Research

Our research agenda is broad and inclusive, incorporating people working across the whole spectrum of contemporary security issues. We have a vibrant, collaborative and interdisciplinary research culture and our international community of researchers and practitioners has an excellent record of winning external funding and promoting collaboration and impact.

Key research areas

Our research at the Strategy and Security Institute is focussed in four high-impact areas of priority which are directly related to current global issues.

Integrated approaches to conflict prevention and management

The era of large western interventions may be waning, but calls for ‘smarter power’ grow louder as policy-makers and strategists survey the inadequate tools at their disposal. Whilst ‘more of the same’ is unlikely to be politically feasible in the wake of the Iraq and Afghan adventures, the west will face growing global risks and uncertainties.

This strand of research aims to help institutions evolve more relevant capabilities and greater capacity to deal with insecurity. It will focus on the integration of disparate agents in order to maximise their collective potential and minimise friction. This will entail building links to those institutions and bidding for funding that will help energise and shape NATO, EU, US and UK reform, amongst others.

The changing character of contemporary conflict

Whilst the West may (for the time being at least) have lost their strategic appetite for enduring nation-building interventions that demand protracted counter-insurgency, governments and alliances will be unable to stand aside from all potential sources of conflict and instability in the international system. Yet many of the traditional tools of statecraft are patently ill-suited for the modern challenge.

In this area, we are at the cutting edge of thinking about new tools and new ways of using old tools. The Director led the work that resulted in the MOD-endorsed view of future conflict; that in turn formed the conceptual basis for the UK’s last security and defence review. Our aim is to achieve policy impact by informing and shaping the 2015 UK Strategic Defence and Security Review through intensive engagement and developing arguments for relevant, affordable capabilities better able to integrate with a wider range of partners, in austere times.

International efforts to stabilise Afghanistan

By the end of 2014 NATO forces will have ended combat operations and much of the (reduced) international development effort will be syphoned through immature Afghan institutions. The risks of strategic failure are real. Our aim is to analyse the strategic conditions as 2014 and a major shift in NATO posture approaches, and to inform aspects of the transition to an Afghan lead such as the efficacy of the Reintegration model being used by GoIRA and NATO.  

Gulf and Middle East security

This region will remain of paramount concern to international security. Exeter is marvellously rich with expertise in this region and so it is a natural area for the SSI to focus on. Questions to address include the further development of Iraq (which could be as negative as it could be positive), the interaction of Iran with regional and international actors, the security of the oil sector, and the stability of post-Arab Spring event governments.