Dr Andrea Ellner is an inter-disciplinary scholar who holds a PhD in Political Science and International Relations (thesis: Role Images and the Royal Navy - British Naval Policy, 1970-1990), Free University of Berlin, and an MA History and German Literature, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich.

Her work focuses on gender and security, including the integration of women in armed forces, as well as civil-military relations and ethics with a particular interest in moral injury.

Before joining the Department of Defence Studies in 2007 Dr Ellner taught at and led the Graduate Institute of Political and International Studies, University of Reading. She was Editor-in-Chief of the peer reviewed journal European Security, 2004-08, and a visiting scholar at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, in 2005. She researched fissile material security in the Former Soviet Union at IISS in 1994-5.

Dr Ellner has presented her work and contributed expert advice to fellow scholars as well as civilian and military practitioners in British and international fora. In addition to regular contributions to scholarly and policy oriented conferences she has engaged in educational outreach activities with British and international armed forces on gender, war and integration of women into the military as well as moral injury.

She is a member of Euro-ISME (the European chapter of the International Society for Military Ethics), and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London. She leads SoSS Research Theme Society, Culture & Law and is part of the core team of the Centre for Military Ethics.

Research Interests

• Women/Gender, peace & security
• Gender, war & armed forces
• Civil-military relations
• Military, society & culture
• Moral injury & ethics

Dr Ellner’s research combines historical and contemporary, political, societal and cultural perspectives.

She is currently exploring some of the fundamental, often hidden, assumptions that inform debates on causes, effects and potential remedies of moral injury in armed forces personnel. Her aim is to establish not only a more differentiated understanding of these dynamics, but also whether the concept might apply to civilian contexts and how we might theorise on moral injury.

Her work on gender and security explores how far contemporary thinking on gender, war and peace(-building) might benefit from application to historical events. Specifically she is looking at the relationship between strategy, policy and interaction between military personnel and civilians, especially women, in Germany towards the end of World War II and under the first years of occupation. 

Teaching

• Women, Peace & Security module, Online MA in International Affairs, Defence Studies Department (design and delivery)
• MA Specialist Subject Citizens & Soldiers, Defence Studies Department (DSD), Joint Services Command & Staff College (JSCSC), Shrivenham (design and delivery)
• Advanced Command & Staff Course (ACSC), DSD, JSCSC
• Gender, Armed Forces and War, special module, ACSC, DSD (design & delivery)
• Royal College of Defence Studies, 2017-2020
• Contribution to planning and delivery (gender and military operations) of Human Security series, Higher Command & Staff Course, JSCSC, DSD
• Select elements of other courses, DSD, JSCSC

PhD Supervision:

• Leah Sherwood
• Felicia Fara
• Paul Cole
• Tiziana Scaramagli (completed)

Publications 

Book

• With Paul Robinson and David Whetham (eds.), When Soldiers say No – Selective Conscientious Objection in the Modern Military (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).

Book Chapters

• The Ethics of Inclusion: Gender Equality, Equal Opportunity and Sexual Assault in the Australian, British, Canadian and US Armed Forces,’ in George Lucas (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Military Ethics. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015)
• "War Resisters in the US and Britain – Supporting the Case for a Right to Selective Conscientious Objection?" in A. Ellner, P. Robinson and D. Whetham (Eds), When Soldiers Say No: Selective Conscientious Objection in the Modern Military (Ashgate: 2014).
• With Paul Robinson and David Whetham, “Conclusion - The Practice and Philosophy of Selective Conscientious Objection’, in Ellner et al (eds.), When Soldiers say No – Selective Conscientious Objection in the Modern Military (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), pp. 239-54.
• ‘EU Approaches to WMD Proliferation and WMD Terrorism’, in Osman Aytac and Mustafa Kibaroglu (eds.), Terrorism with Weapons of Mass Destruction: Dimensions of the Threat and Countermeasures (Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2009), pp. 79-95. [ISBN: 978-1-60750-015-5]
• Nuclear Weapons and Proliferation in the Contemporary Security Environment: Is Nuclear Non-Proliferation an Impossible Task?, in Mustafa Aydin; Çağrı Erhan; Sinem Akgül Açikmeşe (eds.), Regional In/Security: Redefining Threats and Responses (Ankara: Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences Publication No 593, 2005), pp. 17-37.
• Le Project NFR-90 (Frégate de l’OTAN pour les années 1990) in Jean-Paul Hebert and Jean Hamiot (eds.), Histoire de la cooperation europeenne dans l'armement (Paris: CNRS Editions, 2004), pp. 125-150.

Research Articles

• ‘British Nuclear Non-Proliferation Policies towards Iran and the Middle East’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs 26/1 (2013): 225-51.
• Regional Security in a Global Context: A Critical Appraisal of European Approaches to Security, European Security: Special Issue A Critical Evaluation of European Security: Discourses, Praxis and Challenges in Europe and Beyond edited by Nursin Atesoglu Guney, 17/1 (2008), pp. 9-31. [ISSN: 0966-2839 print].
• Carrier Airpower in the Royal Navy during the Cold War – The International Strategic Context, Defense and Security Analysis, 22: 1, March 2006, pp. 23-44.
• The European Union’s Security Strategy – Multilateral Security with Teeth?, Defense and Security Analysis 21: 3, September 2005, pp. 223-242.
• Innovation and Surface Ships - The Type 82 Destroyer and the Future Fleet Working Party, Mariner’s Mirror 91: 3, August 2005, pp. 454-469.

Policy Papers

• Brad Allenby, Andrea Ellner, Tom Frame eds. Moral Injury: Towards an International Perspective. Tempe: Center on the Future of War, ASU, 2017.
• "Moral Injury – A British Perspective" in B. Allenby, A. Ellner, T. Frame eds. Moral Injury: Towards an International Perspective. Tempe: Center on the Future of War, ASU, 2017.
• Developments in CFSP, CFSP Forum, 5:4, July 2007, pp 8-11.

Dr Andrea Ellner PURE Profile