David Davies of Llandinam Research Fellowship

• 

  As DINAM Fellow, Teona is pursuing research on EU foreign policy towards Eastern Europe and on the political and security implications of Russia’s war against Ukraine for the EU, NATO and the Black Sea region.

  Teona is a former Georgian diplomat with over eleven years of experience (2010-2021). She has worked on multilateral diplomacy and conflict resolution as acting director of the Department of International Organisations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as part of the Georgian delegation to the Geneva International Discussions. Subsequently, as deputy head of the Mission of Georgia to the European Union, Teona has focused on Georgia’s European integration priorities, in particular political and security affairs, the conclusion of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement and visa liberalisation. From Brussels she moved to Paris, where she served as chargée d’affaires and deputy ambassador of Georgia to France.

  In 2021, Teona joined the Florence School of Transnational Governance (STG) at the European University Institute (EUI) where, as a policy fellow, she has been working on political reforms in Eastern Europe, the implications of Russia’s war against Ukraine for neighbouring countries and the future of European security order.

  Teona holds a PhD in Political Science and a Master’s degree in European Studies from Sciences Po, Paris, as well as Master’s degrees in International Relations from the University Panthéon-Assas Paris II and Tbilisi State University (TSU). As a PhD exchange scholar, she spent an academic year at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in the United States. Teona has also lectured on Conflict Resolution at TSU.

  Profile

• 

  Mariia Zolkina is a Ukrainian Researcher and Political Analyst working in the fields of regional security, reintegration policies in occupied territories and wartime diplomacy. Since 2014 she has been producing expertise on the political component of Russo-Ukrainian war, especially regarding the Donbas region, and has analysed the socio-political implications of the conflict both at the national and international levels. Mariia has rich experience in designing and conducting public opinion polls regarding conflict-related issues, including in frontline areas. She has been working as Head of Regional Security and Conflict Studies at one of most authoritative Ukrainian think tanks, the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF), and is Co-Founder of the Kalmius Group.

  Mariia has authored a number of policy papers and publications that appeared in prominent Ukrainian and international mass media. She also served as an external consultant to the Ministry for informational policy of Ukraine (testing Strategy of informational reintegration of Donbas), and the Governmental Office for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine. In 2022 she was invited as an external expert on the Russian aggression against Ukraine to cover live news production for Al Jazeera Arabic TV Channel. Ms Zolkina is also a frequent contributor to other international media.

  Watch Mariia's DINAM Ukraine Discussion series- a four-part online discussion series in which highly distinguished experts offer critical discussion and insight into the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine.

  Find out more

• 

  Dr Liam O'Shea is an expert on police and police reform in developing countries and politics and security in the former Soviet Union.

  With the 2020/21 LSE Dinam Fellowship, Liam will develop new frameworks and tools of analysis to help governments, NGOs and donors understand the key factors which affect police behaviour and police reform in developing countries. Liam will also explore which policy options work, when, and under what conditions, to reduce police violence and corruption and improve police efficiency. Drawing from his extensive practitioner experience, and insights from international relations, police studies and criminology, Liam will deliver research on interventions to develop democratic and inclusive security forces. He is especially interested in designing policy and interventions that start with a thorough examination of the policing reality of developing countries, and working from there.

  Biography

  From 2018-2020 Liam was a Governance Adviser in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for the UK's £1.3b Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, where he advised on regional strategies and programming in fragile and conflict-affected states. He also led a team coordinating the FCDO's response to Covid-19 in vulnerable countries and on the production of a High-level Event at the UN General Assembly, raising over $1b in vaccine development for developing countries.

  Prior to joining the FCDO, Liam was a Policy Adviser in the Cabinet Office and the Associate Director of a philanthropic foundation focused on education in SE Asia. He has consulted a number of organisations on security and justice in developing countries, including the Overseas Development Institute and Saferworld. From 2014-2015, Liam won a place on the Alfa Fellowship, a high-level professional leadership programme in Russia, where he led a project developing policy recommendations for police reform in Russia for a local NGO. He also wrote his PhD on police reform in the former Soviet Union, and speaks Russian. Liam's publications include:

  Who Do We Want to Coerce?: Security Sector Reform and State Building – International Security Sector Advisory Team blog (March 2017)

  Security Sector Reform in Patrimonial and Low-Capacity States – SSR Resource Centre(August 2016)

  Informal Economic Practices Within the Kyrgyz Police (Militsiya) – In, The Persistence of Informal Economic Practices in Post-Socialist Societies, Ed. J. Morris and A. Polese (2015), London: Palgrave Macmillan

  Why Does Police Reform Appear to Have Been More Successful in Georgia than in Kyrgyzstan or Russia?– The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies(Winter 2012), Issue 13, With K. Kakachia, Tbilisi State University

  Improving the UK’s Contribution to International Policing– Policing (2010), 4 (1): 38-46

• 

  Paul Dillane's specialism is British foreign policy and diplomacy in relation to the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans (LGBT) people globally. His research interests include the development of British foreign policy and human rights past, present and future, the role of domestic politics and key actors including civil society, parliamentarians and the media in influencing foreign policy, and, comparative analysis in regards to efforts to combat violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.

