Associate Members

Dr Afzal Ashraf

Afzal Ashraf is a teacher in the School of International Relations, Politics and History at Loughborough University. His research interests include developing an understanding of the relationship between terrorism and technology. His work has provided organisations such as NATO and their partners with an insight into recent developments, and inform future policy recommendations.

Previously, Afzal was Engineer officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF), where his tours of duty included counterinsurgency and policing focussed operational tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a position in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he was responsible for political and military policy in Iraq. After retiring from the RAF he has been a business change and business development consultant to government and industrial clients, with a focus on developing technology and cyber security related organisations.

Dr Magda Long

Dr. Magda Long has almost 20 years of combined work and academic experience in defence and security, intelligence, and risk management. In addition to being a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Subversion, Unconventional Interventions, and Terrorism at the University of Nottingham, she is also a Visiting Research Fellow at The King’s Centre for the Study of Intelligence at the War Studies Department at King’s College London and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Exeter’s Strategy and Security Institute.  

Dr. Long’s research examines how states use covert activities to pursue their foreign policy objectives, mitigate national security threats, and as a tool of irregular warfare. She has also written academic studies on national approaches to covert action, proxy warfare, terrorist financing, and how states use organised crime to pursue geostrategic objectives covertly. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Long worked as a defence and security analyst at RAND Corporation in Europe, as a senior manager in risk management and open-source intelligence-related roles at Deloitte in the US, and with international organisations in conflict and post-conflict societies on issues related to security, fraud, and corruption. 

Dr Victor Madeira

Victor is a national security specialist with a career spent making academia relevant to policy and practitioners, including in the private sector. An Associate of the Centre for Information Resilience and previously a security columnist for a British monthly, he frequently advises decision-makers on hostile state activity and national security transformation. Previous audiences include the NATO–Ukraine Platform on Countering Hybrid Warfare, senior UK and allied politicians and officials, Parliamentary Committees, government departments and agencies, and leading think-tanks and universities.

A regular media commentator, Victor has been quoted by the BBC, The Times, CNN, Los Angeles Times and Kyiv Post, among others. He has a Ph.D. in History from Cambridge and has published in leading academic journals such as Intelligence and National Security and The Historical Journal. Victor is the author of Britannia and the Bear: the Anglo–Russian Intelligence Wars, and his next book assesses how democracies can successfully counter 21st-century hostile state activity.

Dr Simone Papale

Dr Simone Papale is a social scientist in the area of international relations and security studies. His research activities lie at the intersection between the study of contemporary forms of Western interventionism in the global South and the emergence of non-state political violence on the ground. His works have been published in high-impact journals such as Critical Studies on Terrorism and presented in some of the most influential international conferences, including those organised by the African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK), the British International Studies Association (BISA) and the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR).

His research interests include international relations, contemporary warfare, critical security studies, radicalisation, social movement theory and African politics.

Dr William Soltz

Dr. William Stoltz is the Senior Adviser for Public Policy at the National Security College (NSC), Australia National University. He is responsible for mobilising the College’s research and resident expertise to influence and inform current public policy debates.

Dr. Stoltz’s own research explores options for Australia to shape and influence international security, as well as Australia’s policy responses to a breadth of national security challenges.

He joined the NSC after working across Australia’s defence, intelligence, and law enforcement communities, including strategic intelligence and advisory roles across the Department of Defence, the Australian Federal Police, and the National Intelligence Community.