About the CSSM Team
Dr Ann Fitz-Gerald
Director, Education and Research
a.m.fitz-gerald@cranfield.ac.uk
Ann Fitz-Gerald is a Reader in Cranfield University's Department of Defence Management and Security Analysis, and the Associate Dean (Research). She holds degrees in Commerce, International Relations, Security Studies and Defence Management. Her PhD examined the impact national disparities with multinational military forces could have on sustainable development programmes running simultaneously with peace support operations in post-conflict states. Following an initial career in the financial sector, she entered Canadian diplomacy which included posts at the Pearson International Peacekeeping Training Centre and NATO Headquarters. She is currently a Board member for the Institute for Research on Public Policy and Special Adviser for Foreign Policy for the Canadian Institute for Strategic Studies (CISS). Ann has worked on national security and security sector management issues for 14 years and is widely published in this field. Her most recent book is an edited volume entitled From Conflict to Community: A Combatant's Return to Citizenship. Ann has worked in both research and practitioner capacities in Africa, Asia, South-East Europe and the Caribbean. She led the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR) between 2002-2006 and is now Director, Education and Research for the Cranfield Centre for Security Sector Management. She managed a number of other UK Government projects including two DFID-funded projects entitled Securing Humanitarian Space and the Development of Performance-based-metrics for evaluating humanitarian and development programmes, and a FCO-funded project on Failed and Collapsed States.
Her more recent research work includes a UK MOD-funded research grant supported a project entitled In the Name of National Security: Is Britain Well-Served? and a UK PCRU project entitled SSR in Hot Stabilisation.
Key Research Areas
Approaches to Security Sector Management; National Security Policy; National Security Study; Joined-Up Government; Role of Armed Forces in SSR.
Dennis Blease
Acting Director, Operations and Training
dblease.cu@defenceacademy.mod.uk
Before joining the Centre for Security Sector Management, Dennis Blease was NATO’s Security Sector Reform (SSR) Advisor in the Western Balkans. He has senior military experience in NATO and European policy, peace support operations, conflict prevention work, security sector transformation and development, diplomacy and advising on SSR at governmental level.
He has spent a total of 9 years working with NATO. As Commander of NATO’s mission in the Republic of Macedonia, he advised the Government on post-conflict reconstruction programmes and SSR, as well as Whole of Government Approaches to transformation. This role was expanded to the regional level when he was appointed NATO’s lead on SSR matters for the Western Balkans. He worked closely with the governments of the region, in particular with Ministers of Defence, and their ministries and general staffs. As part of his recent work in Kosovo, he was the principal architect of the security structure for the UN-sponsored Ahtisaari Comprehensive Proposals.
His recent appointments include: Deputy Director for NATO and European Policy in the UK MOD; Director of the Joint Operations Centre for NATO’s Southern Region; European Union Operations Director for Op CONCORDIA (the EU’s first ESDP mission); Commander of NATO’s mission in the Republic of Macedonia; and Military Advisor to President Ahtisaari, the United Nations Special Envoy for the future status of Kosovo.
Dennis is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, a Member (by examination) of the City and Guilds Institute, a Member of the Institute of Directors, and a graduate of Cranfield University and the Australian Army Command and Staff College. He is currently undertaking research into regionally-led SSR engagements as part of his PhD studies with Cranfield University.
Dr Martin Rupiya
Director of Research, Africa
mrupiya.cu@defenceacademy.mod.uk
Martin is the director of the Africa Research Programme at the Centre. He is a Retired Lieutenant Colonel from Zimbabwe Defence Forces and has worked at the University of Zimbabwe as the Director of the Centre for Defence Studies and Senior Lecturer in History of War; Strategic Studies and Contemporary African Security. He has completed an MA in War studies from Kings College London and a PhD in Military History at the University of Zimbabwe.
In March 2003 Martin joined the Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria where he became widely published, Martin has also presented at numerous international conferences. He has worked with Parliamentarians in the Eastern, Central and Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector, Civil Military Relations (CMR) and Defence Policy and Expenditure. His areas of research centre around HIV/AIDS and Armed Forces in Africa; disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration and Security Sector Reform challenges in the Great Lakes, the Horn, Central and Southern Africa and in particular Zimbabwe.
