President of the Movement for the Abolition of War since 2020
Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, has been fascinated by the fields of international relations and conflict for at least 50 years. Trained as a biologist, he lectured in plant pathology at Imperial College and worked in an overseas development ministry project in Uganda, before joining Huddersfield Polytechnic in 1971 as a lecturer in biology, and quickly developing an interest in human ecology and world development.
Joining the young School of Peace Studies in Bradford in 1979, he has presided over Bradford’s remarkable development into the centre of excellence it is today, in the process carving out a unique role for himself as researcher, lecturer, author and media pundit. He has also lectured regularly at senior UK defence colleges for almost forty years, and is in demand at military and diplomatic think tanks. He specialises in analysis of world trends in conflict, with particular interests in the Middle East and paramilitary violence, and has a long-term research interest in the interaction between socioeconomic marginalisation, climate disruption and security.
Paul is a regular broadcaster on radio and TV networks worldwide, averaging at least 150 interviews a year for more than thirty years. He also writes a weekly column on international affairs for Open Democracy and wrote a monthly analysis on international security issues for Oxford Research Group until it was wound up in 2021. His articles for Peace News are always incisive and he has given talks at Peace News Summer Camps.
In 2006 Paul summed up his recipe for world peace in a Guardian interview: “We need more effective, sustainable development underpinned by proper debt relief, trade reform and effective development assistance. At an environmental level, we need to get serious about climate change, which dwarfs every other issue.”
In 2015 he gave the Annual MAW Remembrance Lecture with the ambitious title “Future Wars and How to Prevent Them”, which is worth watching and reading in full here.