Oxford Strategic Studies Group

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Oxford Strategic Studies Group

OSSG is a non-partisan society devoted to the examination of strategic and international affairs through speaking events and wargames. https://linktr.ee/oussg_

The Oxford University Strategic Studies Group (OUSSG) was founded in 1969 under the aegis of military historian Professor Sir Michael Howard OM CH KBE MC. The central feature of our activities is a weekly Tuesday seminar, given under the Chatham House rule in All Souls College by distinguished practitioners and scholars from the academic, diplomatic, military, political, intelligence, business, and media fields.

05/03/2026

We are very excited to host Bennett Freeman on ‘“Resource Imperialism” and US Foreign
Policy: Sovereignty, Accountability, Sustainability’ next week. The talk will take place on Tuesday (10th March) at 8.30 PM in the Old Library at All Souls College. There will be a drinks reception prior to the talk from 8 PM.

Bennett Freeman is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and an Associate Fellow in the Global Economy and Finance Program at Chatham House. Over the last 25 years of a four-decade career, Freeman has worked at the intersection of governments, international institutions, responsible investors, and civil society organizations to establish global standards and multi-stakeholder initiatives for corporate responsibility and accountability. Earlier in his career, he was Senior Vice President and served as a
Clinton presidential appointee at the US Department of State, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. He earned an MA in Modern History from Oxford as a Churchill Scholar at Balliol College and an AB in History from the University of California at Berkeley.

A precis of the talk is as follows:
US intervention in Venezuela and intimidation of Greenland have elevated “resource
imperialism” and extraction as a dynamic geopolitical force. This session will address historical, political, and economic factors that are shaping competition and conflict, wealth
and power, in a ruptured international community. Gaps in the current debate related to governance will be highlighted against the backdrop of competing interests of sovereign
governments and their citizens, multinational corporations and their investors, and civil
society with its underappreciated ability to demand accountability. At stake is the legitimacy and sustainability of this drive for resources from oil to critical minerals, with people and planet overlooked factors that must be brought back into focus. Established international standards and initiatives offer pathways to diminish risk and enhance responsibility, even amidst continuing global turbulence.

Talks are £2 on the door for non-members and free for members. You can buy membership
from our website, which is linked in our bio.
We look forward to seeing you!

Main access to the Old Library is via a steep staircase. Arrangements can be made for those with limited mobility to use a stairlift and a Fellow’s room to gain access. Please let us know if you require this type of assistance.

22/02/2026

Registration for our Airbus Helicopters HQ trip will open at 6pm on Monday (23rd February)! Register through the link in our bio.

The trip will take place on 2 March from 8.30am-1.30pm.
The visit will include:

• A session in the hangar, with a close-up look at helicopters operating in UK civil and defence roles

• A welcome and overview from the Managing Director of Airbus Helicopters UK

• A presentation by senior Airbus Helicopters stakeholders covering key programmes, Airbus Helicopters’ engagement and work in the UK, and the strategic importance of AH to the UK (and vice versa).

The trip is a fantastic opportunity to gain direct exposure to one of the UK’s leading aerospace organisations and engage with industry first-hand. We strongly encourage those who are interested in the strategic implications of the aerospace industry, and industry more generally, to sign up.

Places will be given on a first come first serve basis, with priority to members.

Transport costs for the trip will be reimbursed by OSSG, but a deposit will be required upon successful balloting.

20/02/2026

The Oxford Strategic Studies Stash Drop is open now for 7 days only!!

Order before 27th February 23.59 GMT.

Items available for purchase include puffer jackets, hoodies, rugby shirts, and caps. You can customise your initials on the products.

Order now through the link in our bio!

19/02/2026

We are very excited to host Dr. Seyithan Ates on ‘When Civilian Tech Becomes Strategic Power: Dual-Use Technology Policies in NATO and China’ next week. The talk will take place on Tuesday (24th February) at 8.30 PM in the Old Library at All Souls College. There will be a drinks reception prior to the talk from 8 PM.

