Want To Listen

The introductory seminar to the Spring 2015 stugy group "Rethinking the Arab State: The Collapse of Legitimacy in Arab Politics" with Professor Michael C. Hudson, MEI Kuwait Program Visiting Scholar, Spring 2015 and Seif Ghobash Professor of Arab Studies and International Relations, Emeritus, Georgetown University.

"The Arab States in Crisis" with Michael C. Hudson — February 17, 2015

Robin Niblett discusses the difficulty of balancing national interest with human rights concerns, arguing that a Chinese state visit to the UK is arguably not the time for the UK to raise its objections, but that the Chancellor's trip to Xinjiang could have sent a stronger message about British human rights values.    

UK-China relations: Balancing national interest and human rights

Last month Dr David Hammond from the Institute for Economics and Peace taught a module at the War Studies Department titled 'Peace, Conflict, Quantitative Research and Big Data'. 
He answers the question of whether the world is becoming more violent, talks about how an average person can make sense of 'big data' to become a 'good data citizen' and whether data can be used to predict conflict.

Presented by Xenia Zubova 

DISCLAIMER: Any information, statements or opinions contained in this podcast are those of the individual speakers. They do not represent the opinions of the Department of War Studies or King's College London.



Big Data in Peace and Conflict

2016 U.S. Elections And The Future Of U.S. Military Forces

Religious Extremism In Africa

In this week's episode John talks to Prof. Erica Chenoweth of the University of Denver. In this interview Erica discusses a range of topics relating to her research and her influences. Included within this is a fascinating discussion of how Zlata's Diary had a huge influence on her career. 

Erica's career has focused on analysing political violence and its alternatives, and this is reflected in her discussion with John. 

As always if you want to see any of the research discussed in the show be sure to check out the Talking Terror webpage www.uel.ac.uk/Talking_Terror and to follow us on Twitter @TERCUEL and tweet at us using #TalkingTerror

Erica Chenoweth: Civil Resistance

In this week's episode John speaks to Paul Gill from the Department of Security and Crime Science at University College London. In this episode he talks about his research on lone actor terrorism, the Provisional IRA, applied security studies, and the psychology of terrorism. He also speaks about those pieces of research which influenced thinking about and approach to the study of terrorism.

In the episode Paul talks about the following pieces:

Research that has influenced Paul's career

Robert A. Fein, & Bryan Vossekuil (1999). Assassination in the United States: An operational study of recent assassins, attackers, and near-lethal approachers.

Jeff Victoroff (2005). The mind of the terrorist: A review and critique of psychological approaches.

John Horgan (2004). The psychology of terrorism.

Some of Paul's key research

Lethal Connections: The Determinants of Network Connections in theProvisional Irish Republican Army, 1970-1998. With Jeongyoon Lee, Karl Rethemeyer, John Horgan, and Victor Asal (2014)

Across the Universe? A Comparative Analysis of Violent Radicalization Across Three Offender Types with Implications for Criminal Justice Training and Education. A Report for the National Institute of Justice. With John Horgan, Noemie Bouhana, James Silver and Emily Corner (2016)

Lone-Actor Terrorists: A Behavioural Analysis. (2015)

Paul Gill: Lone Actor Terrorism

In today's episode John speaks to James Piazza, a Liberal Arts Professor of Political Science at The Pennsylvania State University.  He is the author of over 30 articles on terrorism, counterterrorism and political violence.  His research uses a quantitative, data-driven approach to examine the political, economic, social, institutional and religious-cultural forces that drive terrorist activity globally.  Some topics he has examined in his research include the relationship between poverty, socioeconomic factors and terrorism, terrorism and political regime type, human rights abuses and terrorism, minorities and terrorism, religion and terrorism, the drug trade and natural resources and terrorism.  His work has appeared in a variety of journals including the Journal of Politics, the American Political Science Review, International Organizations, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the Journal of Peace Science, International Studies Quartelry, Comparative Political Studies, Public Choice and Terrorism and Political Violence.  At Penn State, Piazza teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on terrorism.

The research discussed are:

Some research that has influenced Jim's career

Ervand Abrahamian (1989)  Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin. 

Robert Pape (2003) The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. 

Alan Krueger and Jitka Maleckova (2003)  Education, Poverty and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection.