  Paul is a member of the Leadership Masterclass Programme 2019/20 at the Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs, Chatham House - the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In March 2019, he was appointed by the Minister for Women and Equalities as an expert member of the UK Government LGBT Advisory Panel.

  For 16 years, Paul has specialised in human rights, refugee protection and LGBT+ equality in the UK and internationally and has worked directly with grassroots organisations, parliamentarians, ministers, policy-makers and business leaders in over 50 countries including at the United Nations, Council of Europe, European Union and The Commonwealth. He began his career in asylum law including as Senior Immigration Legal Counsellor/Advocate and Supervisor at the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS). Between 2008-14, he was Refugee Researcher/Advisor at Amnesty International UK. In 2014, he was appointed Executive Director of UKLGIG, the UK's national LGBTI asylum NGO. Until June 2019, he was Executive Director of Kaleidoscope Trust, the UK's leading international LGBT+ NGO, and, Head of the Secretariat of The Commonwealth Equality Network (TCEN).

  Additionally, he has worked as a consultant and trainer for organisations including the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, UNHCR, ILGA Europe, Transgender Europe, Council of Europe and Westminster Foundation for Democracy. He is a signatory of the Yogyakarta Principles plus 10 on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.

  In 2019, he was appointed Senior Advisor to Rainbow Railroad, the Government Relations and Advocacy Expert member of the Campaigns and Impact Sub-Committee at Amnesty International UK, and, a Trustee of EachOther (formerly RightsInfo). He has previously served as a member of the Executive Committee (Bursary Officer) of the Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA), a member of the Coordination Group of Detention Forum - a coalition of organisations campaigning against indefinite immigration detention, a Trustee of Hackney Community Law Centre (HCLC) and a member of the Advisory Board of the EUROUT Conference, dedicated to empowering the next generation of LGBT+ business leaders.

  Paul has studied at LSE Human Rights, Refugee Law Initiative, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of London and the Grotius Centre, Leiden University.

• 

  Martin Westlake has spent over four decades studying European integration and working in European Union government and politics. Having completed a first degree in philosophy, politics and economics at University College, Oxford, he went on to take a master's degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (Bologna Center) and a PhD at the European University Institute in Florence.

  Since beginning his professional life as a clerk to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, he has worked in the Council of Ministers and the European Commission, with the European Parliament and, since 2003, in the European Economic and Social Committee, where he served as Secretary General, 2008-2013.

  Martin Westlake has published widely on the European institutions and on European and British politics. He is also the author of a major political biography (Kinnock, The Biography). He has occupied a number of visiting positions and, from 2000 to 2005, was a visiting professor at the College of Europe, Bruges, teaching a seminar on the European Parliament. He is currently (since 2013) again a Visiting Professor at the College, running a research seminar on Constitutional, Institutional and Political Reform in the EU. At the European Institute he co-chairs and co-organizes, together with Visiting Senior Fellow Anthony Teasdale, the 'European Union in Practice: Politics and Power in the Brussels System' seminar series.

  As David Davies of Llandinam Research Fellow, Martin Westlake intends to establish an innovatory seminar series in Lent (2019) (now Winter) term that will bring together practitioners from the European Union institutions and theoreticians from the Department of International Relations under the umbrella title of 'The European Union's New Foreign Policy.' Topics to be covered will include the EU's championing of multilateralism, its new neighbourhood policy, the role of values and interests in EU foreign policy, the EU's growing policy stance towards the Arctic region, the EU's trade policy in turbulent times, and the creation and management of the European External Action Service.

  Dinam Seminar Series on the EU's New Foreign Policy

  Read Martin's final report

  Read Martin's new book:
  The European Union's New Foreign Policy
  Martin Westlake (ed)
  This book brings together senior practitioners and academic specialists to consider how the EU’s new foreign policy has been evolving and how the various actors are maintaining the holistic approach intended by the draftsmen of the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.

I worked for the UK Ministry of Defence between 2009 and 2017, covering multiple roles looking insurgent and terrorist movements in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Iraq. I also spent nearly a year in total working in Afghanistan during this period.

I completed my PhD in International Relations at the University of Essex in 2017. My research mainly looked at how insurgencies undermine the institutions that define the relationship between governments and populations. The project built on my experiences working in conflict zones in an attempt to better understand the strategic aim of insurgent and terrorist activity.

