Mr Dennis Blease
Centre for International Security and Resilience (CISR)
Location: Wellington Hall
E: d.blease@cranfield.ac.uk
T: +44 (0) 1793 785128 (Office) or 785286 (Centre)
Department of Management and Security
Current activities
Since joining Cranfield University Dennis Blease has lectured on SSR and NATO at a number of universities and security institutes throughout Europe, as well as in Palestine and Ethiopia. He was the lead facilitator for the UK’s Stabilisation Unit training courses in London for 18 months, and he has provided support to the Geneva-based International Security Sector Advisory Team and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Palestine.
He is a part-time doctoral candidate with the University and is undertaking research into NATO’s role in Security Sector Reform (SSR). His research interests include: the broader reform of the security and justice sectors; SSR within the Western Balkans; Security Sector Governance; National Security Strategies (NSS); Whole of Government Approaches (WGA) to security sector transformation and capacity building; as well as the UK and NATO’s approaches to Stabilisation Operations.
Clients
UK Stabilisation Unit
UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office
International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT), DCAF
Background
Before joining Cranfield University in 2008 Dennis Blease was an active duty Brigadier in the British Army and has senior military experience in NATO and European policy, peace support operations, security sector transformation and development, and advising on Security Sector Reform (SSR) and national security strategies at governmental level. He spent some 9 years working with NATO, seven of them in the Western Balkans (which included temporary attachments to both the EU and UN).
As Commander of NATO’s mission in the Republic of Macedonia (2004-2005), he advised the Government on post-conflict reconstruction programmes and SSR, as well as Whole of Government Approaches to transformation. This role was expanded to the regional level when he was appointed NATO’s lead on SSR matters for the Western Balkans (2006-2008). He worked closely with the governments of the region, in particular with Ministers of Defence, and their ministries and general staffs. Concurrently, the United Nations Special Envoy for the future status of Kosovo and recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, President Martti Ahtisaari, appointed him as his Military Advisor for the duration of the Kosovo status talks (2006-2007). eHeAs part of this work, Dennis Blease was a major contributor to the security elements for the UN-sponsored Comprehensive Proposals.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, a Member (by examination) of the City and Guilds Institute, a Member of the Institute of Directors, and a graduate of the Army Technical Staff Course at Shrivenham, the Australian Army Command and Staff College, and Cranfield University.
He is a member of the International Advisory Board of Analytica, a Balkans-based think-tank; a member of the PfP Consortium working group on ‘Regional Stability in South-East Europe’; and a member of the editorial board of the Slovenian-based journal ‘European Perspectives’ that focuses on the Western Balkans. He is also a Senior Security and Justice Advisor on the UK Stabilisation Unit's Deployable Civilian Expert roster and a member of the International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT) roster.
Selected publications
Chapters in Books:
Blease, D., 1988. ‘The UK Defence Policy Experience’. In: Helnarski, Dr Stanislaw, Ed, The Role of Defence Policy Planning. Warsaw: Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej, 1988, pp. 85-95. ISBN 83-86965-27-4.
Chapters in Preparation:
Blease, D. ‘The NATO Experience of Stabilisation Operations’. In Blair, S. and Fitz-Gerald, A. M., Eds, forthcoming in 2011. From Practice to Theory: Conceptualising Stabilisation Operations.
Academic Articles:
Blease, D., 2011. ‘NATO’s Unfinished Business in Kosovo’. In: From Bosnia Herzegovina to Northern Kosovo – Coping With The Remaining Impasses of The Western Balkans. Vienna: Austrian National Defence Academy.
Blease, D., 2010. ‘Lessons Learned from NATO’s Interventions in the Western Balkans’. Connections – The Quarterly Journal. Vol IX No 3, Summer 2010. Electronic version at: http://www.pfpconsortium.org/file/3867/view. (Last Accessed 5 October 2010)
Chair, International Conferences:
Session Chair, ‘The Challenges of Transition’, at conference entitled: Building Stability Overseas – The Future of Stabilisation Operations, UK Defence Academy, 8-9 June 2011.
Session Chair, ‘Best Practices of Cooperation from other Regions and Future Engagement in the Western Balkans’, Joint Workshop of the PfP Consortium Study Group: Regional Stability in South East Europe, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 23-26 September 2010.
Conference Co-Chair, SSR / POLAD Annual Conference, Joint Force Command Naples, Italy, 14-15 February 2008.
