism, and isolationism threatens the stability o...
Jan 28, 2022•38 min
“The USSR as a geopolitical reality and subject of international law has ceased to exist.” In December 1991, the Presidents of Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus came together in the forests of the Polish-Belarussian border to agree this statement. On Christmas Day two weeks later, the USSR, one of the world’s two super powers as well as a centuries-old Russian Empire was dissolved, with no large-scale violence, civil war or nuclear weapons. But what led to this seismic event in geo-politics? Was t...
Dec 15, 2021•54 min
What is climate engineering? How and why are certain shifting geoengineering policies engendering conflict? How do we differentiate between and prioritise the multitude of governance factors? How does funding affect the outcome of policy implementation and how are traditional concepts still being utilised, in tandem with more modern ideas. In the fifth and final episode of this five-part mini-series on Climate Change and National Security focuses on these challenges. Dr Duraid Jalili from the Ki...
Dec 13, 2021•37 min
Vulnerable nations are really feeling the negative effects and implications of climate change and the associated security repercussions. To what extent is climate change a security issue in vulnerable states? How are the coalitions between under-developed nations helping in the fight against climate change? What are the key issues and divisions in the approaches of the global north and south? Recorded just after COP 26, the fourth episode of this five-part mini-series on Climate Change and Natio...
Dec 08, 2021•39 min
Did British men and women react in the same way to the imminence of the Second World War? How did women feel about the Munich agreement - the notorious false dawn of ‘peace in our time’? Since they had been given the vote in 1928, women’s political power and influence was a matter of concern, coinciding in the 1930s with the deepening anxieties about the potential and increasing probability of another world war. In this episode we talk to Professor Julie Gottlieb, historian of modern British pol...
Nov 16, 2021•43 min
The three major powers at the centre of COP26 - China, India and the USA, have differing perspectives on the link between climate and security. Yet how does this impact their climate policy? What are the drivers behind the ways the different countries think about the relationship between security and the environment? How does this impact the vital cooperation needed to make COP 26 a success? Recorded just as COP 26 was getting underway, the third episode of this five-part mini-series on Climate ...
Nov 11, 2021•42 min
What's the UN's role in addressing the security risks of climate change? And what are the obstacles faced by UN bodies in meeting these challenges? In the second episode of this five-part mini-series on Climate Change and National Security, Dr Duraid Jalili from the King’s Environmental Security Research Group and Professor Matt McDonald from the University of Queensland, speak to Dr Lucile Maertens, Senior Lecturer at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. As a leading expert on the actions...
Oct 27, 2021•34 min
What did the British empire, it’s history and legacy mean for Britain’s fascists? And what does this tell us about where the radical right fits into the politics of race in Britain today? From the creation of the pro-Empire British Fascisti by Rotha Lintorn-Orman in the 1920s to Enoch Powell’s ominous Rivers of Blood speech in 1968, the language of white supremacy and imperialism has been on the lips and in the actions of the British Radical Right historically, and still permeates aspects of pol...
Oct 22, 2021•43 min
Throughout October and November we're bringing you the special podcast mini-series ‘Climate Change and National Security’, in the run up to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), hosted by the Environmental and Security Research Group in the School of the Security Studies. How do different states view the relationship between climate and security? Is there a best practice for climate security and a sense of momentum as we move into COP26? Should we be worried about the securi...
Oct 13, 2021•29 min
There is widespread agreement that world order is in transition. The Liberal International Order (LIO), established in the aftermath of World War II, is in decline. In the summer of 2008, just 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, China’s lavish opening ceremony at the Olympic Games in Beijing showed the world a ‘glorious civilisation’ with a desire to reconquer what was lost. Just a few weeks later, on 15 September, Lehman Brothers crashed, and the West was thrown into a deep financial cr...
Oct 05, 2021•41 min
Women’s efforts were indispensable in the Second World War effort, yet their stories are often missing from the general narratives. The nature of the job they did, the unabating dangers they faced and how they experienced the ups and downs of professional and personal war life, is still under-researched and under-reported. In this special episode we’re joined by Lucy Fisher, the Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Telegraph and author of a new book 'Women in the War: The Last Heroines of Britai...
Sep 09, 2021•38 min
Billions of dollars are spent every year on pacifying conflict zones by international organisations and NGOs. However, the past five years have seen the worst refugee crisis in the world since World War II, and conflicts continue to erupt despite unabated these massive peacekeeping missions. So why is the aid industry failing to deliver lasting peace and what can we instead? In a special episode of the podcast we talk to Professor Séverine Autesserre, professor of political science at Barnard Co...
Jul 15, 2021•44 min
There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world today in at least 20 countries. “At times I would cry while on the frontline, especially when I thought about my family. When I cried, my friends in the group would lock me up and tell me that I am no longer a child. I should not cry, when I see people dying.” These are the words of Timothy Sunday, a child forcibly recruited into armed conflict in the Liberian civil war in 2002. In this episode of the podcast we chat to Dr Sukanya Podder...
Jun 21, 2021•36 min
We’re only ever one hour away from full scale nuclear war, a war that would be absolutely catastrophic to human welfare, the economy and the environment. With the world’s nine nuclear-armed states and their allies continuing to spend over 70 billion US dollars a year on their nuclear arsenal, where to from here for nuclear disarmament and a more peaceful world? In this episode of the podcast we talk to Dr Lyndon Burford who believes the technology blockchain may have the answers. A data storage ...
Jun 09, 2021•42 min
The unsung heroes of World War Two risked everything to ensure naval manoeuvres were fulfilled and convoys, sending vital food and supplies to Britain, were safe. Much is left untold of the incredible logistics that were at play - crossing the inhospitable North Sea, escaping under fire and extricating hundreds of thousands of troops from Dunkirk beaches in just a few days. In this episode, Professor Malcolm Murfett, a visiting professor at the Department of War Studies, shares insights into nav...
