David Whetham

Professor David Whetham is Professor of Ethics and the Military Profession in the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London, based at the Joint Services Command and Staff College at the UK Defence Academy. David initially took a degree in Philosophy at the London School of Economics and went on to take a Masters Degree in War Studies at King’s College London. After some time spent traveling around the Great Lakes region of Africa, David returned to King’s to take a PhD in War Studies. Before joining King’s as a permanent member of staff in 2003, David worked as a BBC researcher and with the OSCE in Kosovo, supporting the 2001 and 2002 elections. David also sits on the King’s Research Ethics Committee that oversees the research conducted in the Faculties of Social Science and Public Policy, Arts and Humanities and Law. David is also Director of the King's Centre for Military Ethics.

David’s main research interests are focused on the ethical dimensions of warfare and the development of the laws of war. In Spring 2011, David was a Resident Fellow at the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, and in 2009, he was a Visiting Fellow with the Centre for Defence Leadership and Ethics at the Australian Defence College, Canberra. He is also a visiting lecturer in military ethics at the Baltic Defence College and for the Royal Brunei Armed Forces. David was a co-founder of the European Chapter of the International Society for Military Ethics, which convenes an annual conference, and he is a member of the Military Ethics Education Network steering group. He is married with two children, and in his spare time is a Magistrate on the Wiltshire bench, plays trombone and fences with the medieval longsword and epée.

Research Interests
Ethical Dimensions of Warfare
Just War Tradition
Development of the Laws of War
Warfare in the Middle Ages
Development of Strategic Thought