As the David Davies of Llandinam Fellow I will study how militant movements behave according to changes in their strategic context. The research is driven by my recent experiences working on the Islamic State and aims to support policymakers in their quest to develop counterstrategies as the Islamic State adapts to losing territory and attempts to spread its influence to other conflict zones around the world. The research will include looking at how they respond to coming under significant military or counterterrorist pressure, the aftermath of major military battles and the diverse military and non-military tactics they use depending on their level of territorial control. To do this I will use a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, looking at a range of conflicts, to include Iraq, Sri Lanka and Peru.

See workshop report on 'The Islamic State in Retreat' below.

Dr Scott Jerbi was the 2016 David Davies of Llandinam (Dinam) Research Fellow in the LSE’s International Relations Department.

As the 2016 Dinam Research Fellow, Scott studied the role of public-private partnerships as a central element in strategies to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted by world leaders in September 2015. Many of the SDGs, including on decent work, industrialization, taxation and energy will require active and responsible business engagement to be achieved. However, the process to agree the new global development agenda saw limited debate concerning core expectations for business conduct that aligns with the vision set out in the SDGs as well as the necessary terms for effective collaboration between states, business and civil society.

While some states increasingly pursue partnership oriented governance strategies, many continue to see such approaches as potentially threatening to state authority as well as limited in tangible impacts. Scott’s research will seek to identify where common ground may exist among states and other actors concerning public-private partnerships to advance sustainable development objectives, including how they should be established and evaluated and how core principles of the responsible business agenda may be integrated into implementation plans.

From 1997 to 2002, Scott Jerbi worked in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights where his duties included leading the development of the Office’s policies and interactions with the private sector. From 2002 to 2010 Scott served as Senior Adviser to former UN High Commissioner and former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. He is currently a Senior Adviser to the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), which works to advance corporate respect for international human rights standards. Scott holds a PhD in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Publications include
The International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Academy Briefing No. 4, August 2013.

"Assessing the roles of multi-stakeholder initiatives in advancing the business and human rights agenda", International Review of the Red Cross, Volume 94, Number 887, Autumn 2012, pp.1027-1046.

"Business and Human Rights at the UN: What might happen next?", Human Rights Quarterly, Johns Hopkins University Press, Vol. 31, Number 2, May 2009.

"The UN can save itself by working effectively with outside partners", The Conversation, 28 February 2017

Jeroen Merk holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Sussex, Brighton. Between 2003- 2014, he has also been a research and policy coordinator at the International Secretariat of the Clean Clothes Campaign, a labour rights NGO with branches in 15 European countries and an extended network of partners in production countries. Among other things, he was responsible for coordinating, planning and publishing research on the impact of private governance instruments on labour relations and working conditions. He has closely collaborated with trade unions, labour NGOs and researchers, mostly from South and South-East Asia, on these topics. From 2008 till 2014 he was a representative of the Clean Clothes Campaign at the Steering Committee of the Asia Floor Wage campaign.

As the David Davies of Llandinam Research Fellow (2014-2015), he studied the participatory/democratic dimension of global governance instruments within cross-border production networks. This includes exploring the conditions under which social movements, trade unions and networks of NGOs are (re-) framing common sense understandings of global governance institutions, agendas and priorities. He will do so by closely studying two real world cases to discuss possible ways to reinvent corporate accountability, namely, the Accord for Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh concluded in May 2013 and the Protocol on Freedom of Association in Indonesia concluded in 2011.

His research interests lie at the crossroads of international relations, political economy, social movements, and the governance institutions of global industrial relations. I have been particularly concerned with analysing the shifting nature of worker-employer relations within local, national and global (supply-chain) contexts; the role of ethical standards as embodied in codes of conduct and other voluntary instruments in regulating transnational corporations; and the combined (but uneven) emergence of cross-border networks of NGOs and trade unions keeping businesses accountable for labour rights violations. His publications on these topics include:

Merk, J. (2014) ‘Global Outsourcing and Socialisation of Labour—the Case of Nike’, In: Van der Pijl, Kees (editor) The International Political Economy of Production, Handbooks of Research on International Political Economy series (forthcoming)

Egels-Zanden, N. & Merk, J (2013) ‘Private regulation and trade union rights: Why codes of conduct have limited impact on trade union rights’, Journal of Business Ethics, [Published online August 9, 2013.]

Merk, J. (2011) ‘Production beyond the Horizon of Consumption: Spatial fixes and Anti-Sweatshop Struggles in the Global Athletic Footwear Industry’, Global Society, Vol. 25 (1), pp.71-93.

Merk, J. (2009) ‘Jumping Scale and Bridging Space in the era of Corporate Social Responsibility: Cross-border labour struggles in the global garment industry’, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 30 (3), pp. 599-615.