May 17, 2021•39 min
The UK government's 2021 Integrated Review of security and defence outlines Russia as the "most acute threat to our security". This follows the rise of an increasingly resurgent and highly unpredictable Russia under Putin, with many in the West raising the spectre that Russia’s military actions are leading to a restoration of the former Soviet Union in a new shape and form. But how credible is this interpretation of Russian foreign policy over the last 30 years and how careful should we be befor...
Apr 28, 2021•44 min
Marx called it the 'glorious harbinger of a new society’, the Bolsheviks shrouded Lenin’s body in a Communard flag, and Mao Zedong claimed the events partly inspired the Cultural Revolution. The Paris Commune 1871 was one of the most significant revolutionary uprisings of the 19th century and after, and has captured imaginations for the last 150 years, inspiring communist leaders to the recent Gilet Jaune protests in France to a French fashion brand. In this special episode marking 150 years sin...
Apr 07, 2021•41 min
Are we entering a fifth era of biological warfare? One that does not depend on the existence of a manufactured biological weapon, but rather seeks to weaponise fake news and disinformation to undermine public health efforts? As we move beyond the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, we talk to Rose Bernard, doctoral researcher in global health security, in the Conflict and Health Research Group in the Department of War Studies. She believes the deluge of fake news that accompanied the coronaviru...
Mar 18, 2021•46 min
“The efficiency of the RAF was maintained and often increased [in WW2] because of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, especially in helping to win the Battle of Britain.” In this special episode, celebrating International Women’s Day 2021, we speak to Sarah-Louise Miller, a doctoral candidate in the Department of War Studies, about her research on the incredible intelligence work conducted by the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAF) during WW2, and how their work set a precedence for women’s roles in ...
Mar 05, 2021•38 min
“Seeing the carnage outside beamed instantly into my living room via satellite TV really drove home the realisation that I was indeed witnessing the first fully mediatised war.” In special episode marking 30 years since the end of the 1990-91 Gulf War, Dr Carool Kersten, Reader in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World at King’s College London, who was based in Saudi Arabia during the conflict, joins us to share his unique perspective on the events. We discuss how this largely “forgotten war”, ...
Feb 25, 2021•42 min
"Only a week earlier I’d been pushing my daughter on a swing in England, within a few days I was also already playing my part in shaping the Balkans’ newest independent country.” In this podcast Ade Clewlow MBE, former British Army Officer and alumnus of the Defence Studies Department at King’s discusses his new book ‘Under a Feathered Sky’, a unique, first-hand account of his work on the ground supporting NATO in 2009 during one of the most profound periods of change in Kosovo’s turbulent histo...
Feb 10, 2021•46 min
In just four short years the Trump administration overturned the foundational national narrative of American exceptionalism – the US’ reputation as global exemplar and promoter of democracy. Far from drawing distinctions between the US and authoritarian states like Russia, he tried to show equivalence, marking a start contrast with every one of his predaceous since the end of the Cold War. As Biden’s first week as 46th President of the United States draws to a close, Dr Ruth Deyermond, Senior Le...
Jan 29, 2021•49 min
Who were the shadowy figures and unsung heroes that lay behind the extraordinary story of the Norwegian resistance during World War II? What were the extreme conditions they worked under? And how did they contribute to major allied intelligence-gathering operations, including helping to stall German efforts in producing atomic bombs? In this episode we speak to Dr Tony Insall, Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, on his rece...
Jan 20, 2021•33 min
‘We are telling a story as great as that of the Bible’, wrote Tony Essex to Gordon Watkins in 1964. These television producers had been given the opportunity of a lifetime - to bring to life the first major multi-episode television documentary on the Great War for the 50th anniversary. In this episode, we talk to Dr Peter Busch, historian and expert in propaganda and strategic communication, about how the ‘Great War’ made TV history and transformed historical documentaries going forwards. He dis...
Jan 08, 2021•39 min
In the final episode of our special three-part series celebrating 20 years since resolution 1325 was passed by the UN Security Council on Women, Peace and Security, we take a look at how we can help shape reform in moving Global North policy, dominating WPS, to more grassroots and how we can push the agenda in communities of the Global South. Although the WPS agenda has led to significant changes in the way women are considered in times of conflict and peace-brokering activities, there are still...
Dec 16, 2020•44 min
How do secular Jewish Israeli millennials feel about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? How has coming of age during a series of wars, in which many of them fought, and the shadow of the failed Oslo Peace Process impacted this generation? Why have their attitudes changed so significantly since their parents’ youth, that they no longer believe in a two state solution and see Occupation as ‘reasonable if regrettable’? In this episode we talk to Dr Stacey Gutkowski, Senior Lecturer in Conflict Studi...
Dec 04, 2020•43 min
In the second episode of our three-part series celebrating 20 years of Women, Peace and Security (WPS), we look at the escalating threat that private companies, hired to provide military and security services, pose to the rights of women and minorities in conflict settings. This privatisation of war can have incredibly damaging consequences. Private companies often occupy a murky territory outside the legal frameworks of states and international organisations, meaning human rights abuses, includ...
Nov 26, 2020•41 min
In 2001 Tony Blair introduced what would become a controversial, expensive and ultimately disastrous policy programme to stamp out the drugs trade in Afghanistan in just ten years. Dr Philip Berry, Lecturer in War Studies, joins us to discuss his new book, ’The War on Drugs and Anglo-American Relations: Lessons from Afghanistan’, which reveals the inside story on the Blair Government's mission to destroy opium production at source. We explore why counter-narcotics became such a key foreign polic...
Nov 12, 2020•36 min
