Abigail Watson is a Senior Research Officer at ORG’s Remote Warfare Programme. She researches and presents on the military, legal, and political implications of light-footprint remote warfare. Her research interests include: long term planning and decision-making processes in UK defence policy; the rise in targeted killing as a counter-terrorism tool; the long-term implications of current military operations; and the UK’s provision of capabilities to conflicts in areas where the UK has not admitted to its own military engagement.
Her articles have been published in E-IR, Just Security, Strategy Bridge, OpenDemocracy, Real Clear Defense, Defence Report, the Small Wars Journal, and War is Boring.
Ran and presented at the Oxford Research Group’s Remote Warfare Programme two day conference on ‘Conceptualising Remote Warfare: The Past, Present and Future’. The conference brought together a wide range of experts from the military, academia, civil society and parliament and explored the many aspects of remote warfare. The event was sponsored by the British International Studies Association (BISA).
The diverse range of speakers provided both theoretical examinations, as well as practical and policy relevant discussions about how nations like the UK engage in military operations abroad.
Professor Sir Hew Strachan also delivered an enlightening keynote speech on the relationship between strategy and democracy. Recordings of the panels will be published on the ORG website and many of debates and discussions will be developed into, first, a briefing and, later, a book which will be published on E-International Relations.