A Contemporary Approach to World Security
Our Leadership Team
Professor Doug Stokes
Director, Strategy and Security Institute
The Strategy and Security Institute is now internationally recognised for its work in bridging the world of security, business, and politics. Understanding that small events can have huge implications on complex systems in today's world, our core mission is to equip our students with the ideas, skills and networks needed to understand and help shape those events. The constant adaptation of our postgraduate programmes means that from the contemporary battlefield to the international boardroom, our graduates have gone on to lead in their respective fields and, as such, are our greatest ambassadors.
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Dr David Blagden
Senior Lecturer in International Security
International politics is an anarchic realm that - unlike domestic politics - lacks a central authority capable of imposing security and order. As such, states must generate the power, guile, and strategic judgement to provide for their citizens’ security in a dangerous world. SSI was created to assist national security policymakers in fulfilling this grave task through theoretically rigorous yet practically applicable research and education. A decade on from its foundation, the Institute has established itself among the premier destinations for students and scholars intent on advancing international security through their understanding of prudent statecraft. View full profile.
Dr Martin Robson
MStrat Programme Director
The Strategy and Security Institute exists to train our future leaders to give us all a ‘wiser future’. We do this through an interdisciplinary approach to inculcate a strategically educated mindset amongst our students: to be practical problem solvers, and to see opportunities where others only see difficulties. To this mindset we add a unique blend of practical strategic ‘tools’ drawn from the business and security and defence sectors. Our approach is to ‘educate the mindset and teach the skillset’, allowing our students to apply their knowledge, skills and behaviours to the complex and multifaceted challenges of the contemporary and future world. View full profile.
Professor Frances Tammer
Professor of Strategy and Security
I joined the University in November 2022, having previously worked as a senior civil servant and leader in the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office. I bring to the Strategy and Security Institute my global strategic, policy, intelligence and operational experience, derived from working across Government and with NATO, the EU, the UN, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and multiple international partners and coalitions. In the UK I have serviced Prime Ministers, Ministers and the National Security Council and Parliament. On the international stage, I have worked with Ambassadors, Ministers, Military Heads and senior Civil Servants. Read more.
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Our research
The Strategy and Security Institute's vibrant, collaborative and interdisciplinary research culture incorporates people working across the whole spectrum of contemporary security issues. The international community of researchers and practitioners has an excellent record of winning external funding, and promoting collaboration and impact.
The SSI is at the forefront of research into the drivers of strategic decision-making by civilian and military leaders, and planners in the foreign and defence policy domains.
Our areas of expertise include:
- The cognitive drivers of leaders' behaviour during international crises
- Rational choice and decision-making
- The psychology of coercion and deterrence
- The management and allocation of defence resources
- Military decision-making in history
- Classical theories of strategic choice
- The leadership and planning of complex modern military forces and operations
The contemporary international security environment presents a paradox. On the one hand, the global security situation, at least for developed states, remains far more benign than the tense nuclear stand-off of the Cold War. On the other hand, the third post-Cold-War decade has brought with it a less benign strategic outlook, at least for Western states, than the two that preceded it. SSI academics are in the vanguard of this research agenda, seeking to understand the causes, consequences, and mitigation of many of today's most serious security problems.
Exeter works closely with the with the military legal community to investigate the evolution of the legal framework of warfare and the impact of law and legal processes on security policy and military operations.
The decision to use organised violence in pursuit of strategic goals is not just a matter of political will and equipment; it is also governed by a system of social norms and processes, including a complex body of domestic and international law. While the growing impact of legal rules and processes promises to strengthen the rule of law at the international level, it also imposes operational burdens and strategic costs on the use of force. The extent to which these developments undermine operational effectiveness and constrain national security choices has become a question of immense significance.
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Postal address
Strategy and Security Institute
University of Exeter
Knightley
Streatham Drive
Exeter
EX4 4PD
UK
