Confirmed speakers include:
Ambassador Yeocheol Yoon
Dr Karin von Hippel
Whit Mason
Dr Alexandra Novosseloff
Colin Stewart
Ian Martin
Lt Col Sophie Amanda Gregory
Col Dr Manal Abu Al Ghanam
Colonel Si Horne
Barbara Cleary
Dr Karin von Hippel became Director-General of RUSI in 2015 after serving for nearly six years in the US Department of State as a Senior Adviser in the Bureau of Counterterrorism, then as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, and finally, as Chief of Staff to General John Allen, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter-ISIL.
Prior to that, she co-directed the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC and was a senior research fellow at the Centre for Defence Studies, King’s College London. She has also worked for the United Nations and European Union in Somalia and Kosovo, and has direct experience in over two dozen conflict zones.
Dr von Hippel has numerous publications to her name, including Democracy by Force: US Military Intervention in the Post-Cold War World (2000), which was short-listed for the RUSI Westminster Medal in Military History. She holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, an MSt from Oxford University, and a BA from Yale University.
From post-Soviet Siberia to the siege of Sarajevo, Kandahar to Kyiv, Whit has helped to understand and influence the conditions, perceptions and narratives that have fuelled many of the pivotal crucibles of the past three decades.
Whit began his career in 1991 by founding and editing newspapers in Novosibirsk and in Vladivostok, Russia, then worked as a magazine staff writer in Hong Kong, and a CBS News correspondent in war-time Sarajevo and in Seoul. Based in Istanbul as a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, for two years Whit explored the interaction between religion and power in Turkey, Iran, and the southern Balkans.
Whit has drawn on this wealth of on-the-ground experience to lead multifunctional teams and advise prime ministers, ambassadors, generals, and the United Nations on how to maximise and optimise their influence in Ukraine, the Balkans, northern Europe, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Caucasus, and Southeast Asia. He was the public affairs strategist and speechwriter for the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the UN's justice coordinator for southern Afghanistan. He published books about both.
Whit established Mason Change Communications to deliver the UK’s strategic communication support to Ukraine during the tumultuous period following the Euromaidan and Russia’s first invasion. He has written speeches delivered in the UN Security Council, the North Atlantic Council, and Sandhurst.
Whit studied the history of ideas at the Universities of Washington and Oregon, international relations at Cambridge, law at the University of New South Wales, and philosophy, theology, and religion at the University of Lucerne. He is a member of HMG’s Civilian Deployment Group and an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. He has published books on Kosovo and Afghanistan and is currently writing a book about the role of the Orthodox churches in Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Alexandra holds a PhD in political science from the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2), and works since then on UN peacekeeping and Security Council related issues with various research institutes, including NUPI & EPON in Oslo, the Global Governance Institute in Brussels, and the Réseau francophone sur les operations de paix of Montréal. Since 2007, she has also specialised on the issue of borders and separation walls. She is a free-lance photographer interested in post-conflict situations.
Among her latest publications are: Les enclaves dans le monde – Voyage à travers ces anomalies géographiques (2023, Paris : éditions L’Harmattan); La Côte d’Ivoire au Conseil de sécurité (Paris: éditions L’Harmattan, 2022); A Comparative Study of Older One-Dimensional UN Peace Operations – Is the Future of UN Peacekeeping Its Past ? (Oslo/Nicosia: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs / FES-Cyprus, 2022); Le Conseil de sécurité, entre impuissance et toute puissance (Paris, éditions CNRS, collection Biblis, 2021, second edition); The UN Military Staff Committee: Recreating a Missing Capacity (New York: Routledge, Global Institutions Series, 2018); Des ponts entre les hommes, pictures and texts (Paris: éditions du CNRS / Presses des Ponts, 2017); Des murs entre les hommes, (Paris: La Documentation française, 2015, second edition).
Ian Martin has headed United Nations field missions in several countries, including as Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) 2011-12; Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Nepal 2005-09; and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the East Timor Popular Consultation 1999. He served as a member of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which reported in June 2015.
His other senior UN appointments include Head of the Headquarters Board of Inquiry into certain incidents in the Gaza Strip; Special Envoy for Timor-Leste; Representative in Nepal of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea; Chief of the UN Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda; and Director for Human Rights of the UN/Organization of American States International Civilian Mission in Haiti. He also served in the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina as Deputy High Representative for Human Rights.
He was Secretary General of Amnesty International (1986-92), Vice President of the International Center for Transitional Justice (2002-05), and Executive Director of Security Council Report (2015-18). His writings include Self-Determination in East Timor: the United Nations, the Ballot, and International Intervention (2001) and All Necessary Measures? The United Nations and International Intervention in Libya (2022).
Joining the Royal Air Force in 1998 Lt Col Gregory served on a number of overseas and operation tours. With a background in Human Security, Information Activity and Information Operations she left regular service and joined the Army Reserves in 2014.
