Hillary Briffa

Dr. Hillary Briffa is a Senior Lecturer in National Security Studies in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. She is an expert on the security of small states – particularly small island  developing states, which are on the frontlines of  the climate emergency, confronting rising sea levels and a broad range  of challenges to adaptation, mitigation and climate finance. Her  research agenda also encompasses the nexus of the defence industry and climate insecurity, seeking to better understand how national security, human security, and ecological security can be collectively pursued in a warming world by shifting to a  systems-thinking mindset. All of this research is carried out in  partnership with stakeholders across governments, academia and the  private sector to ensure that projects have relevance and impact in  policy-making contexts. Dr. Briffa brings this applied approach to the  Circle U. Climate Hub and works hard to develop interdisciplinary  pedagogical approaches and active learning activities  that can help participants to connect the dots of their everyday  actions with the bigger picture in national and international contexts,  as well as bridging the academic-practitioner-industry divide in order  to tackle the shared challenge of climate insecurity altogether.