Join us for an online roundtable discussion on how deliberate, accidental, and inadvertent activity in contested environments can create unpredictable and escalatory dynamics. Chaired by FASI's Research Associate Dr Reyhaneh Noshiravani, our panel of experts include Professor Wyn Bowen, Dr Nicola Leveringhaus, and Antoine Levesques. Drawing on the expertise of each panellist, the discussion will examine escalatory risks across a broad geography of regions including Europe, East Asia and South Asia.

Panellists

Dr Nicola Leveringhaus is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of War Studies, specialising in the International Relations of Asia, with a focus on China and the security of that region, particularly as it relates to nuclear weapons. Prior to joining KCL, she was a lecturer in international Politics at the University of Sheffield. Dr Leveringhaus completed her DPhil at University of Oxford, where she was also a Junior Research Fellow (2012), a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2012-15), and Stipendiary Lecturer in International Relations (2014-15). During her doctoral studies, she was a visiting scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China and a pre-doctoral fellow at the James Martin Centre for Non-proliferation Studies in Monterey, California.

Antoine Leveque is a Research Fellow for South and Central Asian Defence at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). He specialises in the facts and assessments of South Asian policies towards China, regional nuclear issues, as well as Pakistan’s political and security perspectives. He contributes to the South and Central Asian Defence, Strategy and Diplomacy programme’s activities of research, assessment, as well as convening and outreach to officials and other audiences, through publications and discussions in and outside of the region. In 2009, he was a visiting international fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. He holds an MSc Econ in international politics from the University of Aberystwyth.

Professor Wyn Bowen is Co-Director of FASI and Professor of Non-proliferation and International Security in the Department of War Studies, KCL. He is currently a William Penney Fellow with the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment and a Visiting Scientist with the Centre for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Previously he was Head of School of Security Studies (2016-2022) at KCL. Professor Bowen has extensive experience researching, writing, and teaching military practitioners on nuclear, chemical and missile proliferation, deterrence, arms control, strategic stability, and coercive diplomacy.

Dr Reyhaneh Noshiravani is a Research Associate at FASI, specialising in space security and the international relations of the Middle East, with a focus on Iran. She holds a PhD from KCL, and is a graduate of Trinity College at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining FASI, she was a Senior Manager at PwC Canada, where she supported the development of a national ESG strategy, and also served as Associate Director of Research at the Diversity Institute. Reyhaneh is a Fellow at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, an Affiliate of the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War. She was also a senior lecturer in International History at ESCP Europe.