Some of Jim's key research

Poverty, Minority Economic Discrimination and Domestic Terrorism. (2011)

Autocracies and Terrorism. With Matthew C. Wilson (2013)

Repression and Terrorism: A Cross-National Empirical Analysis of Types of Repression and Domestic Terrorism. (2017)

James Piazza: Repression and Terrorism

Dr. Jeffrey Stevenson Murer explores the problems of group violence, inter-communal conflict, and political terrorism through the lens of collective identity formation. Presently he is the Senior Lecturer on Collective Violence in the School of International Relations and a Research Fellow to the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews. In 2006, he edited with Professor Derek Reveron Flashpoints in the War on Terror, and has published in numerous journals including Terrorism and Political Violence, Journal for Terrorism Research, and the International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society.  His forthcoming book, Repeating Hate (Palgrave 2018), explores far-right political extremism and violence in Central Europe, and with Dr. Clare Bielby, he is the co-editor of another forthcoming volume Perpetrating Selves: Performing Identity, Doing Violence (Palgrave 2018).  As well as being a Scottish Institute for Policing Research Lecturer, in 2017 Murer became a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.

Some research that has influenced Jeffrey's career

Vamik Volkan (1988) The Need for Enemies and Allies: From Clinical Practice to International Relationships

Julia Kristeva (1991) Strangers to Ourselves 

Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein (1991) Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities 

Some of Jeffrey's key research

Understanding collective violence: The communicative and performative qualities of violence in acts of belonging (2014)

Ethnic Conflict: An Overview of Analyzing and Framing Communal Conflicts from Comparative Perspectives. (2012)

The Emergence of a Lumpen-consumerate: The Aesthetics of Consumption and Violence in the English Riots of 2011 (2015)

Constructing the Enemy-Other: Anxiety, Trauma and Mourning in the Narratives of Political Conflict. (2009)

Jeffrey Stevenson Murer: Understanding Collective Violence

In this week's episode John talks to Prof. John Horgan a Distinguished University Professor at the Global Studies Institute and Department of Psychology at Georgia State University. He has a PhD in applied psychology, and his research focuses on understanding psychological qualities of the pathways into, through, and out of terrorist behavior. His work is widely published, with books including The Psychology of Terrorism (published in over a dozen languages worldwide), Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland’s Dissident Terrorists; Walking Away from Terrorism, Leaving Terrorism Behind, and Terrorism Studies: A Reader. In 2017 he became Editor of the journal Terrorism and Political Violence and serves on the Editorial Boards of several further journals, including Legal and Criminological Psychology, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Journal of Strategic Security. He is a member of the Research Working Group of the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. He has held positions at the University of Massachusetts (Lowell), Penn State and the University of St. Andrews, UK. Professor Horgan’s research has been featured in such venues as The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Vice News, CNN, Rolling Stone Magazine, Nature, Scientific American and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Research that has influenced John's career

Max Taylor (1988). The Terrorist.

Paul Wilkinson and Alastair .M. Stewart (Eds.) (1987). Contemporary Research on Terrorism.

Joby Warrick (2015). Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS.

Some of John's key research

Psychology and Terrorism: Introduction tothe Special Issue. American Psychologist. (2017)

From Profiles to Pathways and Roots to Routes: Perspectives from Psychology on Radicalization into Terrorism. (2008)

Interviewing the Terrorists: Reflectionson Fieldwork and Implications for Psychological Research (2012)

John Horgan: The Psychology of Terrorism

Victor Asal currently serves as Chair of the Department of Public Administration and an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science. He received his PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park.  He is also, along with R. Karl Rethemeyer,  the co-director of the Project on Violent Conflict.  Dr. Asal is affiliated with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence. Dr. Asal’s   research focuses on the choice of violence by nonstate organizational actors as well as the causes of political discrimination by states against different groups such as sexual minorities, women and ethnic groups. In addition, Prof. Asal has done research on the impact of nuclear proliferation and on the pedagogy of simulations.  Asal has been involved in research projects funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, The Department of Homeland Security, The National Science Foundation, and The Office of Naval Research.   

Some research that influenced Victor's career.


Martha Crenshaw (1981). The Causes of Terrorism.

Mark Juergensmeyer (2003). Terror in the mind of God: The global rise of religious violence.

Ted Robert Gurr (2000). People vs. states.

Some of Victor's key research

The nature of the beast: Organizational structures and the lethality of terrorist attacks. With R. Karl Rethemeyer (2008)

Gender ideologies and forms of contentious mobilization in the Middle East. With Richard Legault, Ora Szeleky, and Jonathan Wilkenfeld (2013)

A Shot Not Taken: Teaching About the Ethics of Political Violence 1, 2. With Marcus Schulzke (2012)

Victor Asal: Teaching about Political Violence

April 10, 2018, was the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement. The Agreement is seen as the cornerstone of the existing peace in Northern Ireland. 

Our friends in the Anthill podcast interviewed a number of experts about the Agreement, it's key actors, and where it stands today. Within this podcast they interviewed a range of experts on this topic, including the Talking Terror host John Morrison.