Until 2011 David Spence was Minister Counsellor with special responsibility for human security and disarmament at the European Union delegation to the United Nations in Geneva. Until his move to Geneva in 2003 he was the Commission representative in the G8 and EU Council Terrorism Working Groups. In 2006 he was seconded by the European Commission as senior political advisor to the Special Representative of the United Nations for the Elections in the Ivory Coast. His career at the European Commission had previously included: secretary of the task force for German unification, head of training for the Commission's External Service and policy adviser for European Security and Defence Policy, counter-terrorism and relations with NATO.

David Spence was educated at the Strand School, London. He trained in export marketing and business management at Bremen's Chamber of Commerce, then studied politics and international relations at Sussex University, St. Antony's College, Oxford, Nice university and Sciences-Po (Paris). Before joining the European Commission in 1990, he was lecturer in politics at the Sorbonne and the Ecole Normale Supérieure, adviser to Wilton Park, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office conference centre, then Head of European Training at the UK Civil Service College. As a hobby he ran two restaurants in South London in the 1980s.

He has published widely on European affairs. In addition to various articles on the Commission and the EU, on CFSP, and on effective multilateralism, he is the editor with Brian Hocking of Foreign Ministries in the European Union: integrating diplomats, Palgrave, 2006, The European Commission, Harper, 3rd edition 2006, The EU and Terrorism, Harper, 2007 and The EU and Security Sector Reform, Harper, 2008. His most recent publications are 'EU Governance and Global Governance' in 'Global Governance and Diplomacy: worlds apart' published by Palgrave in 2008, and edited by A. Cooper, B. Hocking and W. Maley; Days of Dogs and Roses: the European Commission between foreign policy and external relations in Revue des Affaires européennes 2009-2010/1; Deconstructing EU Governance: how the European Commission constructed EU governance policy and how it attempts to export it in J. Wunnerlich and D. Bailey, The EU and Global Governance, Routledge, 2011.

Most recently he published The Early Days of the European External Action Service: A Practitioner’s View, in the Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 2012. He is currently working on a contribution to a book on the French critical sociologist, Luc Boltanski, in which he and Professor William Outhwaite of Newcastle University reflect on the relevance of the theoretical frameworks of Bourdieu, Boltanski and Georgeakis to the analysis of the EU.

His research project at the LSE focussed on the changing nature of European Diplomacy. He is the organiser of a major conference on the European External Action Service to be held in London on 22nd November and a related book to be published in 2013.

See below for details of the conferences on the European External Action Service in 2012 and 2013.

Elizabeth worked as a Middle East analyst in various capacities for ten years. She writes for publications in English and Arabic, including World Politics Review, al-Majalla, EA Worldview, Roz al-Yousef, Oxford Analytica and the Economist Intelligence Unit. She has also coordinated a number of research projects on Middle Eastern politics, religion and law for non-governmental organisations.

From 2003-5 she coordinated a project on Islamic law and international parental child abduction for Reunite. This project involved researching laws pertaining to child custody, guardianship, marriage and nationality in 40 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Elizabeth wrote up the findings and created a database which is now used to advise families, the Foreign Office and lawyers on key legal, cultural and religious issues.

Between 2005-2010 Elizabeth completed her doctoral studies in Middle East politics. Her thesis is entitled, "Coptic Media Discourses of Belonging: Negotiating Egyptian Citizenship and Religious Difference in the Press and Online". During this time she tutored undergraduate students in Middle East Studies and from 2008-10 she also worked as director of research at the Next Century Foundation, a conflict resolution think tank engaged in track two diplomacy and research on the Middle East region with an emphasis on Iran.

Elizabeth has a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Cambridge, an MA in International and Comparative Law from the London School of Oriental and African Studies and a BA in Arabic and Politics from the University of Exeter.

Elizabeth's programme of research was an analysis of Arabic media discourses concerning Iran and particularly Iran as a potential source of conflict for the Middle East region. The project built on her research into media representations of sectarian conflict and her policy work on Iran and Middle East security. She explored how Arabic media constructs potential regional conflict between Iran and Arab. The research focussed on understanding the role of identity politics in Arab-Iranian relations, with an emphasis on examining whether there is an increased tendency to represent regional tensions and security challenges as a clash between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. The objective was to contribute to a nuanced understanding of the position of the Arab world vis-à-vis the current tensions between Iran and the international community and the role that religious sectarian discourses could potentially play.

Elizabeth's papers included:

• Connecting the National and the Virtual: Can Facebook Activism Remain Relevant After Egypt's January 25 Uprising? in International Journal of Communications 5 (2011)
• The 'mediation' of Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt: the strategies and discourses of the official Egyptian press during Mubarak's presidency, in Journal of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (January 2012)
• Sectarian Conflict in Egypt: Coptic Media, Identity and Representation (due to be published by Routledge in May 2012)

See Conference and Annual Report below.