Hilary Pearce
Programme Manager, Justice and Rule of Law
h.pearce@cranfield.ac.uk
Hilary Pearce initially trained and practised as a solicitor in London and Amsterdam specialising in international litigation and arbitration. In 2005 Hilary decided to follow her interest in post-conflict and development environments and undertook an MSc in Global Security at Cranfield University. During this period Hilary also worked as a researcher and information manager for the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR). She is now a lecturer and programme manager in public security and the rule of law within the Centre for Security Sector Management at Cranfield University and deputy academic leader of the MSc in Security Sector Management. Hilary has undertaken numerous contracts for international institutions and government departments within the UK and around the world on justice sector reform. Hilary’s most recent area of research concentrates on the justice sector reform in post conflict environments and her work in this area has most recently taken her to Sudan where she undertook an UNDP evaluation of the rule of law and access to justice projects undertaken in North and South Sudan.
Key Research Areas
Justice Sector Reform; the implementation of justice sector reform within a post conflict environment; methods and approaches to evaluating and monitoring justice sector reform.
Bruce Newsome
Programme Manager - Security Sector Capacity Management
Before joining the Centre, Bruce Newsome worked as a security analyst at RAND in Santa Monica, California, and adjunct professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California San Diego. Bruce has a PhD in International Studies from the University of Reading, an MA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA with Honours in War Studies from the University of London.
Bruce specializes in defence and security sector capacity building, peace and stabilization operations, counter-terrorism, strategy and planning, risk management, and human resources. His pre-RAND research included studies of the impact of war on political rights and of military management and capability. His RAND research included studies of national security institutions, transatlantic security relations, defence acquisitions, and capacity-building for stabilization operations.
At the Defence Academy, Bruce has studied counter-terrorist capacity building. His related pre-RAND research included quarterly forecasts of Jihadist attacks and studies of international counter-terrorist cooperation. His RAND research included studies of Jihadist behaviour, Homeland Security funding, airport security, and terrorist responses to counter-terrorist technologies. Since joining the Defence Academy, Bruce has reported on European terrorism and homeland security.
Bruce has particular expertise in the management and training of combat personnel. His PhD dissertation is published as Made, Not Born: Why Some Soldiers are Better than Others (Praeger, 2007). His other postgraduate publications include papers on combat motivations and combat personnel management systems. At RAND, he studied reform of the US Army’s personnel management system and the development of the US Navy’s senior personnel. At the Defence Academy, he has studied trends in UK government human resource management.
Related to his research on human resources, Bruce works in instructional design, experiential teaching methods, and training technologies. His products include a digital peacekeeping training simulation and the new Iraqi Military Academy’s Leadership Reaction Course. At RAND, Bruce studied the role of commonality in training effectiveness. At the Defence Academy, he has reported on the training efficacy of military training technologies.
Laura Smith
Administrator and Information Manager
lsmith.cu@defenceacademy.mod.uk
Laura Smith has a BSc (Hons) degree from Newcastle University and is currently a student on the part time MSc in Security Sector Management. She joined the team in August 2005 as an administrator and her role has since grown to encompass the information management of the ssronline website.
Her responsibilities as information manager include updating the website with security sector reform relevant news, regional updates and documents (coordinating inputs from five regions), as well as providing an oversight and quality assurance role for the website. Laura also maintains contact with the global network of SSR practitioners; responds to requests for information from international institutions and governments; and prepares and edits the ssronline newsletter and the Journal of Security Sector Management. Through her administrative role she prepares and organizes courses run in the UK and internationally; organizes conferences and roundtables; and provides support to the Directors. Laura has travelled extensively across the developing world and is keen to align her development interests with work on the security sector.
Stephanie Blair
Programme Manager, Europe
s.blair@ssronline.org
Stephanie Blair was educated at York University, Toronto, Canada; Cranfield University, Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, UK, and is currently completing a PhD at King's College London, in the War Studies Department.
She was a member of the team which established the Lester B. Pearson Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Centre where she served as advisor to the President until 1997. In this capacity she was the co-founder of the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres, and served as its first secretariat director.
Ms Blair has a unique field experience in serving throughout with the Kosovo crisis with both the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). She worked as a municipal administrator and policy adviser. During this crisis that she worked extensively with the KLA-UCK and supported its transition to the KPC.
