Partnerships

International Consortium For The Study Of Economic Leverage In Peace and Conflict: ICEL

The Consortium acts as a Hub to an international network of scholars, practitioners, government actors and corporate agents who are engaged with either the critical study, or, the strategic, operational or tactical application of the economic levers of power in the interests of national security. The members of the Consortium believe in the offensive and defensive nature of the phenomenon of Economic Leverage, as well as the existence of those postures in both Peace and Conflict The skill set the consortium seeks to develop among its members and relevant partners pertains to managing economic resources and creating leverage for the purpose of achieving political ends (statecraft), bolstering security and military capabilities (conflict), and reducing or exploiting societal vulnerabilities (resilience enhancement/awareness).

The Consortium seeks to influence the identification and declaration of best practice for the study of the various aspects of the relationship of the Economic Levers to a state’s national security. Discussions around defining such concepts as Economic Warfare, Economic Statecraft, Economic Coercion, Threat Finance, Total Defence, Supply Chain Resilience, to name just a few is a critical part of the Consortium’s intellectual contribution to raising a critical awareness and understanding of both the complexity of the subject and also the need for accuracy in comprehension of what is being done when these concepts are related to policy making.

The Consortium also seeks to create teams of the most capable and able skill sets to grapple with critical questions surrounding the modern international relations environment with respect to the place of such things as Economic Warfare and Economic Statecraft. In the absence of dedicated government or organizational agencies tasked to consider such activities the Consortium will produce critical analysis on key national and international topics pertaining to the dangers, threats, opportunities and advantages various states, corporations, technologies, finances and networks possess in relation to various governments or institutions such as NATO and the European Union.

Interdisciplinarity is the critical feature, as well as cultural, social and methodological diversity, which the Consortium offers in bringing various tools to such tasks and projects, ensuring the most holistic, comprehensive and innovative appreciations are produced at all times.

Finally, the Consortium will act as a repository for these skills sets and thinking surrounding the use of the Economic Levers of power in the case of nations and institutions losing their focus or acknowledgement of the need for this expertise in the name of national security preparedness. Already, in the face of the rise of Chinese economic coercion and the impact of the waging of economic warfare by Russia on Europe and the NATO alliance, nations are scrambling to remember the lessons of two previous world wars, the Cold War, other conflicts that involved such actions and motivations. The Consortium will ensure that those lessons, that knowledge and the expertise required to understand and formulate effective actions for the various uses of the Economic Levers of power are not forgotten.

Members

Dr Anna Hillingdon

Anna is finishing off her second Ph.D. in economics with the SOAS University of London. Her work involves building mathematical models to assess the collateral damages of sanctions as a foreign policy tool (publications in pipeline). At BU She teaches quantitative subjects (e.g Risk Management, Derivatives, Statistics, Mathematics, Financial Econometrics, Econometrics ...), she can, in addition, deliver Modelling Firms and Market. Previously she has led a project for the UNWTO on crisis management, worked as a researcher for NATO on hybrid threats, as a consultant with the World Bank in Washington on reducing fragility and strengthening resilience post-conflict, and presented oral evidence to the Parliamentary Committee on hybrid threats. Anna has given numerous interviews for various media outlets throughout the world and has been program leader for the MSc finance framework.

Prof Greg Kennedy

Greg Kennedy is Professor of Strategic Foreign Policy at King's College London and joined the Defence Studies Department in June 2000. He has taught at the Royal Military College of Canada, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, for both the History and War Studies Departments. He is an adjunct Professor of that university. His PhD is from the University of Alberta, with an MA in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada, and a BA (Hons) in History from the University of Saskatchewan. He has published internationally on strategic foreign policy issues, economic warfare, deterrence, maritime defence, disarmament, diplomacy and intelligence. He is the Founder and Director of the ECCRG and one of the Founding members of the ICEL

Prof Nicolas Michelon

Nicolas Michelon is a 25-year veteran of Indo-Pacific business, finance & economics research. The Founder & CEO of Asia Intelligence Advisory, a corporate geoeconomics and strategic & business intelligence consultancy, Nicolas has worked for 15 years in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan as an economist (French Ministry of Finance, seconded to the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong), financial analyst (KPMG in Hong Kong), portfolio manager (Schroders in Singapore) and more recently as a strategic & business intelligence consultant specialized in the Global South. He is the Founder & Chief Editor of Asia Power Watch, an observatory of economic warfare in the Indo-Pacific area, and an Adjunct Professor & Guest Lecturer in strategic & business intelligence, geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Indo-Pacific at ESCP Business School(France), Galatasaray University (Türkiye), International University of Monaco, and Ecole de Guerre Economique - EGE (Paris School of Economic Warfare).

