Dr Cheyney Ryan

IAS Spotlight Series: Pacifism and Nonviolence

University of Oxford

Cheyney Ryan is a fellow of Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) since 2010, and before that was a fellow of the Oxford Changing Character of War Program. He is director of ELAC’s human rights programs, which have included workshops on humanitarian aid, nuclear weapons, and other issues. He is also cochair of the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights, which is conducted human rights workshops in Oxford, New York, Geneva, and other locations in recent years. He has been a Global Ethics Fellow and Senior Fellow, Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs, and Liberal Arts Fellow, Harvard Law School.

Dr Ryan’s recent work has focused on pacifism, nonviolence, and the critique of just war theory. His most recent book is War, Sacrifice, and Personal Responsibility: The Chickenhawk Syndrome (Roman and Littlefield). Some of his recent articles include: "The Dilemma of the Cosmopolitan Soldier," in Post-Heroic Warfare, ed. by Sybelle Scheipers (Palgrave MacMillan), “The Pacifist Critique of Just War Theory”, in Andrew Fiala, ed. The Routledge Handbook of Pacifism and Nonviolence, "Bearers of Hope: On the Paradox of Non-Violent Action", in The Ethics of Soft War, ed. by Michael Gross and Tami Meisels (Cambridge University Press), and “The Hard Hand of War”, Law and Philosophy (2017).

Dr Ryan has been named one of leading scholars "on the frontier of peace and conflict studies” by the Washington Post. He recently received an Honorary Doctorate from Quinnipiac University for his writings and activism on human rights.