Dr Ian Westerman

Dr Ian Westerman is an academic and practitioner in the field of security and development related affairs. He spent 30 years as an officer in the British Army, initially as a communications specialist, then later as an expert in cross-government cooperation, stabilisation, and post-conflict reconstruction. This included practical experience as a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) commander in northern Afghanistan in 2004. Whilst serving, he read for an MPhil at Cambridge University, where his research examined how the UK MOD, FCO, and DFID could better work together in Afghanistan, and considered what lessons could be learned from the US experience of cross-government operations in Vietnam.

He retired from the military in 2009, having reached the rank of Colonel, and subsequently qualified as teacher. He taught in both the state and independent sectors in the United Kingdom, and later in an international school in Uganda, before leaving the profession in 2015 on moving to Tel Aviv. Whilst there, he studied for a PhD at Cranfield University in the field of defence and security. His thesis considered the question of whether elements of the way in which Israel organises its civil-military relations might usefully inform Security Sector Reform (SSR) frameworks used in conflict-affected and post-conflict states. The thesis was published early in 2024 by Routledge as a book entitled, “Israel's Civil-Military Relations and Security Sector Reform”. Dr Westerman currently resides in Brussels where his wife is working as the Defence Advisor to the UK mission to the EU.