The Good Friday Agreement: Anthill Podcast

Paul Taylor is a Professor of Psychology at Lancaster University, Professor of Human Interaction at Twente University, and director of the Centre for Evidence and Research on Security Threats (CREST).

He is interested in how people cooperate. Using experimental, archival and field research, he has studied both the fundamental behavioral and cognitive procsses that make human interaction possible and, more practically, the kinds of tactics and policies that promote peaceful resolutions.

Research that Influenced Paul

Abbott, A. (2001). Time matters: On theory and method. Chicago Press.

Canter, D. V., and Heritage, R. (1990). A multivariate model of sexual offence behaviour: developments in offender profiling. Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 1, 185-212.

King, G. (1997). A solution to the ecological inference problem: Reconstructing individual behavior from aggregate data. Princetown University Press.

Paul's Own Key Research

Donohue, W. A., & Taylor, P. J. (2003). Testing the role effect in terrorist negotiations. International Negotiation, 8, 527-547.

Jacques, K., & Taylor, P. J. (2013). Myths and realities of female-perpetrated terrorism. Law and Human Behavior, 37, 35-44.

Prentice, S., Taylor, P. J., Rayson, P., Hoskins, A., & O’Loughlin, B. (2011). Analyzing the semantic content and persuasive composition of extremist media: A case study of texts produced during the Gaza conflict. Information Systems Frontiers, 13, 61-73.

Taylor, P. J., Jacques, K., Giebels, E., Levine, M., Best, R., Winter, J., & Rossi, G. (2008). Analysing forensic processes: Taking time into account. Issues in Forensic Psychology, 8, 45-57.

Paul Taylor: Psychology of Terrorism

Alistair Burt MP is Minister of State for the Middle East at the Foreign &amp; Commonwealth Office. In a recent speech at Chatham House he launched a new report from the government's Stabilisation Unit on new approaches to resolving armed conflicts. Drawing on examples from conflicts as diverse as Libya and Colombia, the report explores how deal making and peace building can reduce conflicts around the world. Agnes spoke with Alistair after the speech to find out more. Despite the success and acclaim garnered by movements such as Time's Up and #MeToo, women's access to the global economy is still a major issue. From gender pay gaps to the lack of affordable childcare, in the majority of countries women are still greatly disadvantaged. The Gender and Growth Initiative at Chatham House seeks to develop policies for combatting these problems. In their first joint interview Agnes and Ben caught up with Stephane Dubois and Roxanne Bildan to discuss how the initiative is working with the G20 to drive change in this area.&nbsp; Read the speech:  Deal Making and Peace Building: a New Approach to Reducing Conflict Find out more:  Chatham House 2018 International Policy Forum on Gender-Inclusive Growth &nbsp;

Episode 11: New Approaches to Peace Building, and Gender-Inclusive Growth at the G20

Date of Publication: 05/10/2018

Description:

According to Jeff Colgan, Associate Prof at Brown University, ‘over the past 25 years, US foreign policy outcomes in the Middle East have gone from more or less acceptable to downright awful.’  Arguably, the most notable US foreign policy failure in the region was the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, but to this day, US success in the Middle East is further challenged by complex conflicts, including those in Afghanistan and Syria, and is also impacted by the presence of terrorist organizations within Middle Eastern states faced with instability. Due to undesirable and costly outcomes in the past, many in Washington DC have contemplated whether the US should withdraw from the Middle East. However, if the US were to withdraw, this decision could not only impact US national interests but also have security consequences for the Middle East.
 
On the 24th of September, the Department of War Studies and the Conflict, Security and Development Research Group welcomed Prof Colgan for his talk titled, Should the US Withdraw from the Middle East. But, before his talk, I met up with Prof Colgan and Dr Stacey Gutkowski, Senior Lecturer in the Dept of War Studies, for a general discussion on the headlining question posed by Prof. Colgan's talk. Let’s hear what they had to say.
____________________

A recording of Jeff Colgan's talk at KCL will be available soon!
____________________

This podcast was produced by Kirk Allen.

Podcast: Should the US withdraw from the Middle East?

Undercurrents is back for a second season!&nbsp; This week Agnes and Ben interview two leading academics from the worlds of International Relations and History. John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) discusses his new book,  The Great Delusion, on the rise and fall of liberal foreign policy. With China's rise and Russia's resurgence the world has returned to a zero-sum balance of power political system. John explains why he's glad to see the back of an era of western interventions, and how the US should respond to the new geopolitical reality.&nbsp; Margaret MacMillan (University of Toronto) is a renowned historian of the First World War, who gave the BBC Reith Lectures in 2018. A new special issue of International Affairs, guest-edited by Margaret, looks at the state of world politics today in comparison to the aftermath of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles. Ben and Agnes met with her to discuss why these comparisons can be useful, and how history is used and abused by politicians in the present.&nbsp; Find the book:  The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities Read the International Affairs special issue: World Politics 100 Years After the Paris Peace Conference Listen to the 2018 Reith Lectures: The Mark of Cain: War and Humanity &nbsp; Credits: Hosts: Ben Horton and Agnes Frimston Editors: Ben Horton and Agnes Frimston Sound Editor: Jamie Reed Record and produced at Chatham House, London