Conference Co-Chair, Building Security Institutions in Post-Conflict Regions, George C Marshall Center, Garmisch-Partenkirken, Germany, 21-23 May 2007.
Conference Co-Chair, 5th Conference South East Europe Clearing House (SEECH), Bucharest, 5-7 December 2006.
Conference Co-Chair, SSR / POLAD Conference, Joint Force Command, Skopje, Macedonia, 8-9 May 2006.
Conference Co-Chair, SSR in Macedonia, Skopje, Macedonia, 22 April 2005.
Papers Presented at International Conferences:
Blease, D., 2011. ‘Is NATO Becoming More Like The EU or is the EU Becoming More Like NATO’ at conference entitled: Regional Security Dynamics in the Western Balkans, Skopje, Macedonia, 17 Nov 11. Hosted by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Analytica.
Blease, D., 2011. ‘NATO’s Interventions In The Western Balkans – Possible Lessons For The Future?’ in Panel entitled: Balkans, at NATO Legal Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, 25-27 October 2011.
Blease, D., 2009. ‘Security Sector Governance: Conceptual Framework, Issues and Actors’ at conference in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, entitled: The Role of Security Sector Governance for the Democratic Transition of the Western Balkans, 29 June 2009.
Blease, D., 2008. ‘NATO and SSR in the Western Balkans’ in panel entitled: ‘NATO and Defence Reform: Experiences in the Western Balkans and Beyond’ at conference in Den Haag entitled: Towards a Whole of Government Approach to Security System Reform (SSR), 9 April 2008.
Blease, D., 2008. ‘NATO and the EU in the Western Balkans: Security Sector Reform Relationships’ at conference in Joint Force Command Naples at Naples entitled: SSR / POLAD Annual Conference, 14 February 2008.
Blease, D., 2007. ‘Security Sector Reform – Achievements and Challenges’ at conference in Madrid entitled: NATO – Partners Land Commanders’ Conference, 15 November 2007.
Blease, D., 2007. ‘NATO and the EU: Security Sector Reform Partners or Rivals within the Western Balkans?’ in panel entitled: European Security and the Evolution of security sector Reform’ at UACES conference in Portsmouth entitled: Exchanging Ideas on Europe, 3 September 2007.
Blease, D., 2007. ‘Lessons Identified from Operations (Including Cooperation Between the Various International Organizations and NGOs)’ at NATO Defence Planning conference at Oberammergau entitled: Defence Planning Beyond Riga, 18 January 2007.
Blease, D., 2006. ‘Delivering Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans – Proposed Joint Force Command Naples Methodology’ at Joint Force Command Naples conference held in Skopje entitled: SSR/POLAD Annual Conference, 8 May 2006.
Blease, D. and Evans, T., 2005. ‘Lessons Identified: NATO’s Approach to International Conflict Management’ at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Regional Conference on Conflict Prevention through Integration at Skopje entitled: Macedonia and the Region towards EU and NATO - Needs, Experiences and Lessons Learned, 4 November 2005.
Blease, D., 2005. ‘NATO’s Role in Security Sector Reform’ at Atlantic Council of Croatia conference at Šipan entitled: NATO and South East Europe, 6 September 2005.
Blease, D., and Evans, T., 2005. ‘NATO Perspective’ at DCAF sponsored event at Skopje entitled: Second Annual Review Conference on Border Security, 23-24 February 2005.
Blease, D., 2004. ‘A View from NATO’ at a Macedonian Euro-Atlantic Club panel hosted by the Law Faculty of Skopje University and entitled: The New NATO and the Main Challenges for Macedonia's NATO Integration in 2005, 16 February 2005.
Blease, D., and Evans, T., 2004. ‘Defence Reform in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Military Relations Between NATO and the Macedonian Armed Forces’, NATO Parliamentary Assembly - 57th Rose-Roth Seminar at Ohrid entitled: Towards Integration: Progress and Challenges in the Balkans, 27 September 2004. (Proceedings produced by NATO PA at: http://www.nato-pa.int/Default.asp?SHORTCUT=547: last accessed 5 October 2010.)
Unpublished Material:
Blease, D., 1998. From Amateurism to Professionalism in the Rugby Football Union: 'The Winds of Change', Cranfield University & Royal Military College of Science, unpublished MSc dissertation on change management (Cranfield University Academic Prize for best dissertation of cohort).