In Aug 2021 Sophie deployed on a 11-month United Nations post as The Senior Military Advisor on Gender and Child Protection at the Force HQ. Reporting directly to the Force Commander as Lead military contact for Gender and Child Protection across the Force. This included Operational and Contingency Planning, liaison with Civilian and UN Police units and NGOs and leading Gender Focal Points and Female Engagement Teams across a 200,000 km area of hostile jungle terrain. She was the owner of the Force Commander’s Directives on Gender and Child Protection and Advisor for DDR issues with child soldiers at military point of capture / surrender.
Since returning from DRC she has worked in Lebanon embedded in the Lebanese Army Gender Department and she has recently moved to Jordan to support the department of Military Women’s Affairs.
Col Abu Al Ghanam was commissioned to the Jordanian Armed Forces in 1998 after graduating Dental School from Jordan University / Amman (First generation). In addition to her position at JAF, she is also a Consultant Periodontist at the Royal Jordanian Medical Services, Member of the Jordanian Medical Council Board Committee for Periodontics, Examiner with RMS Committee for Residency Training and selection.
Col Abu Al Ghanam has published a number of research papers and spoke in different workshops and conferences in the field of periodontics and aviation dentistry.
She has served with JAF in different positions the latest was Chief of the Royal Jordanian Airforce Medical Facility and Medical Evacuation Centre as ‘Forst Female’ to hold the position (2017-2022).
She was awarded King Abdullah the Second Medal of Excellency for her achievements and work (2022). She has recently (June 2023) been certified as a Gender Advisor from Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM).
Colonel Si Horne is the Chief of the General Staff’s Visiting Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. An Army Emergency Medicine doctor, he has supported operations in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and South Sudan as well as serving as the Emergency Medicine lead for the Army. He was head of the Centre for Defence Engagement, building the Defence Medical Services’ capabilities in international engagement and capacity building. He has also undertaken system improvement in the NHS as Deputy Medical Director at the University Hospital NHS Trust, Plymouth. He was awarded an OBE in 2020.
He has published widely, from the management of mass casualties in high intensity conflict and disasters through to the ethics of infectious disease outbreaks. He holds a Global Health PhD from King’s, where he looked at the interfaces between military and civilian health services, from conflict and disaster relief through to peacebuilding. His current interests include the international use of health as a foreign policy tool, military contributions to national resilience and the challenges of the future battlefield.
Barbara is Chair for SecurityWomen, a global advocacy organisation that believes in the equal participation of women in the protection and security of citizens, and proactive participation in matters pertaining to conflict resolution and sustainable peacebuilding. It promotes awareness of gender equality issues in the security sector, including changing the working environment. She regularly represents SecurityWomen in Government meetings and at the United Nations. In 2023 SecurityWomen hosted its second major conference aimed at promoting the Women, Peace and Security agenda and evaluating gender equality progress. Barbara moderated the UN Peacekeeping Panel looking at progress in the reform of peacekeeping and the pipeline of women police and military officers willing to deploy.
Barbara is Ambassador for the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (NAWO) and was previously Vice Chair on the NAWO Board, and is Vice Chair for the UK Civil Society Women’s Alliance. She represented England on the UK Joint Committee on Women (UKJCW) and has represented the UK on the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), where she was a member of the Board and served on the Executive Committee. She has served as a Trustee for UN Women UK National Committee and attends and participates in the UN and CSW meetings and the annual CSW conferences in New York.
Barbara is the Co-Head of the G20/W20 UK Delegation and has attended and been a contributor to W20 conferences in Argentina, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Indonesia, India and Brazil, sharing her knowledge and experience of women’s experiences at work and the tools to drive forward gender equality.
Barbara has enjoyed a successful career as a Human Resources business manager including running her own consultancy. She has been a strong advocate for women at work, challenging barriers that inhibit women undertaking meaningful work, building successful careers and stepping into leadership roles.
Professor Neil Greenberg is a consultant academic, occupational and forensic psychiatrist based at King’s College London. Neil served in the United Kingdom Armed Forces for more than 23 years and has deployed, as a psychiatrist and researcher, to a number of hostile environments including Afghanistan and Iraq.
At King’s Neil leads on a number of military mental health projects and is a principal investigator within a nationally funded Health Protection Research unit. He is a past chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) Special Interest Group in Occupational Psychiatry and led the World Psychiatric Association position statement on mental health in the workplace. Neil has published more than 350 scientific papers and book chapters and has been the Secretary of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the President of the UK Psychological Trauma Society and Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Neil worked closely with various government organisations and published widely on psychological support for healthcare, and other key workers. As well as running March on Stress Ltd, a psychological health consultancy, Neil is a trustee with the Society and Faculty of Occupational Medicine. In 2023 he was awarded a prestigious honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. He is the President Elect of the UK’s Society of Occupational Medicine.