Since her fieldwork in Kosovo, she continues to work as an independent consultant in the SSR field and has undertaken work for UN OCHA, and the EU.
Ernest Lartey
Programme Manager, Africa
Ernest.Lartey@kaiptc.org
Ernest Lartey currently works at the Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution Department (CPMRD) of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra, Ghana. He joined the KAIPTC as a Research Associate in April 2007 after completing his Masters Degree programme in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies from the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
In July 2007, Ernest undertook a field study that culminated in a paper, about to be published, on the Dynamics of Refugee Repatriation in West Africa. His research at the KAIPTC focuses broadly on humanitarian access and security in contemporary armed conflicts; transnational armed groups and crimes as well as the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Africa. Ernest also focuses on the growth dynamics of the security sector reform architecture in Africa.
Edouard Belloncle
Programme Manager, Middle East and North Africa
Edouard holds an MA in Intelligence and International Security from the Department of War Studies, King's College London. In Paris, he studied International Relations and Geopolitics, and collaborated with the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique. In 2006, he carried out research in Beirut on Security Sector Reform in Lebanon. Edouard worked on SSR related programmes with the Delegation of the European Commission in Beirut where he is currently based.
Key research areas:
International Security, with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA); Terrorism & asymmetric conflicts; Intelligence; DDR & Security Sector Governance in the MENA region.
Shobhakar Budhathoki
Programme Manager, Asia
Shobhakar Budhathoki, human rights defender and conflict resolution practitioner, holds an MA in Peace and Justice Studies from the University of San Diego, USA, and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, with a diploma in Journalism. He has been actively involved in the protection and promotion of human rights since 1993. Mr. Budhathoki has worked as National Advisor to the Washington D.C. – based United States Institute of Peace since 2006, facilitating dialogue between political party representatives, civil society and the Nepal Police as a part of strengthening security and the rule of law in Nepal. He is also engaged in an ongoing dialogue between civil society and Nepal’s parliament on the culture of impunity, security sector reform, transitional justice, post-conflict management and the ongoing peace process.
Shobhakar sits on the executive committee of the National Election Observation Committee in Nepal, and served as an observer during the April 2008 Constituent Assembly Election. In 2005 – 2006 he served as a steering committee member and coordinator of the Human Rights Home, a focal point, meeting place, and clearing house for Nepal’s human rights community. Shobhakar worked as one of the coordinators of the Defend Human Rights Movement – Nepal, a coalition of human rights defenders and organizations formed after the King’s coup in February 2005 formed to increase national and international support for the establishment of democracy, the protection of human rights, and the end of the autocratic regime. He continues to assist Nepal’s civil society in efforts to campaign for strengthening democracy and defending human rights.
Shobhakar worked as a Human Rights Officer in the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (2002- 2003), as International Registration Supervisor in the UN Mission in Kosovo (2000), and as District Electoral Officer in the UN Assistance Mission in East Timor (1999) during the referendum period. He founded the Center for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES) based in Kathmandu, Nepal and served as general secretary/executive director until April 2005. Shobhakar began his human rights career working for the Kathmandu-based Institute for Human Rights, Environment, and Development (INHURED International) from 1993- 1999 working on issues of basic human rights, women’s rights, water conflicts, and refugee rights.
Gordon Hughes CBE - Currently on secondment with the UN
Director, Operations and Training
ghughes.cu@defenceacademy.mod.uk
Gordon Hughes is a former UK Regional Conflict Adviser in Southern Africa. He has senior military experience in conflict prevention work, security sector transformation, post conflict reconstruction, diplomacy and nation-building in Africa and Bosnia. In his role as Regional Conflict Adviser, he advised governments and British Heads of Mission in Africa; supported FCO, DFID and MOD through the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool (ACPP) in Whitehall, London; and also worked alongside the African security sector networks. His recent appointments include Commander British Forces (including the International Military Advisory and Training Team (IMATT)) in Sierra Leone, and Commander BMATT South Africa where he has led initiatives within the security sector on integration and training. Gordon is a Charted Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies in London.
