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 Reading (GLAR)
- Module convenor for Contemporary Issues in International Law (LWMCIL), Foundations of International Law (LW2FIL), and International Law and Global Security (LW3IGS)
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 rule of law activities of the UN in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), the legal implications of robust mandates and engagement with counter-terrorism by UN peacekeepers in Mali (MINUSMA), local engagement by the UN in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), the role of UN peace operations in global health crises, and the future of protection of civilian mandates and their relationship with security sector reform. He has edited Multidisciplinary Futures of UN Peace Operations (Palgrave Macmillan 2023) and Peace Operations and Human Security (Special Issue in the Journal of International Peacekeeping).
His book, Stabilization and Human Security in UN Peace Operations (Routledge 2022), 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 NATO HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, 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 convenor)
- Foundations of International Law (UG) (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 British International Studies Association (BISA) Distinguished Excellence in Teaching International Studies Award 2022 and the Royal Holloway Team Teaching Prize 2022. You can read more about the project in the European Journal of Legal Education.
Research centres and groups
Background
Alex is Associate Professor of International Law and Security, an Academic Lead, and Deputy Director of Global Law at Reading. He is also an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) where he supports the Institute’s work on Military Sciences and Associate Faculty 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 an Academic Consultant at NATO HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps and acted as a Subject Matter Expert for Navy Command Headquarters, Royal Navy. He is a member of the Research Task Group on Human Security and Military Operations at the NATO Science & Technology Organization and 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 Reading, 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).