Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies

Professor Malcolm Chalmers is Deputy Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). His research is focused on UK defence, foreign and security policy. His recent publications have included studies on: Brexit and European security; the UK’s Modernising Defence Programme review; prospects for, and implications of, a war in Korea; the UK and the North Atlantic; implications of Brexit for UK foreign and security policy; future nuclear threats to the UK; the 2015 Spending Review outcome for the MoD, FCO, Home Office, DFID and cross-government funds. In recent months, he led RUSI ‘track 2’ delegations to Taiwan and Russia; led the UK delegation to the Trilateral Nuclear Dialogue in Washington DC; and was the only UK expert to participate in the consultation conference for France’s Defence Review.

Chalmers was a member of the consultative panel for both the 2010 and 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Reviews (SDSR), and a member of the external advisory group for DFID’s Building Stability Strategy. He is an Adviser to Parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (since 2012). He was a Visiting Professor in the Department of War Studies, Kings College, London (2008-2011). During 2006-2007, he was a Senior Special Adviser in the FCO to Foreign Secretaries Jack Straw MP and Margaret Beckett MP.

Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi is a Research Fellow at RUSI and a Visiting Fellow at War Studies, King’s College London. Her research is concerned with security in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran’s foreign and domestic politics. She completed her PhD project at the War Studies Department of King’s College London, focusing on the diplomatic initiative of France, Germany and the UK (E3) on the Iranian nuclear issue.

Prior to joining RUSI, Aniseh was an Associate Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), where she specialised on EU foreign policy and transatlantic relations on Iran, particularly in the context of sanctions.

Prior to ECFR, she worked as Researcher on Iran at Oxford Research Group, while providing political risk analyses to a number of consultancies. She contributed to publications such as The Telegraph, The International Spectator, The Aspen Institute, The Middle East Eye and Al-Monitor and is a frequent commentator to the BBC, Al Jazeera, Sky News, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and France 24.

Sam Dudin joined RUSI in February 2019 as their UK Nuclear Policy Research Fellow. His portfolio includes leading on UK PONI (Project on Nuclear Issues), the Trilateral Nuclear Dialogues, and RUSI’s work on UK nuclear weapons policy issues.

Sam spent ten years as a strategic analyst at Dstl working on a wide range of issues, including: nuclear deterrence, ballistic missile defence, sanctions, soft power, hybrid warfare, counter-piracy and non-combatant evacuation operations. He was also seconded to Defence Economics to lead the analysis for the Hutton review of analysis in Defence.

His academic background consists of a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from York, and an MA in War Studies from KCL.

Darya is a Research Analyst in the Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Programme at RUSI. Her research focuses on countering the financing of proliferation activities and strengthening sanctions regimes, particularly in the context of the North Korean nuclear programme. As part of her contributions to RUSI’s work on countering proliferation finance (CPF), she provides guidance to representatives of governments and financial institutions on strengthening their CPF and sanctions-compliance regimes.

Prior to joining RUSI, Darya had served as the manager of government relations and policy development at Canada’s national aerospace industry association. She also has experience working in the due diligence sector and on defence-related issues in Canada’s Parliament. She holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University, where her studies and research focused on unconventional weapons proliferation, terrorism and counterterrorism, and Russia-Iran relations. Darya has published on these subjects in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Lawfare. She holds a B.Soc.Sc. in International Studies and Modern Languages from the University of Ottawa.

Wojciech Pawlus is a Counter-Proliferation Coordinator in the Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Programme at RUSI. His work entails day-to-day management of RUSI’s projects in countering proliferation finance (CPF) and other initiatives centred around non-proliferation policy.

Wojciech authored a number of articles on European security and wider foreign policy issues. He has also contributed to conferences and international policy forums.

Prior to joining RUSI in 2018, Wojciech was a programme coordinator at a renowned Polish geopolitical conference organiser Foundation Institute for Eastern Studies, responsible among others for the annual Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdrój. He has worked for an Australian international development company, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Irish human rights organisation Front Line Defenders. He holds degrees from Trinity College Dublin and the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.