Centre for Strategic Studies

Strategic Studies at Reading Strategic Studies at Reading War is the ultimate political act. It is Our research power-politics at its most intense and volatile. The research agendas of the Department span the field from nuclear It makes and breaks empires, shapes the very deterrence to counterinsurgency, from geopolitics to terrorism. They way we are governed, and transforms societies. also range over space and time, from sixteenth-century Italian writings We structure our national histories around wars to the future of conflict in the Asia Pacific. The graduate programme as parentheses. How is armed conflict caused? offers a rich menu of subjects on both the theory and practice of armed How is it won or lost? Can war be an effective conflict, including modules in history and philosophy of strategy, and political instrument that shapes a lasting state classical and contemporary thought. We ask whether war can be jus- of peace? Is it becoming a thing of the past? tified, how peace can be invented and sustained, and what role the Or are we in for another bloody century? military should play in relation to other forms of power. Questions like this are asked and debated at Our staff Reading’s Strategic Studies Centre within the Strategic Studies at Reading is helmed by two world-class authorities, Department of Politics and International Relations. Professor Colin Gray and Professor Beatrice Heuser. Colin Gray is a Strategic Studies is more than narrow military major defence thinker with a strong record as a theorist and policy history or the study of battles. It is about war and adviser on both sides of the Atlantic. A former member of the Reagan peace in the ‘big picture’, the grand context of Administration’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and world politics and the interplay of ideas, technology, Disarmament, he also advised the British Cabinet Office on Britain’s culture, law and people. Strategic Studies spans the Strategic Defence and Security Review. His books Modern Strategy and present and the past. It studies history in order The Strategic Bridge have become canonical to the subject. Beatrice to develop our strategic judgement for the Heuser is a leading expert on the intellectual history of war with present and future. a worldwide reputation in civilian and military education. She has written one of the few synoptic studies of strategic thought, The Evolution of Strategy: Thinking War from Antiquity to the Present. The department also has a range of experts on strategic theory and history, these include Dr Geoff Sloan, who is an expert on geopolitics, the relationship between geography, security and power, and is the author of Geopolitics in United States Strategic Policy and Geopolitics, Geography and Strategy, and is the architect of the Depart- ment’s unique relationship with the armed forces. Dr Dale Walton, who has written widely on U.S. military strategy and the nature of modern war. His publications include The Myth of Inevitable U.S. Defeat in Vietnam. Dr Patrick Porter, who writes on the ideas that shape grand strategy, wrote Military Orientalism: Eastern War through Western Eyes, and is a member of the UK Chief of Defence Staff’s Strategic Forum. This is a proudly multinational team, offering an expertise that stretches from Ireland to Germany, to Australia and the U.S. As well as boasting a high-calibre staff, Reading has strong ties with institutions such as the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. It has created a dialogue between policymakers, academics and military practitioners, in the UK Mackinder Forum and the General Dynamics Research Foundation Seminar Series. Among its visiting professors are prominent military figures including Generals Rupert Smith, Tim Cross and Rob Fry, Admiral and former First Sea Lord Jonathan Band, Air Chief Marshal Brian Burridge and Desmond Bowen, former Director-General of Operational Policy in the Ministry of Defence. Together with the Department’s own successful Liberal Way of War research programme, this makes Reading the most dynamic and interactive home of strategic studies in the country.

Strategic Studies at Reading For more information, please contact: Professor Colin S. Gray Department of Politics and International Relations University of Reading Whiteknights, PO Box 218 Reading RG6 6AA United Kingdom [email protected] www.reading.ac.uk