From 2004-2009 Ben was the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) specialist on the Great Lakes region of Africa and African conflict, with a primary focus on Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). His work included frequent research visits to the region and short postings in Eastern DRC, Kinshasa, Kampala and Paris. He was previously (2002-2004) the researcher and co-ordinator for the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes at the UK Houses of Parliament. He holds a BSc in Politics and Sociology from the University of Bristol and an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. He can work in English and French.

Ben's program of research examined the policy choices of state actors in addressing conflict involving non-state armed groups in areas of weak or non-existent state control, including the dynamics of seeking negotiated settlements and state-building as a conflict resolution tool. Research focussed on a number of case studies, to include Somalia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and the DRC, through the lens of UK foreign policy decision-making. Ben maintained a secondary focus on contemporary events in Central Africa.

Ben's papers included:

• 'The 'Spoiler' Concept, Conflict and Politics: who 'spoils' what, for whom? [Word] - this paper is the product of a one-day seminar on the spoiler concept held at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in March 2010.
• Political Stability: Crucial for Growth? [PDF]
• State-building, Externalisation and National Interests: beacons of good governance or exporters of violence? [Word]

See annual report below.

Elizabeth Stubbins Bates was the first David Davies of Llandinam Research Fellow from 2008-9. From 1 October 2009, Elizabeth was a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Law Department, while she completes a book on counter-terrorism and international law for the International Bar Association. Publication took place in spring 2010. Elizabeth presented the book's preliminary findings at a panel discussion at the International Bar Association Annual Meeting in Madrid in October 2009.

In 2007, Elizabeth was a consultant expert in international humanitarian law for the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University (HPCR).

In 2005 and 2006, Elizabeth was a Legal Adviser to three regional programmes and to the Darfur Crisis Team at Amnesty International. Also in 2006, Elizabeth held an Arthur C. Helton Fellowship from the American Society of International Law (ASIL), and monitored human rights violations against children and young adults with mental disabilities in Bulgaria.

Elizabeth has an LL.M. (Master of Laws) from Harvard Law School and a BA in Law from Oxford University. She can work in English and French, and speaks some Russian.

Her research on state practice in counter-terrorism detention led to a collaboration with the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute. Elizabeth wrote a book commissioned by the International Bar Association entitled Terrorism and International Law: Accountability, Remedies and Reform (ISBN 978-0-19-958918-0) which was published by the Oxford University Press in February 2011. The book was overseen by the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute Terrorism Task Force.

In addition to her work with the International Bar Association, Elizabeth researched and drafted three articles for publication during the David Davies of Llandinam Research Fellowship. The first, 'From Assertion to Methodology in Customary International Human Rights Law' (© ASIL) was published in late 2010 in the Proceedings of the American Society of International Law Annual (ASIL) Meeting 2009, having been presented at the Annual Meeting's Research Showcase. The second article, 'Examining Lex Specialis: Detention and the Co-Applicability of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law', will be submitted for publication in the summer of 2009. The third article, 'Customary International Human Rights Law and Detention in the "War on Terror"', was presented at the LSE Department of International Relations IR500 Seminar for Staff and Research Students in April 2009.

See conference and annual report below.

Forged or fragmented? Europe in times of crisis

Thursday 22 January 2026 90 minutes

Co-hosted with the European Foreign Policy Unit at LSE

Jean Monnet envisioned that the joint pursuit of practical solutions to common challenges can reinforce European integration. In recent years, the EU has confronted a poly-crisis, as overlapping threats and challenges have increasingly compounded one another.

The event explores how today’s strategic landscape, including Russia’s war against Ukraine, hybrid campaigns, a volatile transatlantic relationship and intensifying geo-economic competition, is affecting Europe’s priorities, European politics and European integration. Will the existing threats and challenges forge a more united Europe or splinter it?

Meet our speakers

Mikaela Gavas is the Managing Director of The Center for Global Development (CDG) Europe and a Senior Policy Fellow.

Caroline de Gruyter is a Member of the Board of Bruegel and a Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

Anand Menon is Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King's College London and Director of the UK in a Changing Europe project. His areas of research interest include the policies and institutions of the European Union, European security, and British politics.

Chair

Teona Giuashvili is the DINAM Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE.

Find out more about the event and speakers

Listen to the podcast (apologies for the poor audio)

French and British perspectives on Russia's war in Ukraine and the future of the European security order

Thursday 27 November 2025 90 minutes

Hosted by the Department of International Relations and LSE IDEAS

Russia's aggression of Ukraine has fractured the European security order and determined a marked shift in the security and defence agendas of key European countries, NATO and the EU.

This panel discusses how France and the UK responded to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and how they framed, and addressed, the implications of the war in Ukraine for European security. It will also look at areas of convergence and divergence between London and Paris and focus on their priorities at the current critical juncture, with a view to achieving a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.

Meet our speakers

Marion Messmer is a Senior Research Fellow in the International Security Programme at Chatham House.

