Politics and International Relations

MA Applied Security Strategy

The MA Applied Security Strategy is designed to develop future leaders and decision makers, producing confident strategic thinkers able to drive and execute policy and strategy calmly, under pressure at the very highest levels.

Focusing on insecurity in the contemporary world, you will examine the nature of strategy and how it relates to both policy and action in a fast-evolving and volatile international system. This is a world where questions are being asked of traditional institutions and levers of state-craft. There is a pressing need for creative, disciplined thinkers able to turn their ideas into action.

The MA considers threats to national, international and human security, ranging from interstate conflicts to more diverse contemporary security challenges, such as terrorism, organised crime, resource denial and cyber security. You will investigate the drivers of instability, such as competition for resources in an age of increasing demand and financial austerity and look in detail at how the instruments of strategy, such as diplomacy and strategic communications, might be more effectively integrated.

The way we teach this programme is unique. Our aim is not just to expand your theoretical knowledge but to develop conceptual and practical skills in strategic analysis, planning and leadership which you will be able to apply wherever you decide to make your career.

The MA is led by General (Retd) Professor Sir Paul Newton KBE, and will be taught by a carefully selected mix of internationally-respected academic experts and leading practitioners from the public, private and third sectors. Drawing on simulation and scenario-planning techniques employed by industry, government and the military, you will learn how to design and implement strategy in conditions mirroring the complexity and pressure experienced by senior leaders everywhere.

To learn more about strategy in action, you will visit international organisations and engage with think tanks and policymakers to hear from and debate with those involved in dealing with insecurity, conflict and its aftermath. Overseas field trips to post-conflict zones in the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe will give you an enhanced and intensely personal perspective of the complexities, dilemmas and consequences of security strategy.

The MA will provide you with invaluable skills, insight, connections and knowledge if you wish to pursue a career in policy-making, diplomacy, the private sector, in an NGO, in the military, the media – indeed, any environment requiring strategic acumen, insight and leadership.