Iain King
Iain King CBE is Executive Director of the Centre for Ethical Foreign Affairs. A former senior diplomat, academic, and author of several books on international affairs and moral philosophy, Iain was Director of NATO Mission Iraq from 2021-2024. He has held positions at think tanks and academic institutions in the UK and US, including at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the Modern War Institute, and was honoured with a CBE for his work to nurture democracy in Libya, Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Lesley Brock
Lesley Brock is a NYC-based policy analyst and political strategist who specializes in emerging tech, public health policy, and political and elective timing. She has a double masters from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Fletcher School of International Affairs. She has spent more than five years in Washington DC working first as a research assistant at the Center for Strategic International Studies think tank, and subsequently as a legislative analyst for Steptoe and Johnson LLP.
She is fascinated by questions that tackle the nuances and ethics of political decision-making.
You can find more of her writing over on Substack, where for the past 7 years she has written a newsletter Smartt Takes on elections, policy, and personal development.
Jason Burke
Jason Burke is a journalist and author who has spent 30 years reporting on conflicts and extremism. He has reported from more than 80 countries and is the author of five critically acclaimed books which have received multiple nominations for major awards.
Professor Richard Caplan
Richard is Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford. His research sits at the intersection of international organisations, international security, and the management of armed conflict. He has been a Specialist-Advisor to the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs in the UK House of Commons, a Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Editor of World Policy Journal, and Deputy Director of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR). He has served as a consultant to the UN Peace Building Support Office and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Fragile States. He is the author and editor of several books, most recently Measuring Peace: Principles, Practices, and Politics.
Dr Christine Cheng
Dr Christine Cheng is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in War Studies at King’s College London. She is an award-winning author and teacher, policy advisor, and political activist. Dr Cheng studies the rebuilding of societies after violent conflict. She co-led the UK government’s Elite Bargains project, which later became the foundation for the UK’s conflict stabilisation policy. Dr Cheng sits on the Board of Trustees at Conciliation Resources and the Scientific Advisory Board for swisspeace. Previously, she was the Boskey Fellow in Politics at Exeter College, Oxford, and the Cadieux-Léger Fellow at Global Affairs Canada. Dr Cheng holds a DPhil from Oxford (Nuffield), an MPA from Princeton, and a BASc from Waterloo.
Sandra Khadhouri
Sandra works with organisations and governments on strategic communications and coalition-building across the new political & information environment. She has worked for the UN, NATO, ICC, EU, OSCE and AU in countries such as Afghanistan, South Sudan, Somalia and Georgia. She is now based in Brussels, where she also set up a transatlantic dialogue network called Keeping Channels Open. Prior to this, Sandra worked for a decade as a journalist for CNN, Euronews and Sky News and has written a novel called Kabul Traffic.
Sian MacLeod OBE
Sian is a former British diplomat whose career focused on Central and Eastern Europe and on international security. As well as ambassadorial postings to Prague, OSCE Vienna, and Belgrade she served in Moscow (twice), Vilnius and The Hague and worked in London in the FCO and Cabinet Office. Whilst Head of the UK Delegation to the OSCE she was also for two years Chair of the organisation’s Human Dimension Committee. Upon leaving the Diplomatic Service Sian became a trustee for two environmental charities.
Whit Mason
Whit Mason is a political-change and strategic-communications expert, and founder and director of Prevail Communications Advisors. For more than 30 years, he has worked internationally to understand the perspectives and motivations of actors involved in political change and conflict, and to design and deliver campaigns that strengthen resilient, flourishing communities and counter extremism and disinformation.
He has advised heads of government, ambassadors and senior military leaders in Ukraine, Moldova, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the UK and northern Europe. He has also served with UN peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan. Prior to his career as an advisor, he worked as a journalist and analyst in Russia, Hong Kong, Seoul, Istanbul and Pristina.
Whit is a Deployable Civilian Expert for the UK Government and an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He has published and lectured widely, and regularly contributes to public debate through the media
Caroline Norris
Caroline Norris is a multi-BAFTA-winning TV producer. Specialising in scripted comedy and drama, she’s worked across the full gamut of genres, age groups and broadcast channels.
Caroline’s storytelling expertise allows her to frame history and geopolitics in ways that generate humour and engagement, satirising issues so they are seen in a new light.
An expert communicator, Caroline has an ability to step into different perspectives and understand complex experiences, then translate them so they connect with a vast audience.
Caroline first became interested in ethics during her PPE degree at Oxford and is currently training as a psychotherapist to use that passion in a more personal field. She is a big fan of finding new and creative ways to solve difficult problems and of using radical empathy to kick start unusual approaches. Deep humanity and the power of humour are at the heart of all her work.
Vice-Admiral Omar Jasim Al Sharooh
Vice-Admiral Omar Jasim Al Sharooh is a senior defence and strategy advisor, with more than thirty year’s experience in Iraq’s armed forces. Vice-Admiral Omar has led strategy and planning within Iraq’s Ministry of Defence in Baghdad, been the Chief of Defence Staff’s principal advisor on maritime affairs, and served as Deputy Inspector General for Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights – a role which required preparing reports for Parliament on anti-corruption efforts and initiatives to improve human rights in Iraq. He has a strong background in international cooperation, having worked closely with NATO, the US military, and many of the embassies and development agencies active in his country.
Dr David Whetham
David is Professor of Ethics and the Military Profession at King’s College London. He teaches at the UK Defence Academy, and in addition to supporting UK defence and security institutions, is involved in outreach activities to support ethics education around the world. David was appointed Assistant Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force in 2020 and is Vice President of the European Chapter of the International Society for Military Ethics (Euro ISME).
Dominik Zaum
Dominik Zaum is Pro-Vice Chancellor, and Professor of Governance and Security at the University of Reading, and has written widely on international organisations, and questions of governance in particular in conflict and post-conflict contexts. He was a Senior Research Fellow in the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), and is the co-chair of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) Research Advisory Group.
Harrison Lee
Harrison Lee contributes to CEFA on intelligence, the ethics of war and international security, with particular interests in China and Russia. He previously worked as a researcher at UK-China Transparency, investigating Chinese influence in UK institutions and co-authoring research circulated to parliamentary audiences. He graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in Liberal Arts, specialising in Intelligence and Security, and studied international relations and intelligence at Leiden University and Leiden University College. His writing explores the ethical questions behind foreign-policy decisions, defence initiatives and subversive action.
Joshua Coyle
Joshua Coyle is a freelance researcher and analyst with Coyle Insights, focusing on public policy, international relations and history. He provides investigative support on current events for public policy briefings, articles and historical research for organisations in the UK and internationally.