Rachel Grimes MBE

Rachel Grimes is a former British Army officer and NATO International Civilian who is currently a PhD research candidate at the University of Birmingham, under the guidance of Professor Mark Webber. She views herself as a 'pracademic' and seeks to blend her practical military experience with academic defence research. She has deployed in most conflict spectrums; humanitarian operations in Bosnia, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan and Northern Ireland, UN stability operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and conventional interstate conflict in Iraq 2003.

Rachel was the first military Gender Adviser to work in the Office of Military Affairs in UN HQ, New York. She sought to increase engagement between Non-Governmental Organisations involved with UNSCR 1325 and the UN military planning staff, while simultaneously working to increase the number of women UN peacekeepers deployed in Female Engagement Teams. In the UK, Rachel’s last military position was as the military lead on Human Security within the Ministry of Defence.

As a NATO International Civilian, Rachel was the Allied Command Transformations’ liaison officer to the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross. She was also responsible for mainstreaming human security related policies such as the protection of civilians and conflict related sexual violence across the work of ACT including hybrid-warfare, resilience and multi-domain operations.

Her Master’s focussed on counter-insurgency operations, American foreign policy and the role that gender-dynamics play in different types of military operations. Rachel’s PhD is concerned with how strategic level policy is diffused across the operational level and then interpreted and implemented by the tactical level in defence organisations.

When not reading about hybrid-warfare, resilience or feminist-constructivism, Rachel is an avid mountaineer and cross-country skiing addict. She loyally follows Liverpool FC, BBC World Service and The Archers on Radio 4.