(On Sabbatical 2011-12)

 

Dr Michael Williams is Lecturer in International Relations and a Visiting Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford. His functional research focuses on strategic aspects of international relations. His regional expertise is US-European relations, European politics and US foreign policy. He is also interested in the politics of South Asia, in particular as they relate to NATO.

 

Dr Williams is the author of NATO, Security and Risk Management: From Kosovo to Kandahar (2009) and co-editor of the critically acclaimed Power in World Politics (2007). He has published in various academic and policy journals including International Affairs, International Peacekeeping, Global Governance, Cooperation & Conflict and the RUSI Journal. His most recent book is The Good War: NATO’s War and the Liberal Conscience in Afghanistan (2011). His current research project investigates Anglo-American relations in an age of systemic change from 1989-2009.

 

Dr Williams is currently a member of the Research Partnership on Post-War State Building, a collaborative research project involving 14 scholars from six countries, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York examining how to conduct sustainable peace-building. Dr Williams’ contribution examines NATO’s relationships with other international organizations in “post-war” state building enterprises.

 

Dr. Williams regularly utilizes his academic expertise for commentary and analysis in various international media outlets such as the Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, the Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, USA Today, the Marine Times and The Washington Post as well as a number of other international dailies. He is a regular contributor on foreign affairs and defence issues for The Guardian’s Comment is Free blog and a panellist on Becky Anderson’s Connect the World airing on CNN International at 2100 GMT nightly.

 

Dr Williams has taught and lectured at the London School of Economics (LSE), the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), King’s College London (KCL), Royal Holloway (RHUL), the Free University of Berlin, the NATO Defence College in Rome, The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and the Defence Studies Group at the University of Southampton.

 

Dr Williams’ research has resulted in a number of policy-briefs for various governments and senior policy-makers including the Canadian Department of National Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the US Department of Defence, NATO, the UK Ministry of Defence and the UK Foreign Office. Dr Williams has also provided both oral and written testimony to the UK House of Commons Defence Select Committee and he has briefed the senior leadership of all three British political parties.

 

Previously Michael Williams was the Head of the Transatlantic Security Programme at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, voted Prospect Magazine’s 2008 Think-Tank of the Year. He also worked on the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford, at the US Embassy in London and in the office of US Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. During 2008 he served as a member of the South Asia Policy Team advising the Presidential Campaign of Senator Barack Obama, writing primarily on NATO operations in Afghanistan. In 2007 Dr Williams was elected a ‘Young Leader’ by the German Atlantik-Bruecke Foundation in Berlin and he remains an active participant in the organization.

 

Dr Williams is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London), the Royal Institute for International Affairs at Chatham House (London), Senior Associate Scholar at the Centre for European Politics Analysis (Washington D.C.), a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (RSA, London) and an Associate Member of Nuffield College (Oxford). He previously served on Alumni Executive Committee of the LSE.

 

Educated at the universities of Delaware, Hamburg, Berlin, Moscow and London, Michael Williams earned his doctorate at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). At LSE Dr Williams was editor, and later associate editor, of the critical IR theory journal Millennium.

 

He is a native of Connecticut.