Episode 25: The End of Liberal Foreign Policy, and the Legacy of the Paris Peace Conference

This week Agnes and Ben meet with experts on China's economy and the history of UK relations with the gulf states.&nbsp; Yu Jie joins Ben to explain what's happening to the Chinese economy in 2019, and what's really driving the US-China trade war.&nbsp; Then Agnes discusses UK foreign policy in the Middle East with  David Wearing, drawing on his new book, Anglo Arabia.&nbsp; Read The World Today article: Marx and spenders Find the book:  Anglo Arabia: Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain

Episode 26: China's Economy, and UK Relations with Saudi Arabia

Date of Publication: 28/06/2019

Description:

Today, the state of human rights in China appears to be at its worse since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. According to Human Rights Watch, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to increase its hold over government bureaucracy and has subsumed state bodies in charge of religious, ethnic, and overseas Chinese affairs. Chinese authorities have also significantly increased repression and systematic abuse against religious groups, especially the Turkic Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, and have continued the arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearance of dissenters and human rights defenders. 
 
Human rights abuses on China’s mainland are very concerning, especially when considering this state’s place in global politics and economic relations. China’s growing power in the international system makes it an exporter of human rights abuse and has allowed China to extend its reach to silence many of its critics across the globe. However, dissenters and human rights defenders in China’s free, autonomous territories such as Hong Kong are obviously the communities that are most at risk of falling victim to human rights abuse by mainland China.

Earlier this month, we saw mass protests take place in Hong Kong in opposition to a now-suspended bill that would have allowed mainland China to extradite individuals from Hong Kong to stand trial. This bill would have removed any protection that the people of Hong Kong had from mainland China’s arbitrary and inhumane criminal justice system. On 16 June, nearly 2 million protesters took to the streets in Hong Kong to express their concerns and resistance to being subject to mainland China’s criminal justice system and successfully pressured leadership to suspend the bill.

In this edition of the War Studies Podcast, we asked Benedict Rogers, founder and chair of the human rights organization Hong Kong Watch, to tell us about the state of human rights in China and the recent protests in Hong Kong around the now suspended extradition bill.

Interviewee bio:

Benedict Rogers specialises in human rights in Asia. He is also co-founder and Chair of Hong Kong Watch. He is the author of six books, and a regular contributor to international media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, the Diplomat, The Catholic Herald, and The Huffington Post. and has appeared regularly on the BBC, CNN, Sky News and Al-Jazeera. He is the author of The Darkest Moment: The Crackdown on Human Rights in China 2013-2016. Benedict is a frequent speaker in universities, schools and conferences around the world. He has testified at hearings in the British Parliament, the US Congress, the European Parliament and the Japanese Parliament. He has a BA in History and Politics from Royal Holloway, University of London, and an MA in China Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Hong Kong Watch website: https://www.hongkongwatch.org/

War Studies Live Stream - China 30 Years After the Tiananmen Massacre (Ben Rogers): https://www.facebook.com/WarStudies/videos/783991868662508/

Podcast: Human Rights in China with Benedict Rogers

For decades women have been involved in terrorism, whether carrying out attacks or supporting organisations. They have been victims of terrorist acts, and many have also been involved in diverse aspects of security, including on the front lines with forces trying to reduce the threat from terrorism. 

The events of 9/11 triggered years of counter terrorist efforts by the USA and its global partners.  However, Dr Joana Cook, Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, says women were not adequately considered in the counter terrorist strategies developed since the events of 9/11, and this has created a major gap in how we understand and respond to terrorism today.

Podcast: Women in terrorism and counterterrorism since 2001

This week Ben takes a deep dive into the US-China economic competition over technology, and then discusses intelligence agencies in the Global South.&nbsp; Marianne Schneider-Petsinger from the Americas Programme and Yu Jie from the Asia-Pacific Programme explain their recent co-authored report on US-China strategic competition, and  Zakia Shiraz from the University of Leicester draws on her recent article in International Affairs to explore the culture and practice of intelligence agencies beyond the 'Five Eyes' alliance.&nbsp; Read the Chatham House Research Paper:  US-China Strategic Competition: The Quest for Global Technological Leadership Read the International Affairs article: Secrecy, spies and the global South: intelligence studies beyond the 'Five eyes' alliance

Want To Listen

Catherine Galley