24 June, London, 18.30 London School of Economics

Taking Stock of International Security
SIPRI's Annual Assessment of Conflicts, Armaments and Arms Control With a presentation on Afghanistan and regional security trends by General Sir David Richards, Commander in Chief of British Land Forces and former Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (May 2006-Feb 2007).

The release of the SIPRI Yearbook is anticipated by the international community for its insight into recent developments in a number of security-related fields: from trends in armed conflicts to world nuclear forces; from military spending to the ban on cluster munitions; from peacekeeping to non-proliferation. Join these leading experts for a lively discussion on current and future directions for global and regional security.

Short bio of the speakers:

General Sir David Richards
KCB CBE DSO ADC Gen, Commander-in-Chief Land Forces
Born in 1952 and educated at Eastbourne College, David Richards was appointed Chief of Staff of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps in April 2001 before becoming Assistant Chief of the General Staff in September 2002. 
He assumed the appointment of Commander Allied Rapid Reaction Corps
in January 2005, in which role he served as Commander of the International Security Assistance Force Afghanistan between May 2006 and February 2007.

On completion of NATO/ISAF expansion across the whole of Afghanistan in October 2006, he was promoted to General for the remainder of his time in Afghanistan.  In February 2008 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief Land Forces.  In August 2009, he will become Chief of the General Staff.  His operational awards include a Mention in Despatches, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the Distinguished Service Order and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.   

Dr. Bates Gill, Director
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Dr Bates Gill was appointed by the Swedish government to become the seventh Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in March 2007, and he took up these duties in October 2007.  Founded in 1966, SIPRI is an independent think-tank with a staff of 55 persons focusing on bettering the conditions for a more stable and secure world through research and analysis on international and regional security, nonproliferation, arms control, peacekeeping and conflict prevention, security sector reform, military spending, arms trade, and defense production.  SIPRI was recently ranked third among non-U.S. think tanks and sixth globally in the category of international security and foreign policy the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Before joining SIPRI, Dr. Bates Gill held the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C from 2002 to 2007. He previously served as a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and inaugural Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution from 1998 to 2002. He also directed East Asia programs at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute in California and at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and formerly held the Fei Yiming Chair in Comparative Politics at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Chinese and American Studies, Nanjing, China.

The event is a collaboration between the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the Centre for the Study of global Governance at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
www.sipri.org
www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/global/