Dr Sylvie Jackson
Strategic Performance & Change Management
Dr Sylvie Jackson joined Cranfield University as a Senior Lecturer at the Defence Academy of the UK in 1999 after a period of consultancy work and a lengthy career in The Post Office where she started as a counter clerk and rose to Quality and Business Process Director for Purchasing and Logistics. Other roles included training counter clerks, sales, customer care and total quality management. Her qualifications include a PhD in Transformational Change, MBA and Postgraduate Diplomas in both Management Studies and Marketing. During the past 10 years, she has undertaken extensive research in the fields of both change management and performance measurement in terms of how is discipline is applied in the wider security context. She is the Academic Leader of the Cranfield University Master's of Business Administration (Defence) and is one of the core academics supporting both the MSc Security Sector Management and the MSc in Resilience. She has contributed to a number of security sector-related educational and policy development capacity-building programmes involving a range of transitional societies, including Mozambique, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria and others. Sylvie is widely published in the fields of performance and change, with her most recent work supporting the development of a performance measurement system for security and development.
Dr Roger Darby
Strategic International Human Resource Management & Change
Dr Darby, a specialist in international human resource management and organisational behaviour, holds a DPhil from the University of Sussex , a MEd from the University of Birmingham and a BA (Hons) from the University of Warwick . Prior to joining Cranfield University he has held a number of academic appointments including at the University of Birmingham Business School, the European Business School (London), Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College and Oxford Brookes University. In addition, internationally he has continued to hold visiting professorships in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria , Hungary , Germany , South Africa , Singapore and China . More recently he has held appointments at the Higher Colleges of Technology and the American University in Dubai in the Middle East.
His professional expertise includes consultancy and training work with a wide variety of international public and private sector representatives. He is responsible for the development and academic leadership of the first MSc IHRM (Defence) course run at Shrivenham in conjunction with the School of Management. He is also heavily involved in research and teaching on the "Managing Defence in A Wider Security Context" courses run at Shrivenham and many regions across the world including Africa, South East Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Lastly, Dr Darby is also module leader for the "Managing Security Sector Resources: Organisations, People and Money" module on the MSc Security Sector Management and the related accredited short courses.
Dr Darby's research has been presented at international conferences and published in academic and professional journals such as the European Business Review, Journal of European Industrial Training, Asian Pacific Business Review, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management. His most recent research is on the cross-cultural effects on Knowledge Management.
Brigadier-General (Ret) Don Macnamara OMM, CD, BA, MA, DMilSc
Senior Research Fellow in National Security
theteam@ssronline.org
Don Macnamara, a specialist in national and international security affairs and strategic analysis, had a 37 year career in the Canadian Armed Forces, retiring as a Brigadier-General. His last 15 years of service included appointments as Director, Unified Studies, Canadian Forces College, Toronto, Director, Strategic Policy Planning and Director, Arms Control Policy in National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa, and Director Strategic and International Studies and Director of Curriculum, National Defence College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario.
He joined the faculty of Queen's University School of Business in 1988, and has taught international business and strategy in the Commerce, MBA and Executive MBA programs. He was Executive Director of the Queen's University International Study Centre at Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England, and taught International Management for four summer semesters at Kaiserslautern University in Germany. He is the Associate Director of the Public Executive Program and is also a Senior Fellow in the Queen’s Centre for International Relations.
A founding member and past president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, he is immediate past president of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute and Research Fellow at the Institute for Research in Public Policy. He also currently serves as Honorary Colonel, Canadian Forces College, Toronto, and is a member of the Board of Governors of the Royal Military College of Canada and of the Air Command Advisory Council.
He received a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario, a M.A. from the University of Toronto, a D.Sc. Mil (hc) from the Royal Military College of Canada, and is a graduate of both the Canadian Forces Staff College and the National Defence College of Canada.
Appointed Officer in the Order of Military Merit in 1978, he was the co-recipient of the School of Business Scholars of Excellence Award in 1989, received the Commerce Society Award for Teaching Excellence in 1990, and was recognized for efforts in international education by being made a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International in 1994.In 2001, he was awarded a Chief of Defence Staff Commendation for his “contribution to strategic planning, professional military education and professional development”.
