The “Next Generation Initiative”: Building Multilateral Cooperation and Understanding in Strategic Affairs

Elaine Bunn is a consultant on strategic issues. She served as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy (DASD/NMD) from 2013 to 2017. She directed the offices of the Under Secretary for Policy that develop and review Departmental and National policies for nuclear and missile defense capabilities. Prior to that, Bunn was a Distinguished Research Fellow in the Center for Strategic Research at National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies, where she headed a project on future strategic concepts. Before joining INSS, she was a senior executive in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), where she worked for twenty years in international security policy.

Amelia Morgan is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS) at King’s College London and a doctoral candidate at the Department of Defence Studies at King’s, where her research is fully-funded by the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. Amelia previously worked at the International Centre for Security Analysis at the Policy Institute at King’s and as an intelligence analyst in the private sector. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and a master’s degree in Non-Proliferation and International Security.

Rasmus Leander Nielsen holds a MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of Southern Denmark. He moved to Nuuk, Greenland two years ago where he works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Sciences, Ilisimatusarfik (Greenland’s University). Before he worked as a contributing Editor-in-chief at a Danish online magazine (Magasinet Europa) and as External Lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. His main research interests include, inter alia, international conflict and cooperation in the Arctic, EU Studies, the evolution of Para-diplomacy in Greenlandic, uranium, and the interplay between domestic and international politics. He is used widely as a commentator on topics inlcuding North Korea, the EU, and Greenland.

Matti Pesu is a Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), where he works at its European Union research programme. He is interested in Finnish foreign, security and defence policy and Euroatlantic security. In addition to his activities at FIIA, Pesu is also finalising his PhD dissertation at the University of Tampere. Moreover, he is a managing editor of The Ulkopolitist, a Finnish online magazine on international relations.

Emma Rosengren is a PhD Candidate in International Relations at Stockholm University, Sweden. Her research covers topics such as nuclear renunciation, disarmament, gender and feminist theory. Using primary sources from the Swedish cold war period, Emma develops a feminist understanding of the gendered politics of Swedish nuclear history. She was a visiting fellow at the Europe Center, Stanford University in the spring 2013, where she worked with nuclear experts at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). After receiving her Master Degree in International Relations from Stockholm University in 2009, Emma worked on disarmament policy for the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), and the Swedish Section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) before starting her PhD program.

Håkon Lunde Saxi works at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS), Oslo, Norway. Saxi is head of IFS’ Defence planning research program, which provides research-based contributions to long-term planning in the Norwegian defence sector. Saxi is also a senior fellow on the research programme The Norwegian Armed Forces in the Balkans. The project will produce a book about the involvement on the Norwegian Armed Forces in the Balkans during the 1990s and 2000s.