Bruno Tertrais is Deputy Director of the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Institut Montaigne.

Peter Watkins (CB, CBE) is a Senior Visiting Fellow with LSE IDEAS, a Visiting Professor with King's College London, an Associate Fellow at Chatham House and a former senior official with the UK Ministry of Defence.

Richard G Whitman is Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent, a Senior Fellow of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative, and a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

Chair

Teona Giuashvili is the DINAM Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE.

Find out more about the event

Listen to the podcast

Where does the EU enlargement stand?

Wednesday 29 January 2025 1 hour online

Enlargement has long been considered as the most successful foreign policy of the European Union (EU) and a powerful driver of political, economic and social reform in the countries aiming to join the EU. However, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Kyiv’s application for EU membership, it also acquired broader geostrategic significance.

Watch this online discussion to assess the obstacles and the opportunities facing the EU enlargement agenda in a challenging and volatile strategic context.

Meet our speakers and chair:

Dr Steven Blockmans, Senior Fellow, International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) Tallinn; Associate Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS); and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges and Natolin)

Dr Heather Grabbe, Senior Fellow, Bruegel; Visiting Professor at University College London and KU Leuven

Professor Kataryna Wolczuk, Professor of East European Politics, Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES), School of Government, University of Birmingham; Associate Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House; Senior Professorial Fellow, European Neighbourhood Chair, College of Europe Natolin

Chair and moderator:

Dr Teona Giuashvili, DINAM Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE

Watch the video

Join Mariia Zolkina's DINAM Ukraine Discussion series - a four-part online discussion series in which highly distinguished experts offer critical discussion and insight into the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine.

Find out more and listen to the podcasts

Dr Martin Westlake, Dinam Research Fellow in the IR Department and Senior Visiting Fellow in the European Institute, led a series of Friday lunchtime public seminars with highly distinguished speakers from various EU departments covering such themes as multilateralism, human rights, security and defence, enlargement and neighbourhood, trade, and values and interests.

A workshop took place at the LSE on 31 Mary 2018:

Executive Summary

Convenor:

Dr Matthew Dixon (London School of Economics)

Speakers:

Professor Kristin Bakke (University College London)
Dr Cindy May (London School of Economics)
Professor Toby Dodge (London School of Economics)
Dr Chris Phillips (Queen Mary’s University of London)
Michael Stephens (Royal United Services Institute)
Professor Peter Neumann (King’s College London)
Dr Lars Berger (University of Leeds)
Dr Gilbert Ramsay (University of St Andrews)

On the 31st of May 2018, the LSE hosted a workshop entitled ‘The Islamic State in Retreat’. The workshop was sponsored by the David Davies of Llandinam Fellowship and brought together leading academics on the Middle East and international terrorism to explore the future of the Islamic State (IS) in light of the fall of its Caliphate. The workshop posed three main questions; how is IS adapting to the loss of its Caliphate, have the conditions in Syria and Iraq that enabled its spectacular rise been addressed, and what does this tell us about the future of IS? Panellists addressed these questions by looking the behaviour of similar groups, the aftermath of civil wars in other states, the political and social context in the Middle East, as well as the actions of IS.

The panellists agreed that IS has been significantly degraded and no longer poses a meaningful threat in either Syria or Iraq, but it is shifting to a clandestine, network-based movement that will be difficult to eradicate completely and continue to represent a real terrorist threat, both in the Middle East and beyond. There was also broad agreement on the deep structural problems afflicting the Middle East, including the on-going conflict in Syria, geo-political rivalries, sectarian tensions, as well as weak and repressive governance. These conditions enabled the rise of IS in the build-up to 2014 and may do so again if left unresolved.

Key findings

• Inside Syria and Iraq, IS has been significantly weakened and no longer poses a strategic threat to either government. It has followed the pattern of many groups in retreat, reverting to clandestine cells and focusing on terrorist-type violence to maintain relevance.
• The loss of its Caliphate has undermined much of IS’s global appeal, but there continues to be a hard-core of supporters loyal to its cause. It is evolving from an hierarchical organisation to a global network and movement in much the same way as al Qaeda.
• This transition will enable IS to sustain momentum in the form of terrorist activity. The legacy of its foreign fighter cadre and on-line activity will also provide IS (or an evolution of the group) with the foundations to re-emerge if and when conditions become favourable once again, be it in Syria, Iraq, or another state in the region.
• There are some positive signs in the region to suggest there will be no repeat of the conditions that enabled IS’s rise. Regional governments and religious authorities are increasingly recognising the ideological roots of Salafi-jihadism. The impetus for change in Iraq is strong and in Syria, while the conflict drags on, jihadist actors are in retreat.
• The likelihood of significant and enduring change in the region, however, is limited. The future of the Syrian conflict is extremely difficult to predict, and multiple pathways could benefit jihadists. The entrenched role of sectarianism and corruption in Iraq will hinder efforts to reform its institutions. Regional governments are falling back on increasingly repressive governance and political institutions continue to lack legitimacy.
• The history of the region and other conflict zones demonstrates that the failure to address these structural problems in a manner that reflects regional social and economic dynamics will sustain support for violent Islamist groups. In the worst case scenario, these tensions will increase the likelihood of another major conflict that could provide the backdrop for the re-emergence of a significant Salafi-jihadist insurgency that takes on IS’s mantle.