Dr. Ates is a Professor of Economics and Innovation at the Ankara University of Social
Sciences. He earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Vienna University of Economics and completed his doctoral studies at the Vienna University of Technology. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, National Taiwan University, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).

Currently, Dr. Ates is an affiliated Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Space Initiative (Saïd Business School) and the Changing Character of War Centre (Pembroke College). His research focuses on dual-use technologies within today’s evolving global security architecture, with a particular emphasis on NATO–China strategic competition. His work examines the key mechanisms driving dual-use innovations and technological spillovers between the military and civilian sectors in China and leading NATO countries (UK, USA, Türkiye). Furthermore, he analyzes how these mechanisms shape national competitiveness, alliance dynamics, and industrial strategy.

Talks are £2 on the door for non-members and free for members. You can buy membership
from our website, which is linked in our bio.

We look forward to seeing you!

13/02/2026

We are very excited to host Sean Corbett CB MBE on ‘Grinding wars and sudden shocks: a
2026 global security forecast’ next week. The talk will take place on Tuesday (17th February)
at 8.30 PM in the Old Library at All Souls College. There will be a drinks reception prior to the talk from 8 PM.

Sean Corbett CB MBE is the founder and CEO of IntSight Global Ltd, a management
consultancy within the security sector for government and commercial organisations with a focus on earth observation. Corbett retired from the Royal Air Force as Air Vice-Marshal in September 2018 after a 30-year career as a professional intelligence officer. On his departure from the RAF, he established a Defence, Security and Intelligence Directorate within a ‘new
space’ geospatial intelligence company, Earth-i. In his time in the military, Corbett served
tours of duty in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, the Balkans, Libya, West
Africa and Central America. He has commanded at every rank level, leading and
transforming large complex organisations, including as Commander of the Joint Service
Signals Organisation, as the Head of Intelligence at the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters and as the Chief of UK Intelligence in Afghanistan.

Talks are £2 on the door for non-members and free for members. You can buy membership
from our website, which is linked in our bio.
We look forward to seeing you!

Main access to the Old Library is via a steep staircase. Arrangements can be made for those with limited mobility to use a stairlift and a Fellow’s room to gain access. Please let us know if you require this type of assistance.

11/02/2026

Dear friends of OSSG,

It has been our great privilege and pleasure to take the society into its 57th year, and it is now time for us to hand over stewardship of this group to a new team. We are recruiting for: President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Development Director and Publicity Director.

University of Oxford members (both undergraduate and postgraduate) are welcome to apply, provided you can commit to the Committee’s one-year tenure (until HT27). An existing membership with OSSG is NOT required; all we ask is that you bring a strong passion for strategic studies to the role! Apply through the link in our bio! Applications will close at 8pm BST on 21st February (Saturday, Week 5)!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you all very much for your support over the past year ❤

05/02/2026

We are very excited to host Dr Hillary Briffa on ‘Strategic Survival: What Small States Know
About Power in an Age of Uncertainty’ next week. The talk will take place on Tuesday (10th February) at 8.30 PM in the Old Library at All Souls College. There will be a drinks
reception prior to the talk from 8 PM.

Dr Hillary Briffa is Senior Lecturer in National Security Studies and Assistant Director of the
Centre for Defence Studies in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She
serves on the editorial board of Small States and Territories journal and the board of the
London Defence Conference.

Internationally, she is Academic Chair for the Knowledge Hub on Climate for Circle U., an
alliance of nine research-intensive universities. A recipient of the U.S. State Department’s
inaugural Emerging Young Leaders award, she previously led peace-building projects in
Eastern and Central Europe and now regularly advises on defence and foreign policy for
governments worldwide, ranging from Estonia to Fiji.

Talks are £2 on the door for non-members and free for members. You can buy membership
from our website, which is linked in our bio.

We look forward to seeing you!

Main access to the Old Library is via a steep staircase. Arrangements can be made for those with limited mobility to use a stairlift and a Fellow’s room to gain access. Please let us know if you require this type of assistance.

29/01/2026

We are excited to open registration for our Hilary term Wargame, “Venezuela - What Next”.

