Advanced Research and Assessment Group
 Advanced Research and Assessment Group     | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | ARAG |
| Formation | 2005 |
| Founder |  Chris Donnelly |
| Extinction | 2009 |
| Membership | • Jamie MacIntosh • Steve Tatham |
| Spooky department of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, run by Chris Donnelly | |
The Advanced Research and Assessment Group (ARAG) was a department of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom concerned with long-term planning and threat assessment. On 1 April 2009, ARAG was integrated into the Headquarters of the Defence Academy as the Research & Assessment Branch (R&AB).[1]
Overview
ARAG was established in 2005 by Chris Donnelly. ARAG brought together experts from the military, academia and other fields in "research clusters" dedicated to specific areas of concern, in order to provide policy-makers with focussed analysis of international security issues. It produced a large number of research papers as well as more targeted limited distribution work.[citation needed]
ARAG worked closely with the Conflict Studies Research Centre, which was co-located with ARAG at the Defence Academy's Shrivenham campus.[citation needed]
In 2007 Donnelly handed management of ARAG to Jamie MacIntosh, the former Special Advisor to the Home Secretary John Reid.[citation needed]
ARAG also administered the Defence Academy Reserve Cadre, a network of over 70 Reserve Forces personnel with unusual civilian skills sets or languages. The Cadre personnel were designed to augment regular forces and other government departments in providing specialist civilian skills in operational areas.[citation needed]
ARAG was renamed Research & Assessment Branch in late 2009 and, losing its own budget, incorporated into the Defence Academy's HQ Building - newly refurbished to accommodate them. Widely flagged as a means to preserve ARAG's capability, the Defence Academy's Director General, Lieutenant General Andrew Graham, told the staff that he was 'passionate about research' and that the capability was secure under his tenure.[citation needed] However less than three months later and despite having an annual budget of less than £1 million, ARAG was closed down in February 2010 by General Graham as a cost-saving measure.[citation needed]
People
- Dr Jamie P. Macintosh, Head of ARAG circa 2007[2]|
- Steve Tatham Listed as 'current Director of Communication Research' at the UK Defence Academy's Advanced Research and Assessment Group on his own website in February 2010, though the ARAG was subsumed into the Research & Assessment Branch on 1 April 2009[3]
- Chris Donnelly - later of the Integrity Initiative
References
- ↑ Research & Assessment Branch (R&AB), Defence Academy of the United Kingdom website, accessed 4 Feb 2010.
- ↑ Web archive: www.defac.ac.uk/csrc/, archived 26 September 2007, accessed 1 March 2009.
- ↑ Steve Tatham, Strategic Communication accessed 03/01/10
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