Recommendations

• Counter-terror operations need to focus on the key nodes that will hold the remnants of IS’s movement together and attract new affiliates and recruits. In the West, individuals involved in Syria and Iraq, or with a longer history of participation in radical jihadism, will be key for sustaining the global movement. Tactical cooperation with states in the Middle East and North Africa should focus on jihadi organisations that link local groups to the transnational movement.
• The West also needs to build the credibility and legitimacy of political and social institutions on the region, not just focus on security-sector support. These broader public institutions have proven crucial in stemming violence in other post-conflict zones, and country-experts make it clear that the same will apply in the Middle East.

Read the full report [PDF]

A growing array of multi-stakeholder partnerships and advocacy platforms have been launched in recent years aimed at convening and catalysing governments, the private sector and civil society to help achieve shared development objectives. New partnerships are being developed by and in cooperation with the United Nations in response to the 2030 Development Agenda agreed by world leaders in September 2015. As a recent UN report on partnerships puts it:
"The achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals will require all hands on deck. It will require different sectors and actors working together in an integrated manner by pooling financial resources, knowledge and expertise."

What more should the United Nations system be doing to advance effective multi-stakeholder development partnerships, including on issues such as setting overarching principles, performance standards and governance arrangements?

How can the UN system more strategically convene the right actors at international, regional and national levels and support efforts to develop trust, capacity and effective governance and accountability mechanisms for such initiatives?

What roles should the UN play in evaluating the impacts of partnerships on the lives of intended recipients?

This expert workshop seeks to contribute to ongoing debates in this area and draw on lessons from existing initiatives led by or involving UN actors, including ongoing and new partnership and global advocacy platforms. The aim is to reflect on where partnership efforts have succeeded and fallen short to date as well as explore possible pathways forward for improved governance and performance.

Speakers:
• Susan Bissell, Director, "Global partnership to end violence against children"
• Rachel Kyte, Chief Executive Officer, "Sustainable energy for all"

The Rana Plaza collapse - which resulted in a death toll of over 1100 victims, and leaving more than 2,500 workers people injured - is the deadliest garment-factory disaster in history. For many observers, the collapse revealed the moral bankruptcy of private regulatory initiatives, including codes of conduct and their monitoring systems, set up to address substandard working conditions within global production networks. This one-day workshop will bring together experts to discuss alternative strategies of regulating corporate behavior throughout global production networks. It will debate the role of (transnational) social movements and solidarity in keeping lead firms accountable; explore the role of initiatives that put labor agency central; and debate possibilities for keeping corporations legally accountable for substandard working conditions.

Find out more

A conference at Europe House organised by the London School of Economics, with the support of EC Representation in the UK and the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES) .

The 2013 event will build on the success of the 2012 EEAS conference, inviting participants back to examine the significance, impact and prospects of the European External Action Service in particular and European diplomacy in general. It will discuss contributions by a selection of last year’s speakers to a dedicated edited volume. The second day will see debate on the future of the EEAS, examining questions such as how well equipped the EEAS is, in the words of the High Representative, to "add value" by serving as "more than a foreign ministry, by combining elements of a development and of a defence ministry."

The conference is extremely timely, following in the footsteps of the EEAS review and contributing to the current lively debate in both policy-making and academic circles on the impact, nature and future of one of the newest and most important institutional innovations in the EU’s external role. The conference will enhance these debates by bringing together a wide range of experts and practitioners with direct experience of the work of the EEAS. The conference will contribute to better understanding of the Service and issues associated with it. The edited volume resulting from the conference will be one of the most comprehensive and informative sources of information and analysis to date on the EEAS.

Download abstracts [PDF]

A conference at Europe House organised by the London School of Economics and the Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust

Diplomatic adaptation to the existence of the EU has largely focussed on broad trends of reform in foreign ministries arising from membership. New arrangements have evolved for the conduct of foreign affairs by EU member state governments, fostering the emergence of procedures and norms for EU coordination. In fact, the adaptation has been partly driven by global rather than merely EU-specific changes. Yet, importantly, national foreign ministries have authorised the creation in the EU of a system of procedures for coordinating the workings of national diplomatic systems and creating EU institutions and procedures parallel to national arrangements. The key issues now are whether the result is enhanced European policy-making, whether the EU’s institutional arrangements have become more effective than the product of the EU’s component parts and whether the EU has created a basis for foreign policy making of relevance to other regional organisations.

