Biography

As a Max Weber Fellow I am researching on how organisational culture and civil-military relations affect the extent to which Western conventional armies adapt to low-intensity conflicts.
I am particularly interested in examining how armies struggle to pursue both counter-insurgency and nationbuilding goals within the context of post-Cold War military intervention. My mentor at the EUI is Professor Pascal Vennesson.
My empirically-based project, as well as my research ethos in general, are multi-disciplinary in that they addresses empirical and theoretical questionsand issues that are raised in the literature relating to strategic, organisational and military studies. My research interests cover strategic studies, asymmetric warfare and terrorism, Middle East security and military sociology broadly defined. Whilst my current research interests mostly comprise conflict and security matters, I do have a strong background in International Relations given my MA and MLitt studies pursued at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Aberdeen.
Prior to arriving at the EUI, I was a Lecturer in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. I taught mostly on the innovative MA War in Modern World e-learning programme, which I helped establish. I also obtained in October 2006 my Doctorate in Philosophy at King’s by writing, under the supervision of Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, my thesis titled, ‘Dilemmas of a Conventional Army: The Israel Defence Forces during the Two Intifadas’. A revised version of my Ph.D. thesis will be published in early 2008 with Routledge.