Karin Von Hippel Keynote Speaker

Commentator on Security, Defence and International Relations
Author of 'Democracy by Force: US Military Intervention in the Post-Cold War World'
Distinguished Fellow and Director-General (2015-2025) of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) - Think Tank of the year 2020

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Karin Von Hippel's Biography

Dr Karin von Hippel served as Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) from 2015-2025. RUSI is a defence and security think tank headquartered in London. It was founded in 1831 by the Duke of Wellington and was awarded ‘Think Tank of the Year’ in 2020 by Prospect Magazine. She continues as a Distinguished Fellow at RUSI.

Karin joined RUSI after serving for six years in the US Department of State as a Senior Adviser in the Bureau of Counterterrorism, then as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, and finally, as Chief of Staff to General John Allen, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter-ISIL.

Previously, she co-directed the ‘Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project’ at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC and was a senior research fellow at the Centre for Defence Studies, King’s College London. She has also worked for the United Nations and the European Union in Somalia and Kosovo and has direct experience in over two dozen conflict zones.

She has numerous publications to her name, including ‘Democracy by Force: US Military Intervention in the Post-Cold War World’ which was shortlisted for the RUSI Westminster Medal in Military History.

Karin holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, an MSt from Oxford University, and a BA from Yale University.