Dr Alexander Gilder
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+44 (0) 118 378 4434
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Associate Professor of International Law and Security
- Academic Lead
- Deputy Director, Global Law at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø (GLAR)
- Module convenor for Contemporary Issues in International Law (LWMCIL), Foundations of International Law (LW2FIL), International Law and Global Security (LW3IGS), and Cyber Security and the Cyber Battlespace (Army Higher Education Pathway)
Areas of interest
Dr Gilder specialises in international peace and security primarily focusing on (1) UN peacekeeping and (2) human security in military operations, particularly those of NATO and its member states.
Alex has published widely on UN peacekeeping including on stabilization, counter-terrorism, the rule of law, the protection of civilians, and security sector reform. For example, his work has examined the of the UN in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), the and engagement with counter-terrorism by UN peacekeepers in Mali (MINUSMA), by the UN in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), the role of UN peace operations in crises, and the and their relationship with . He has edited and .
His book, , includes an analytical framework of human security that he applied to UN missions in Mali, CAR and South Sudan. He has used this framework to generate impact in his work with the , where he has advised on the Military Contribution to Human Security (MC2HS) and co-authored policy on how NATO HQ ARRC operationalises human security in its operations. In his role as Academic Consultant at NATO HQ ARRC, he has engaged with various branches of UK defence on similar workstreams related to ‘Human Security in Defence’ (Joint Services Publication 985).
Postgraduate supervision
Alex welcomes PhD applications that fall within his above areas of interest.
Current PhD students
- Sqn Ldr Tara Brown, ‘Is the current international legal framework robust enough for States to respond to threats in outer space which fall below the threshold of an armed attack?’
- Charlotte Graham, ‘What obligations do the international community have to help disseminate IHL to non-state actors? What, specifically, must Canada do to lessen violations of IHL by nonstate actors?’
Teaching
Alex teaches on the following modules:
- Contemporary Issues in International Law (PG) (Module convenor)
- International Law and Global Security (UG) (Module co-convenor)
- Foundations of International Law (UG) (Module convenor)
- Cyber Security and the Cyber Battlespace (Army Higher Education Pathway) (Module convenor)
He has led clinical education projects including a prize-winning, student-centred collaboration with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (Somaliland). The project won the and the . You can read more about the project in the .
Research centres and groups
Background
Alex is Associate Professor of International Law and Security, an Academic Lead, and Deputy Director of . He is also an at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) where he supports the Institute’s work on Military Sciences and in the School of Humanitarian Studies at Royal Roads University (Canada) where he contributes to the MA in Human Security and Peacebuilding.
As a leading expert on human security in military operations, he has worked as a Consultant/Contractor at NATO HQ Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and NATO HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, is a member of NATO's Research Task Group on Human Security and Military Operations and has acted as a Subject Matter Expert for Navy Command Headquarters, Royal Navy. He has engaged with a wide variety of NATO and UK defence organisations to provide input on the development of human security doctrine and policy.
Alex has held visiting positions at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University (Canada), Leuphana Universität Lüneburg (Germany), Gujarat National Law University (India), and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Hargeisa (Somaliland). He has guest lectured on topics of international law and global governance on the London Law Programme of the University of Notre Dame (USA) and the University of Virginia Summer Program at University College, University of Oxford. Prior to joining ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, he was a Lecturer in Law at Royal Holloway, University of London.
He is Associate Editor of Societal Impacts (Elsevier) and the Series Editor of Anthem Advances in Defence and Security Studies (Anthem Press). He sits on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of International Peacekeeping (Brill) and the Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Brill). He serves as an External Examiner at both the University of Lincoln and Glasgow Caledonian University.
Academic qualifications
PhD (City, University of London), LLM (Utrecht University), PgCAP (City, University of London) LLB (Hons) (University of Lincoln).