Professor Paul Cornish 

Professor of Strategic Studies 

Paul Cornish is Professor of Strategic Studies in the Strategy and Security Institute at the University of Exeter. He was educated at the University of St Andrews (MA Hons, Modern History) and the London School of Economics (MSc Econ, International Relations). He then trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and spent six years in the British Army in the 1980s, serving as an officer in the Royal Tank Regiment. After completing his PhD – an assessment of British strategic thought in the early years of the Cold War – at the University of Cambridge, Professor Cornish spent two years as an arms control analyst in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Professor Cornish has held a range of academic and research appointments in the course of his career. He was Lecturer in Defence Studies at the UK Defence Academy (King’s College London) and then Lecturer in International Security at the University of Cambridge from 1998-2002. Before moving to Exeter in January 2012 he was Professor of International Security at the University of Bath. Professor Cornish has spent some ten years of his career in research posts at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House): first as Senior Research Fellow in the early 1990s and latterly as Carrington Professor of International Security and Head of the International Security Programme from 2005-2011. Professor Cornish also spent several years as Director of the Centre for Defence Studies at King’s College London. 

Professor Cornish has led a wide variety of research and analysis projects on behalf of government bodies and private sector clients and his publications have covered many aspects of contemporary security and defence policy. His research interests include the following:

• Security and defence policy, national strategy and the future of armed conflict
• Cyber security
• Science, technology and security policy
• Humanitarian intervention and the laws of armed conflict
• Civil-military relations and security sector governance
• Arms control and non-proliferation.  Sensitive technology and arms export controls
• US-European security and defence relations, and the role and future of NATO
• Domestic security, public resilience and counter-terrorism
• The politics of defence industrial consolidation in Europe and the United States

Professor Cornish is a member of the UK Chief of the Defence Staff's Strategic Advisory Panel. He has travelled widely, including field work in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, has contributed to a number of Parliamentary inquiries and is a frequent commentator in national and international media.

Professor Cornish said: "I am delighted at the prospect of coming to Exeter in the New Year as Professor of Strategic Studies. The Strategy and Security Institute is an important initiative which comes at a time when independent, multi-disciplinary and expert analysis of strategy and security policy is increasingly in demand, in the UK and elsewhere, in government and in the private sector. I am especially looking forward to helping in the further development of the new MA in Applied Security Strategy and to working with colleagues in SSI and in the University as a whole."