Mats Berdal is Professor of Security and Development at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, where he is also the Programme Director for the MA in Conflict, Security and Development and Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Research Programme (CSDRG). He joined the department in 2003, having previously been Director of Studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London from 2000 to 2003. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian Defence University College and was a Consulting Senior Fellow at the IISS from 2009 to 2011, responsible for the institute’s Economics and Conflict Resolution Programme. From 2015 to 2016, Berdal served on the Commission of Inquiry set up by the Norwegian Government to examine Norway’s military, humanitarian and development contributions to allied operations in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014. Berdal a graduate of LSE and Oxford University and is a member of the Academia Europaea.