GLOBAL SECURITY
Rules duplicity
Body of expertise
Dr Frank Ledwidge , a lawyer who served as a frontline intelligence officer in the Balkans and Iraq , and was a UK government appointee to the OSCE before returning to academia , also picks up on the ambivalence Western governments have too often shown towards alternative views of the world and , in particular , the perceived double standards when justifying Western interventions into countries such as Libya , Iraq and Afghanistan .
“ The West says it adheres to a rules-based process , but if you are not from the West but from , say , Serbia , Russia or China , you may well ask what is this rules-based system that allows you to invade Iraq ,
The University of Portsmouth has emerged in recent years as a leading defence and security academy specialising in global security and international relations . Director ,
Security and Risk Research and Innovation at the University , Professor Peter Lee , says the University brings a holistic perspective to this broad field of study – global stability being seen as a fusion of economic , environmental , health , societal , geopolitical and food security pressures , as well as military tensions .
The University began building core capabilities in defence and security studies in the early 2000s before successfully tendering for the delivery of academic teaching at the Royal Air Force College , Cranwell , in 2012 .
“ There were eight of us at Cranwell , all formerly with Kings College , and on a Monday in November 2012 we overnight became the core of what is now Portsmouth Military Education ,” recalls Professor Lee .
“ We brought with us expertise in international relations , terrorism , politics , nuclear proliferation , military strategy and my own area of specialisation , ethics and war .”
The group linked up with existing University experts and , in 2019 , Professor Lee helped form the cross-disciplinary
Peace , Conflict and Security Research Group . He is now working to establish a Defence Research , Innovation and Education Hub : “ My long-term vision is a Portsmouth Defence Academy , not a physical academy , but an entity that will cover all of these cross-disciplinary fields , drawing on specialists from all faculties ,” he says . “ For example , we ’ ve got people who can create virtual training environments for the military using virtual ( or augmented ) reality , satellite observation specialists , and leading strategists and analysts across all of the complex movements that shape societies and governments . It ’ s an impressive group to be working with .”
Bosnia , Kosovo , but does not permit us to do the same in Tibet , Ukraine or Georgia in the enforcement of our interests ?
“ The West has conducted or started wars that we have said were legal , but really only legal because we lied about the intent , or misunderstood what we were getting into . I ’ m not being cynical , I was a proud serving soldier myself , but the observation has to be made that the selective way we use international law is part of the tension behind the global instability we are witnessing .”
With respect to Ukraine , Dr Ledwidge believes the world is watching the birth of a potentially new and powerful European nation – and the exposure of a chronically ill Russia .
“ Anyone who has lived or worked in Russia and has observed it professionally knows it is riven with crime and corruption . These societal problems have clearly infected its military . We have seen a corrupt force unable to supply itself because of dishonest lines of command . And they ’ re unlikely to correct it because it seems they ’ re not recognising these problems nor have the resources to deal with them .”
How this plays out is yet to be written and Dr Ledwidge is reluctant to speculate .
“ Nonetheless , at this point in time we are probably looking at eastern Ukraine being in a militarised state for some time and then there may be some kind of frozen settlement to preserve Russia ’ s blushes . And while this is happening there will be a powerful new military force , Ukraine and its President Zelensky , agitating very hard for EU membership .
“ It ’ s a reasonable prognosis , but there are many unpredictable and even catastrophic events that could intervene . That ’ s the hard part about being a commentator and analyst . People are being killed . I find this a very uneasy position . But studying what is happening has to be done if we are to understand and learn .”
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