Both the European Commission and the Council of the EU saw a growth in competence, agenda and staff in the field of external affairs and foreign policy long before the Lisbon Treaty. These were forerunners of the new European External Action Service, which was supposed to decrease administrative complexity and bureaucratic rivalries and form a key step in the creation of what might become a `EU diplomatic system’ – a collection of institutions and organizations managing relations between the EU and its member states and mediating between the EU, third states and international actors, whether governmental, non-governmental, regional or global. Yet ‘competence’ has remained essentially contested. Many have argued that competing mindsets within the EEAS have continued the pre-Lisbon turf battles, which so lamed the workings of CFSP - and were supposed to disappear.

This conference involves several levels of analysis: conceptual shifts in the organization of diplomacy in the EU, practical adaptive processes, new structures and enhanced professional standards, structural developments (integrative or regressive?) in the Commission, the Council and the EEAS. The conference poses the question of whether the European External Action Service and the High Representative, perhaps a EU ‘foreign minister’ in all but name, actually form a new diplomatic system. The conference also looks at emerging patterns of EU diplomatic representation in third states and international organizations. Underlying the analyses is a question relating to the continuance (or not?) of member states' national arrangements for representation, most usefully viewed in terms of costs and benefits of retaining or creating national diplomatic structures, a potential corollary being the conceivable removal of some tasks away from national foreign services to a new ‘supra’ national diplomatic service, questioning the ‘Westphalian’ model. The conference also covers personnel and training issues, for these may prove to lie at the heart of successful promotion and achievement of a new form of non-state diplomacy.

Finally, the hypothesis is that, overall, incentives to reform diplomatic services are not the ‘intellectual property’ of the EU, but are relevant worldwide. ‘Europe’ may nonetheless prove to be the most successful example of resulting diplomatic change – and potentially a model for other regional organisations.

Read report

Relations between Iran and its Arab neighbours have been marked by a complex ebb and flow of tensions, suspicions and alliances. Now, in the midst of the Arab uprisings, these relations have been thrown into greater flux and this uncertainty has severe implications for the whole Middle East region. This timely conference will feature leading academics and journalists who will explore the impact of recent events on the future relations between Iran and Arab states.

The conference is organized around four panel discussions:

• Iran and the Arab World Post-2003
• Reporting Iranian-Arab Relations: Media, Ethics and Conflict
• Ethnicity, Religion and Nation
• National Security, Regional Stability: Prospects for Arab-Iranian Conflict and Cooperation

Keynote speaker:Professor Gary Sick, Columbia University

Listen to speech
Listen to session [MP3]

Download briefing [PDF]

Read programme [Word]

On 6 May 2009, the LSE Department of International Relations held a Symposium on Detention and Rendition in the "War on Terror", organised by the first David Davies of Llandinam Research Fellow. The Symposium comprised four panel discussions, each of which included academics in International Law and International Relations, and a representative of a human rights non-governmental organisation. The programme for the Symposium and audio files of the day's discussion can be found below.

Dowanload programme [PDF]

Listen to session 1 [MP3]
Listen to session 2 [MP3]
Listen to session 3 [MP3]
Listen to session 4 [MP3]

To pursue a research project, which should normally involve collaboration with international, governmental or non-governmental organizations (including civil society groups and private sector enterprise). The project may relate to any area of policy in the field of international politics, including for example: international human rights; corporate responsibility and accountability of international corporations; international trade; international finance; the environment; war and peace; diplomacy and foreign policy; conflict resolution and new security challenges.

1. To disseminate research to academic and non-academic outlets through publication and contribution to relevant conferences and seminars..
2. To organise at least one seminar/conference at the LSE on the theme of the research project, building bridges between academic and policy communities, in each year of the fellowship (see Conferences above).
3. To report regularly to the David Davies of Llandinam Fellowship Committee at LSE, and at least once a year to report to, and meet with, the Donor.

The Fellowship is advertised nationally and internationally.

Recruitment normally takes place during spring/summer each year with the appointee's term running from September for one academic year.

Recruitment for 2024/25 academic year is now closed.

• 

  David Davies of Llandinam (1880-1944) was a businessman, politician and international campaigner. A Welshman with a wide range of interests and commitments, he was profoundly influenced by the 1914-1918 war and throughout his life devoted much of his considerable energy and thought to the search for a new approach to international relations.

  In 1919, he endowed the first chair of international politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, for the study of "those related problems of law and politics, of ethics and economics". In 1931, he conceived a new society "The New Commonwealth" to seek a new international order between states, which became a major vehicle for his campaigning on the international stage. His approach to international relations had at its core a profound commitment to democracy, a recognition that ordinary people paid the price for failures in relations between states, and a belief that people everywhere should wake up to the fact that the "world is our concern".

  Find out more