Hillary Briffa is a Senior Lecturer in National Security Studies and the Assistant Director of the Centre for Defence Studies at King’s College London, where she read for her Ph.D in War Studies, asking whether small states can have a grand strategy. She is also a founding member of the Centre for Grand Strategy, where she serves as the research lead for the Climate Change and International Order portfolio, and has administered the annual summer school ‘The U.S., U.K., and World Order’ in partnership with the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas since 2015.

In the Department of War Studies, Hillary currently teaches National Security Studies, and Small States and International Security at MA level; The Art of War at BA1 Level; and is the BA3 Dissertation tutor and training lead. She has been nominated and shortlisted in the King’s Education Awards categories of ‘Sustained Excellence’ (2019, 2020, 2023, 2024), ‘Inclusive Education’ (2021) and 'Expanding Opportunities' (2022) for six consecutive years.

Presently, she has grants to conduct research projects on maritime security for small states (in partnership with Georgetown University Qatar), national energy transitions (sponsored by the KCL Sustainability Seed Fund), foresight and net assessment (in partnership with the Estonian Defence Forces), defence industrial strategy and climate security (as part of the Security & Defence PLuS Alliance) and educational research. Given her expertise, she regularly consults for the British government (e.g. feeding into the strategic review process for the UK Integrated Review and Defence Command Paper), international governments, and international organisations (e.g. UNDP in Fiji).

Across the College, Hillary serves as an elected representative on the KCL Academic Board, reporting to the Council, which is the supreme governing body of the university. She also serves on the SSPP Faculty EDI in Research Working Group. She is committed to championing gender and equality policies at KCL through the War Studies Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and is a regular contributor to KCL Widening Participation programmes. Beyond the College, Hillary is the Academic Chair for the Knowledge Hub on Climate on behalf of KCL for Circle-U, the European University Alliance. She is also a member of the editorial board of open-access peer-reviewed journal Small States & Territories (ISSN: 2616-8006), a member of the steering group of the high-level London Defence Conference, , a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (since 2023), and an Early Career Member of the Royal Historical Society (since 2020).

Previously, she has taught courses across the spectrum of global politics, international relations, defence, foreign policy, security and strategy at the Royal College of Defence Studies, the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, University College London, Birkbeck University of London, and Queen Mary University of London. She has held Visiting Lectureships at the University of Malta, University of Iceland, and University of Vilnius. Beyond academia, she served as Youth Ambassador for Malta to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for three years, and worked at the Malta High Commission to the UK throughout Malta’s tenure as Commonwealth Chair-in-Office. After running peace-building projects in Eastern and Central Europe (capturing a $25k grant and winning the European Union Youth Award and the U.S. State Department Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund Award), in 2015 she was appointed an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, and in 2016 became a recipient of the U.S. State Department’s inaugural Emerging Young Leaders award.

Research interests

• Small States and International Security
• National Security
• Climate Security
• Grand Strategy
• First World War Propaganda
• Migration
• Soft Power and Political Communication
• Frozen Conflicts in Eastern Europe
• Strategic Foresight and Net Assessment

Fellowships

• Hans J. Morgenthau Fellow at The Notre Dame International Security Center (NDISC) - 2020/2021
• Clements Centre for History, Strategy and Statecraft (University of Texas) Graduate Summer Seminar in History and Statecraft - Colorado, July 2016
• U.S. State Department inaugural Emerging Young Leaders Award and Exchange Programme, April 2016
• Malta Government ENDEAVOUR scheme January 2015-2018
• Malta Government Scholarship MASTER it! Scheme 2013, part-financed by the European Union – European Social Fund (ESF) under Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013, “Empowering People for More Jobs and a Better Quality of Life”
• Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship, North Carolina 2010

