Dr. Plesch is an historian and international relations scholar focused on the contemporary application of the historical origins of international criminal law as part of a research agenda encompassing human rights and strategic studies.
Background
Plesch has been researching the contemporary applicability of the 1943-1948 United Nations War Crimes Commission and its member states. Plesch has been engaged as a public intellectual for many years working in the NGO sector, the media and academia on aspects of international peace and security.
Areas of Expertise
The contemporary applicability of the 1943-1948 United Nations War Crimes Commission and member state practice including the rocky road to Nuremberg, systems of positive complementarity, cultural crimes and pillage, SGBV, Head of State immunity, aggression, universal jurisdiction and non-Anglo-American agency in ICL.
News
View allAchievements
Associated Work
Featuring in Amazon Prime’s Getting Away with Murder(s), and Netflix’s Buchenwald, Greatest Events of WW2 in Color.
Appointments
- Plesch is Professor of Diplomacy and Strategy at SOAS University of London
- Plesch has held honorary fellowships at American, Birkbeck, Bradford and Keele Universities, was Senior Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) and founding director in Washington DC of the British American Security Information Council
Publications
- Adami, Rebecca and Plesch, Daniel, eds. (2021) Women and the UN: A New History of Women's International Human Rights. London: Routledge. (Explorations in Development Studies)
- Adami, Rebecca, Plesch, Daniel and Acharya, Amitav (2021) 'Commentary: The restorative archeology of knowledge about the role of women in the history of the UN – Theoretical implications for international relations.' In: Adami, Rebecca and Plesch, Daniel, (eds.), Women and the UN: A New History of Women's International Human Rights. London: Routledge, pp. 161-168. (Explorations in Development Studies)
- Acharya, Amitav and Plesch, Dan (2020) 'The United Nations: Managing and Re-shaping a New World Order.' Global Governance, 26 (2). pp. 221-235.
- Plesch, Dan and Miletic, K (2019) 'The Relationship between Humanitarian Disarmament and General and Complete Disarmament.' In: Bolton, M, Benjamin-Britton, T and Njeri, S, (eds.), Global Activism and Humanitarian Disarmament. Cham: Palgrave, pp. 199-224.
- Plesch, Dan and Owen, Leah (2019) 'The United Nations War Crimes Commission: a model for complementarity today?' In: Griech-polelle, B, (ed.), The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and its Policy Consequences Today. Baden-Baden:
- Plesch, Dan (2018) 'Could the US win World War III without using nuclear weapons?' The Conversation (Apr 19).
- Plesch, Dan (2017) Human Rights After Hitler: The Lost History of Prosecuting Axis War Crimes. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
- Weiss, Thomas G., Plesch, Dan and Owen, Leah (2016) 'The UN War Crimes Commission and International Law: Revisiting World War II Precedents and Practice.' In: Ziccardi Capaldo, Giuliana, (ed.), Global Community: Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence 2015. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 71-109.
- Plesch, Dan (2016) 'The South and disarmament at the UN.' Third World Quarterly, 37 (7). pp. 1203-1218.
- Plesch, Dan and Weiss, Thomas G. (2015) '1945’s Forgotten Insight: Multilateralism as Realist Necessity.' International Studies Perspectives, 17 (1). pp. 4-16.
- Plesch, Dan and Weiss, Thomas G. (2015) '1945’s Lesson: ‘Good-Enough’ Global Governance Ain’t Good Enough.' Global Governance, 21 (2). pp. 197-204.
- Plesch, Dan and Weiss, Thomas G., eds. (2015) Wartime Origins and the Future United Nations. Oxon; New York: Routledge. (Global Institutions) Full text not available from this repository.
- Plesch, Dan (2015) 'Building on the 1943-48 United Nations War Crimes Commission.' In: Plesch, Dan and Weiss, Thomas G., (eds.), Wartime Origins and the Future United Nations. Oxon; New York: Routledge, pp. 79-98. (Global Institutions)
- Plesch, Dan and Sattler, Shanti (2014) 'A New Paradigm of Customary International Criminal Law: The UN War Crimes Commission of 1943–1948 and its Associated Courts and Tribunals.' Criminal Law Forum, 25 (1-2). pp. 17-43.
- Roy, Pallavi (2014) 'Financing Gaps, Competitiveness and Capabilities: Why Bretton Woods needs a Radical Rethink.' In: Weiss, Thomas G. and Plesch, Dan, (eds.), Wartime Origins and the Future United Nations. Basingstoke: Routledge, pp. 160-178. (Routledge global institutions series ; 94)
- Roy, Pallavi (2014) 'Financing Gaps, Competitiveness and Capabilities: Why Bretton Woods needs a Radical Rethink.' In: Weiss, Thomas G. and Plesch, Dan, (eds.), Wartime Origins and the Future United Nations. Basingstoke: Routledge, pp. 160-178. (Routledge global institutions series ; 94)
- Plesch, Dan and Shattler, Shanti (2014) 'Before Nuremberg: Considering the Work of the United Nations War Crimes Commission of 1943-1948.' In: Bergsmo, Morten, Cheah, Wui Ling and Yi, Ping, (eds.), Historical origins of international criminal law. Brussels: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, pp. 437-473. (FICHL publication series)
- Plesch, Dan and Sattler, Shanti (2013) 'Changing the Paradigm of International Criminal Law: Considering the Work of the United Nations War Crimes Commission of 1943–1948.' International Community Law Review, 15 (2). pp. 203-223
Awards
- Plesch’s book Human Rights After Hitler won an award from the International Law section of the International Studies Association.
Education
- BA History Nottingham.
- PhD Political Science, Keele
Activities and Interests
- Plesch has helped out at the Glastonbury Festival of the Contemporary Performing Arts since 1981 and has an abiding interest in rock festival culture. He plays football and supports Stoke City FC.