From Sniper to Smartphone: Hybrid Warfare and the New Face of Conflict

Gordon Corera has been a Security Correspondent for BBC News since 2004. In this role he covers national security issues including cyber-security for TV, Radio and Online. He has made radio and podcast series on technology and intelligence issues, most recently “Shock and War” on Iraq. He is also the author of a number of books including Intercept on the secret history of computers and spies and most recently Russians Among Us.

Mark Galeotti is one of the world’s leading experts on Russian crime and security. After a stint with the Foreign Office, he has been a scholar and think-tanker in London, New York, Moscow, Prague and Florence, and now heads the consultancy Mayak Intelligence and is an honorary professor at University College London and a senior fellow with RUSI and the Council on Geostrategy. 

Elke Schwarz is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Political Theory at Queen Mary University London. Her research focuses on the intersection of ethics of war and ethics of technology with an emphasis on unmanned and autonomous / intelligent military technologies and their impact on the politics of contemporary warfare.

Matthew Ford is an Associate Professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University in Stockholm. Matthew is a former strategic analyst at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, an agency of the UK Ministry of Defence. 

Dr Samir Puri is an author and academic. He is currently an Associate Fellow at Chatham House and Visiting Lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. His previously worked at the International Institute for Strategic Studies based in Singapore (2020-22). From 2009-15, Samir worked for the Foreign Office, where his assignments covered counter terrorism and policy support to peace processes, and was seconded for a year to monitor the war in east Ukraine with the OSCE. He is the author of The Great Imperial Hangover and Russia's Road to War with Ukraine.

Jessikka Aro is an awarded investigative reporter and author of the best-selling book Putin's Trolls. Aro specializes in Russia, extremism and information warfare. In 2014 she started to investigate the pro-Kremlin social media trolls' techniques and influence on public debates outside Russia's borders. Due to her investigations, she became the target of an ongoing international propaganda and hate speech campaign. She trains reporters and the general public to recognise and counter online disinformation, and is also lobbying for better legislation to counter hybrid threats and protect citizens from state-sponsored online security threats.
 

Chiara Libiseller is a Lecturer at Leiden University and a Deputy Editor of the Journal of Strategic Studies. Her research focuses on knowledge production on war and beliefs about the utility of force. She earned her PhD from the Department of War Studies, King's College London, having written her thesis on fashionable concepts in Strategic Studies. In February 2023 she published the article 'Hybrid Warfare as an academic fashion', which describes Hybrid Warfare as a fashionable academic buzzword.

Chris Cole is the founder and Director of Drone Wars UK, a small British NGO which undertakes research, education and advocacy on the spreading use of armed drones and other emerging military technology. His work focuses on the need for greater transparency around the harms of armed drones. 

Olga Tokariuk is a Chatham House OSUN Academy Fellow, Ukraine Forum. Her main professional interests are international affairs and research on disinformation, especially in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

She is a former fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and CEPA non-resident fellow.

Kerry McInerney is a Research Associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, where she co-chairs the Global Politics of AI project. Her research focuses on how AI development and deployment is reshaping international relations, with a focus on the rhetoric of the US-China AI arms race. 

Carl Miller is a researcher of the often hidden influences of digital technology on society. In 2018 he published The Death of the Gods: The New Global Power Grab, about the changing nature of power in the digital age. He presents programmes for the BBC’s flagship technology show, Click, and is the founding Research Director for the The Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) at Demos. He’s a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London and a member of the Society Board of the British Computing Society.

About your venue

The Roof Terrace is a spectacular event space, dramatically suspended from the barrel-vaulted glass roof of IWM London and as if hanging in mid-air. Designed by Foster + Partners, the Roof Terrace with its dramatic bridge and views of the galleries below also provides a spectacular view of the Dome, once the chapel belonging to Bedlam, designed by Sidney Smirke. 

Plan your journey: Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HZ (view map)

About the IWM Institute

The IWM Institute is IWM’s research and knowledge exchange hub. We provide access to IWM’s rich collections for research and innovation to increase the public’s understanding of war and conflict.

Complimentary tea and coffee, as well as a range of popups and stalls, will be available to all event attendees.