For those unfamiliar with Wargaming, a wargame is a strategy game in which players
simulate strategic decision-making from the perspective of critical actors. No prior experience is required.

Our wargame is hosted by Major Tom Mouat, who is in charge of the Defence Modelling,
Simulation and Wargaming School at the Defence Academy of the UK.

If you are interested in attending, please register with the form in our bio. The form will open at 1pm on Friday 30th January.

We look forward to seeing you there!

22/01/2026

We are very excited to host Eliot Higgins on ‘Verification, Deliberation, Accountability, and
Disordered Democracy’ next week. The talk will take place on Tuesday (27th January) at
8.30 PM in the Old Library at All Souls College. There will be a drinks reception prior to the
talk from 8 PM.

Eliot Higgins is the founder of Bellingcat, the investigative collective that pioneered
large-scale online open-source investigation and became internationally known for its work
on Syria and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. He is Creative Director of
Bellingcat’s investigative arm, Stichting Bellingcat, and Director of Bellingcat Productions BV.

Higgins is the author of the Sunday Times best-seller We Are Bellingcat, a recipient of the
Treaties of Nijmegen Medal, and an honorary doctorate holder from the University of
Leicester and Leiden University. His current work focuses on developing the
Verification–Deliberation–Accountability (VDA) framework and the Arc of Democracy.

Talks are £2 on the door for non-members and free for members. You can buy membership
from our website, which is linked in our bio.
We look forward to seeing you!

Main access to the Old Library is via a steep staircase. Arrangements can be made for those with limited mobility to use a stairlift and a Fellow’s room to gain access. Please let us know if you require this type of assistance.

16/01/2026

We are very excited to host Robert Courts KC next week. The talk will take place on Tuesday
(20th January) at 8.30 PM in the Old Library at All Souls College. There will be a drinks
reception prior to the talk from 8 PM.

Robert Courts KC served as Solicitor General from 2023 to 2024 and as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, with responsibilities for aviation and maritime, from 2020 to 2022. He also served on the House of Commons Defence Select committee, and was elected Chair of the Committee.

He is presently a non-executive director of AirTanker, which is a key strategic partner to the UK Ministry of Defence. He is also a Director of Ascalane Partners Ltd, which
provides businesses, organisations and investors operating in the political, geopolitical and public policy world with specialist subject matter expertise. He is a graduate of the Royal
College of Defence Studies and a member of the Air League Council.

Talks are £2 on the door for non-members and free for members. You can buy membership
from our website, which is linked in our bio.
We look forward to seeing you!

Main access to the Old Library is via a steep staircase. Arrangements can be made for those with limited mobility to use a stairlift and a Fellow’s room to gain access. Please let us know if you require this type of assistance.

28/11/2025

We are very excited to host Ms Eerishika Pankaj and Dr Anton Harder as a panel for our China Focus Session next week. If you are interested in attending, registration is through the form in our bio. The form will open at 8pm BST on Friday 28th November. The session will be held in the Master’s Field Pavilion, on the 4th December from 2-4pm.

Ms Pankaj is the Director of New Delhi based think-tank, the Organisation for
Research on China and Asia (ORCA), which focuses on decoding domestic Chinese politics and its impact on Beijing’s foreign policymaking. She is also the Convenor of ORCA's Global Conference on New Sinology, which is India's premier dialogue driven China
conference. Her research focuses on Chinese elite/party politics, the India-China border,
water and power politics in the Himalayas, Tibet, the Indo-Pacific and India’s bilateral ties with Europe and Asia.

Dr Harder studied Chinese and History at SOAS and then spent about 10 years living,
working and studying in China. After returning to the UK he began a PhD in International
History at LSE writing his thesis on Sino-Indian relations between 1949 and 1962. He has
spent the last three years teaching modern Chinese history at the University of Nottingham and has now returned to LSE as a fellow in East Asian history. In addition to a number of
other publications, Dr Harder is currently working to complete a book manuscript on
Sino-Indian relations in the early Cold War.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Address

Oxford

Website

http://www.oussg.uk/

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