Page 106 - Wish Stream Year of 2016

DIA Report 2016–17
By Alan Ward
This year has been a challenging but reward- ing one for the Department of Defence and International Affairs (DIA), managing a process of continuous change within various aspects of its extended teaching pro le, in the context of more uid staf ng arrangements. The department bid at least a temporary farewell at the end of the year to Dr Catherine Sowerby (on loan to the Cabinet Of ce) and Dr James Baker (onloantotheFCO),followingthedeparturesof Dr Mark Erbel (to London City University) and, thankfully temporarily, of Dr Malte Riemann, who will return to the Department full time in the new year, with his PhD completed and viva passed. While understaffed for much of the year, the department has still delivered for all of its audi- ences within the Academy, both in the class- room and on Exercise TEMPLAR’S TRIUMPH, and for the wider military and outside academic fora.
Teaching
The central effort on the teaching front was the Postgraduate Certi cate (PG Cert) Modules. Fol- lowing its rst year in the eld, the department undertook an extended review of
tional level this year particularly. As part of the wider commitment to continuous development at the teaching level, plans are already in place to review the bespoke undergraduate and over- seas courses in the New Year, led by Dr David Brown.
The department also played an important role, with James Higgs in the lead, in academic sup- port for Exercise TEMPLAR’S TRIUMPH, a peace support scenario for Senior Term cadets, thus putting into practice lessons learnt in the classroom.
Research
The department continued to extend its aca- demic pro le in a number of key areas within the wide-ranging DIA syllabus, key requirements both for PG Cert and RMAS’ reputation for excellence. In the eld of American foreign policy, Dr Martin Smith has recently nished two books, both contracted with Routledge. The rst is a single-authored study of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush: Continuity and Change in US Foreign Policy, whilst the second, written with Dr Brown
and Dr Donette Murray, is focused on The Evolution of the Foreign Policies of George W. Bush 2001-8. Both will be published in the summer of 2017. Drs Brown and Murray also com- pleted the second edited volume, again for Routledge, in their series on international power, Power Relations in the Twenty-First Century: Map- ping a Multipolar World, a substantive undertaking involving academics both within the UK and internationally. Dr Aaron Edwards continues to publish
widely, both in terms of academic publications and more popular media, in a range of areas from the nature of war and strategy to individual con- icts, such as in Northern Ireland and Yemen; for instance, his book Mad Mitch’s Tribal Law: Aden and the End of Empire was republished in paper- back in November 2015 by Transworld Books. His latest book, War: A Beginner’s Guide, was published in November 2016.
Dr Smith also produced an article on the George W. Bush administration and NATO, to be pub-
its contribution,to the new Masters
in Leadership and Con ict Studies,
responding to commentary from
both internal and external stake-
holders. This process was led by Dr
Baker, Dr A Jacobs and Dr Norma
Rossi, but eventually involved all
staff members, either in the dedi-
cated working group or wider as
the course was staffed with new
readings for new subjects. There
were also changes to the assess-
ment procedures for the rst Module, with a shift from an exam to a group presentation. Addition- ally, as part of an ongoing review process and in preparation for Military Analysis (MA) becom- ing part of the wider Masters process in due course, Dr Ali Parchami led two working groups in updating and amending both the Captains’ level MA Module B and the Late Entry Of cers Course. This was to ensure that both remained intellectually challenging and contemporary in their nature. This was no mean feat considering the seismic changes occurring at the interna-
This was to ensure that
both remained intellectually challenging and contemporary in their nature.
104 ACADEMICS