Meet the new Foreign Policy Working Group conveners
The Foreign Policy Working Group (FPWG) welcome three new conveners, Dr Hillary Briffa, Dr Maísa Edwards, and Dr Robert Ralston, who are excited to lead the group.
Dr Hillary Briffa
Dr Hillary Briffa is a Senior Lecturer in National Security Studies and the Assistant Director of the Centre for Defence Studies in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She is on the editorial board of open access, peer-reviewed journal Small States and Territories and serves as the Academic Chair for the Knowledge Hub on Climate for Circle-U, an alliance of nine research-intensive universities. Beyond the university, she sits on the board of the London Defence Conference and regularly consults on foreign policy and defence issues for the British government and international governments, ranging from Estonia to Fiji. In 2015 she was appointed an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, and in 2016 became a recipient of the U.S. State Department’s inaugural Emerging Young Leaders award.
Dr Maísa Edwards
Dr Maísa Edwards is a Lecturer in Foreign Policy and Grand Strategy Education in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London (KCL). She holds a Joint PhD in International Relations from KCL and the University of São Paulo. Her doctoral research focused on Brazil, the Zone of Peace and Cooperation of the South Atlantic (ZOPACAS) and the South Atlantic region. Alongside her lectureship position at KCL, Maísa is a Research Fellow at the Department of Military History at the University of Stellenbosch, and was formerly the Senior Policy Researcher at the think-tank ResPublica and the Lifelong Education Institute.
Dr Robert Ralston
Dr Robert Ralston is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham. Robert studies international security, grand strategy, and civil-military relations with a focus on the politics of international decline and declinism as well as the politics of military service. He is a member of the West Midlands Military Education Committee and is on the executive committee of the Council of Military Education Committees (COMEC).
The conveners welcome any suggestions and feedback as they begin their roles and can be reached at fpwg.group@bisa.ac.uk