Natalie Sambhi is Founder and Executive Director of Verve Research, an independent research collective focussed on the relationship between militaries and societies. Since 2016, she has also been a Research Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, where she publishes on Indonesian foreign and defence policy as well as Southeast Asian affairs. Natalie is a PhD scholar at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Australian National University, focussing on Indonesian military history.

Chiara Ruffa & Steve Saideman discuss ‘forever wars’ at the ERGOMAS conference in Lisbon.

Chiara Ruffa is Academy fellow at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University and associate professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defense University. Chiara's research interests lie at the cross-road between political science and sociology with a specific focus on military organizations in nonconventional operations. Her work has been published in Security Studies, Acta Sociologica, Armed Forces and Society, Security and Defence Analysis, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Comparative European Politics, and several edited volumes.

Lindy Heinecken discusses transitions of peacekeepers when they come home.

Lindy Heinecken was formerly a researcher and Deputy Director of the Centre for Military Studies (CEMIS) at the South African Military Academy. She now serves as Associate Professor of Sociology in the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department, Stellenbosch University where she lectures in political and industrial sociology. The main focus of her research is in the domain of armed forces and society where she has published on a range of issues including gender integration, civil-military relations, military unionism, HIV/AIDS and security and more recently on the impact of private security on the military profession. She holds a MSocSc from the University of Cape Town and a PhD from Kings College, Department of War Studies, University of London. She serves on numerous academic boards, including the Council of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society (USA) and the International Sociological Association's (ISA) Armed Forces and Conflict Resolution working group. She is also one of the pool of specialists conducting research for the South African Army.

Andrea Lane speaks about her research examining the experience of female combat soldiers in Canada.

Andrea Lane is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Dalhousie University. She holds a BA (Hons) in Political Science from Dalhousie, and an MA in International Affairs from Carleton (NPSIA,) with previous studies in English Literature and Classics. Her MA thesis tested a theory of differential mobilization into non-Islamic terrorism, while her undergraduate thesis explored civil-military tension in the Auditor General’s review of defence procurement in Canada. Andrea’s research interests include maritime security, military cultures, civil-military relations, defence policy and procurement, gender in security, and Canadian foreign policy.