Alastair Robertson
Web Development Manager
a.roberston@cranfield.ac.uk
Alastair has been the Lead Developer for the web site for the past three and a half years. This role included the design and deployment of a Content Management System with an extremely flexible information architecture that manages the following sections: News reports, fully searchable databases, e-books, e-learning content, private areas for members and the team, discussion boards, forums and newsletters as well as other areas. Alastair continued to build upon the success of the site; developing it to cover multi language support. French, Spanish and Portuguese are covered with the goal to have the ability to host any language.
Previously Alastair was the Distance Learning Developer for the MDA program at Cranfield University Shrivenham Campus. This role included the design and development of the exceedingly successful custom e-learning platform (BLISS) to deliver highly interactive Flash based content. BLISS incorporates collaborative discussion areas and access to online information repositories for both students and academics. The BLISS system has proved ideal for delivering e-learning in areas of poor to low connectivity due to its low bandwidth and system/server requirement. His core skills include: CMS / IA development, ColdFusion, SQL, CSS2, XHTML, XML, Flash, Fireworks, Unicode, RSS, Search Engine Optimisation.
Peter Jolliffe
Senior Web Developer
p.m.jolliffe@cranfield.ac.uk
Peter is a BSc (Hons) graduate who has been working within the Web Development industry for 4 years. Prior to his arrival at Cranfield University, he worked as a web freelancer during which time he was contracted by a number of academic institutions, including Cranfield University.
For the past 3 years he has been a senior developer on the SSR and JofSSM projects, designing and implementing tailored solutions to fulfil, promote and further the aims and reach of the project. He currently supports both the web development and information management teams. Duties include sourcing, coordinating, promoting and expanding the content held on the SSRonline databases. Additional responsibilities include SSRonline regional network development. A major element of this duty is the regular communication and information dissemination with the SSRonline registered contacts via email circulars and the newsletter.
Stephen Anderton
Consultant
theteam@ssronline.org
Stephen Anderton is an independent consultant specialising in the delivery of solutions in the security, defence and stabilisation areas. He is an experienced and successful leader of major proposal and project teams for major industry security providers and academic institutions. He is also the Executive Director of a property management company in Surrey. He was previously the Director of Development and Reconstruction for ArmorGroup International plc, a global risk management and security company specialising in delivery in hazardous environments around the world. Stephen is a strategist and policy maker, with extensive Whitehall experience. He is a former Air Commodore in the Royal Air Force, which he left in 2005. His final appointment was Commandant General RAF Regiment and where he headed the RAF’s Force Protection and Security organisation. He was responsible for the risk management, force protection and pre-deployment training of all the Royal Air Force’s personnel and high value assets in volatile and hazardous regions. He is also a former principle adviser on international affairs to the Chief of The Air Staff. He has served extensively in the Ministry of Defence in London as a senior staff officer and as front line commander he operated in many locations around the world. Stephen holds a masters degree in Corporate Management from Cranfield University and is a graduate of the Royal Air Force Advanced Staff College and the Defence Strategic Leadership Programme. Stephen is based in Guildford, Surrey.
Witek Nowosielski
Defence Transformation Adviser
w.nowosielski@ssronline.org
Witek Nowosielski has extensive experience of defence transformation and security sector reform gained from his involvement in both disciplines during the twelve years he spent in Central Europe and the Balkans both as an attaché and as an adviser and from his subsequent work in the area. As Defence Attaché he was deeply involved in the restructuring and reform of the Czech Armed Forces in the four years preceding their entry into NATO and in the transformation of the Serbia and Montenegro security and defence sector in the four years following the fall of Milosevic. As Defence Adviser in Slovakia he played a key role in the reorganisation of the defence sector in the period running up to their membership of NATO. In the year since leaving the British Army Witek has carried out a study of the National Security Strategies of the Western Balkans, contributed to the Kosovo Internal Security Sector Review and advised on the drafting of a national security strategy. He has given several talks on related topics and is an Associate Research Fellow at the Governance Research Centre at Bristol University. Witek is reasonably conversant with Polish, Czech, Slovak and Serbian and has written pocket military dictionaries in two of the languages.
Contact Details
Centre for Security Sector Management (CSSM)
Wellington Hall
Cranfield University
Shrivenham
SN6 8LA, UK
theteam@ssronline.org
Tel: +44 (0) 1793 785020
Fax: +44 (0) 1793 785771