Dr Peter Dixon has been a military officer, a peacebuilding practitioner and an International Relations academic. During his first career, in the Royal Air Force, he served as a transport pilot, trained student pilots at three University Air Squadrons (including as Officer Commanding Cambridge UAS) and taught Military Doctrine at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs. In his final two tours of duty, he served on the staff of the Royal College of Defence Studies, London, and contributed in the German Ministry of Defence, Berlin, to the formulation of German defence and foreign policy in the areas of international confidence building and mutual threat reduction, regional stabilisation, and the control of small arms and light weapons. After leaving the RAF, he led a British peacebuilding NGO for over a decade, focusing on inclusive Track 1.5 dialogue processes, predominantly in Sudan and South Sudan. Currently, he serves as a tutor with University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education, specialising in war and peace.
Dr Dixon obtained his BSc in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Bristol and, in 1991, an MBA from the Open University Business School. He studied for the MSt in International Relations at the University of Cambridge in 2005-7 and continued his research, completing a PhD in 2015. His thesis examines barriers to cooperation between external interventions in civil wars. His publications include three books on WW2 undercover operations (Guardians of Churchill’s Secret Army, Setting the Med Ablaze and Return to Vienna), Peacemakers: A Christian View of War and Peace and chapters in Locally Led Peacebuilding: Global Case Studies, Making Peace with Faith: The Challenges of Religion and Peacebuilding and Making and Breaking Peace in Sudan and South Sudan: The Comprehensive Peace Agreement and Beyond.