Heiko Borchert

Heiko Borchert owns and manages Borchert Consulting & Research AG, a strategic affairs consulting boutique focusing on national security and corporate geoeconomics. He is also a senior advisor with the Helsinki-based Geostrategic Intelligence Group, Co-Director of the Defense AI Observatory at the Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg, Associate Fellow at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies, Bonn, and subject matter expert at The Hague Center for Strategic Studies. He studied international relations, business administration, economics, and law at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), where he also received his PhD. He has published internationally on armaments policy, defense innovation, energy security, geoeconomics, maritime security, and public-private security cooperation.

Dr.Fabian Teichmann

Dr. Fabian Teichmann is the managing partner of the Swiss law firm Teichmann International (Schweiz) AG and serves as a board member for professional services firms in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, England, and the United Arab Emirates. He also teaches law and economics courses at the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Vienna, Austria; the University of Kassel, Germany; and the University of Applied Sciences for Business Administration Zurich, Switzerland. After earning an undergraduate degree in economics and finance from Bocconi University in Italy, Fabian pursued graduate degrees in management from Harvard University in the USA and in accounting and finance, as well as in law, from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. He holds a PhD in law from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a doctorate in economics and social sciences from the University of Kassel, Germany. Additionally, he has been awarded an LL.M. in International Financial and Commercial Law and a M.Sc. in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health from King’s College London, England. Furthermore, Fabian earned a master’s degree in Information Management Systems from Harvard University and executive master's degrees in marketing and sales from SDA Bocconi School of Management, Italy, and ESADE, Spain. He is admitted as an attorney-at-law before all Swiss courts and as a public notary in the canton of St. Gallen.

Maria Papageorgiou

Maria Papageorgiou is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Exeter, UK. With a diverse academic background in International Relations and International Political Economy, she has held teaching positions at University College London (UCL), SOAS University, and the University of Bradford, UK. She also has research experience through visiting periods at King's College London and Newcastle University, UK, as well as Saint Petersburg State University in Russia (online). Her expertise revolves around international relations theory and the foreign policy/state behavior of great powers, mainly China, Russia, and the US. Currently, her research agenda covers the following topics: securitization of China as a threat, China’s engagement in the Middle East, Sino-Russian relations, and China's economic coercion as a foreign policy tool. Based on her work on China's arms transfers in the Middle East and its security activities in the region, she has testified at the US Congress U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Finally, her publications have appeared in leading journals in the field of international relations, and she has contributed short pieces and political commentary to international think tanks and media.

Karl Lallerstedt

Karl Lallerstedt is a senior analyst at the Swedish Defence Research Agency. He was formerly the senior advisor for security policy at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and the vice chairman of Folk och Försvar, the largest Swedish NGO dedicated to educating the public about defence and security related issues. Karl has a professional background as a corporate affairs, strategy and communications director for a Fortune Global 500 corporation. For a number of years he focused on illicit trade, and is a senior fellow at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, was member of the OECD Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade, and was a steering committee member of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP). Early in his career Karl served as a political and economic analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, Oxford Analytica and the Department of State. He was a Marcus Wallenberg Foundation Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Spencer John

Spencer John has worked in the financial services sector for the past 24 years. Across this time he has lived in Asia, US and UK, and worked in leadership roles for global international investment banks and Big4 consulting. His areas of focus are anti-financial crime, risk and control across the banking sector. Over the past 5 years Spencer has also built up a portfolio of non-executive / advisory positions; including with UK Government, along with establishing a boutique advisory firm with seven other partners that operates across UK Government in the UK and with private sector in the Middle East. He holds a BEng Electronic Engineering from Warwick University, MSc International Governance and Diplomacy from Loughborough University and is currently a Doctoral researcher pursuing PhD looking into novel ways to measure corporate power to provide useful insights for economic warfare purposes.

Paul Larcey

Paul Larcey worked initially in a corporate research environment, followed by venture capital, before moving into global industrial sectors at the board and senior levels closely involved in funding strategies for major projects (public and private) primarily in the engineering sector, M&A, Private Equity, and risk analysis in challenging environments. He has also worked in strategic management consulting, focusing on technology and sustainability. He works for the UK government's innovation body across key technology themes, such as quantum technologies, life science, AI, and Immersive tech, to assist collaboration between academia, the private sector and investors. Research areas of interest are understanding resilience in systems and the fragility of new technologies, seeking to develop methodologies, frameworks, and a cross-disciplinary understanding of systemic risk from academic and practitioner perspectives. He has studied Engineering, Materials Science and Finance at London, Oxford, and Cambridge Universities.