Publications

• Briffa, Hillary. 2024. “Everybody’s Supporters’ Club: Maltese Constitutional Neutrality” In The Constitution of Malta at Sixty, edited by Tonio Borg and John Stanton. Malta: Kite Group. Forthcoming.
• Gearson, John, Hillary Briffa, and Joe Devanny. 2024. “National Security Studies.” In An Introduction to War Studies, edited by Michael S. Goodman, Rachel Kerr, and Matt Moran. Cheltenham: Elgar Publishing.
• Strating, Bec, Nick Bisley, Hillary Briffa, Alessio Patalano, Chisako T. Masao, Nobuhiro Aizawa, Yoichiro Sato, Kyoko Hatakeyama, Scott Edwards, and Troy Lee-Brown. 2024. “The La Trobe Asia Brief: Enhancing Global and Regional Maritime Order.”
• Briffa, H. (2023). Small States and COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities for Multilateralism. Global Perspectives, 4(1).
• Briffa, H. (2023, August 3). Maltese Neutrality: A Live Debate. Neutrality Studies.
• Briffa, Hillary, Ian Hall, Alessio Patalano, and Bec Strating. 2022. "Enhancing Maritime Security in the Indo-Pacific". Policy Brief. Griffith Asia Institute. https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0036/1585584/maritime-security-policy-brief-web.pdf
• Briffa, Hillary. 2022. "Neutrality and Small States: A Strategic Approach" In Neutral beyond the Cold: Neutral States and the Post-Cold War International System, edited by Pascal Lottaz, Heinz Gärtner, and Herbert R. Reginbogin. Lexington Books: London. 19-38.
• Briffa, Hillary. 2021. “The Integrated Review and the View from Small States: Time to Think Smaller?” In The Integrated Review in Context: A Strategy Fit for the 2020s?,edited by Joe Devanny and John Gearson, 86–92. Centre for Defence Studies. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/the-integrated-review-and-the-view-from-small-states-time-to-think-smaller
• ‘Melitensium Amor: The surge of Nationalism in Colonial Malta during the First World War’ presented at the 2019 International Society for First World War Studies conference was awarded the Gail Braybon Award in September 2021
• Briffa, Hillary, Jasen Castillo, Alexander Cooley, and Naazneen Barma. 2021. “Roundtable 13-1 on An Open World: How America Can Win the Contest for Twenty-First-Century Order.” H-Diplo, September 17, 2021.
• Briffa, Hillary., and Gordon Agius. 2021. “Tourism and COVID-19 in 2020: The Case of Malta as a Small State.” Small States & Territories 4 (1): 75–104.
• Briffa, Hillary. 2021. “Neutrality and Shelter Seeking: The Case of Malta.” In Small States and the New Security Environment, edited by Anne-Marie Brady and Baldur Thorhallsson. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
• Briffa, Hillary, and Alessandra Baldacchino. 2021. “Diaspora Policies, Consular Services and Social Protection for Maltese Citizens Abroad.” In Migration and Social Protection in Europe and Beyond (Volume 2): Comparing Consular Services and Diaspora Policies, edited by Jean-Michel Lafleur and Daniela Vintila. Cham, Switzerland: IMISCOE Research Series, Springer International Publishing.
• Briffa, Hillary. 2021. “Section Introduction: Multilingual Environments.” In Multilingual Environments in the Great War, edited by Julian Walker and Christophe Declerq. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
• Briffa, Hillary. 2020. “1919: Repression, Riots and Revolution.” Imperial & Global Forum, June 9, 2020.
• Briffa, Hillary. 2019. “Malta.” In Religion and Contemporary Politics: A Global Encyclopedia, edited by Timothy Demy and Jeffrey Shaw. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
• Briffa, Hillary. 2017. “Audita Tremendi, Emicho, Melito of Sardis.” In War and Religion: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict, edited by Jeffrey Shaw and Timothy Demy. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLI
• Briffa, Hillary. 2016. “Malta in the First World War.” In Languages and the First World War: Communicating in a Transnational War, edited by Julian Walker and Christophe Declerq, 175–189. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Consultant on Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) 2016 report 'A New Comprehensive Strategy for Countering Violent Extremism'

Book reviews

• Kruizinga, S. (2022) The politics of smallness in modern Europe: size, identity and international relations since 1800. London: Bloomsbury. Review by H. Briffa. In International Affairs 99 (3), 2023.
• Long, T. (2022) A Small State’s Guide to Influence in World Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Review by H. Briffa. In The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. Featured Reviews. 7 February 2023.
• Micallef Grimaud, J. (2018). Small states and EU governance: Malta in EU decision-making processes. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Review by Hillary Briffa. In Small States & Territories Vol. 2, No. 1, May 2019
• Harwood, M., Moncada, S. & Pace, R. (Eds.) (2018). Malta’s EU Presidency: A study in a small state Presidency of the Council of the EU. Msida, Malta: Malta University Publications. Review by Hillary Briffa. In Small States & Territories Vol. 2, No. 1, May 2019
• Paul, T.V. (2018) Restraining Great Powers: soft balancing from empires to the global era. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Review by Hillary Briffa. In International Affairs Vol. 95, No. 6, Nov 2019