Alison is a Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London. The main focus of her teaching is at the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) where she is Programme Director for the MA in International Security and Strategy. She has also taught a range of other courses at the Joint Services Command and Staff College at Shrivenham. She was previously a Joint Appointment Lecturer with the Defence Studies Department and the Department of War Studies.

Her research examines war-to-peace transitions in fragile and conflict-affected areas with a specific focus on violent state and non-state armed groups in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. She is particularly interested in the role leadership and relationships play in helping individuals and groups move away from conflict towards peace. She was the Research Lead on Armed Actors for the Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) project which aims to understand more about the pathways to violent and peaceful behaviour in areas impacted by fragility and violent conflict. She was previously a visiting researcher at the Centre for Experimental Social Science at Nuffield College, University of Oxford

Alison was awarded a PhD in War Studies from KCL, and also holds an MA in Applied Conflict Resolution from Bradford University’s Peace Studies Department, an MA in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Staffordshire, and a BA Hons in History from the University of Durham.

Research

• War-to-peace transitions
• Security Sector Reform
• Violent Non-State Actors
• Social Network Analysis
• Child soldiers and ex-combatant reintegration
• Trauma