Professor Anthony King works on military transformation and war. He has written widely on many topics including urban warfare, infantry tactics, command, commemoration, camouflage, medals and AI. However, his work is unified by an interest in exploring the distinctive character of military professionalism - and it socio-political and operational implications.

His trilogy on western military transformation in the twenty-first century, The Transformation of Europe's Armed Forces (2013), The Combat Soldier (2013), and Command (2019), explored precisely this question, especially at the levels of the infantry platoon and divisional headquarters.

He has just completed a monograph of AI and war which explores the recent and likely impact of AI on military operations. Rejecting claims that AI is about to automate war, he argues that AI is more likely to cultivate the growth of even more professionalised, skilled teams integrating military personnel and civilian experts. On the basis of this project, he will explore the question of how in practice will AI influence the decisions which commanders make.

Deterrence is the art of influencing others' perceived cost-benefit calculation such that they choose not to take actions that you don't want them to take. Coercion is the same, but in the opposite direction: altering the costs and benefits that others perceive themselves as facing such that they take actions you do want them to take. Both are central to the conduct and analysis of statecraft, and can be conducted via various different ways and means (military, economic, diplomatic, etc). Strategic (in)stability, meanwhile, is the extent to which states assess they can and must eschew offensive action – that is, rely on deterrence and mutual accommodation – instead of resorting to aggression to try to advance their interests.

SSI is a leading UK centre for the study of these related subjects, with Dr David Blagden having published on the interaction between technology and geography in shaping the offence-defence balance, the effects of advanced conventional weapons proliferation on strategic stability, the deterrence of cyber coercion, the influence of maritime separation on insular powers' strategic behaviour, and the place of nuclear weapons in UK military posture (among other topics).

No phenomenon in international politics is more dangerous to human wellbeing than war between the world's most powerful countries. Conversely, when such countries cooperate, such dangers can be ameliorated and other challenges overcome (e.g. cooperation between the major industrial economies will be necessary if the threat of anthropogenic climate change is to be adequately addressed). As such, it is vital for us to understand both the causes and consequences of competition between the international system's most powerful countries (which are often dubbed the 'great' or 'major' powers).

SSI scholar Dr David Blagden has an active research agenda in this area, which includes work on how major powers' conceptions of their social role can drive them into imprudent strategic behaviour, how cross-border economic flows enable relative power shifts that provoke mutual fear and thus strategic competition among systemically significant states, and how the European geostrategic environment is changing as a consequence of power shifts elsewhere in the world (among other topics). 

• Excellence in decision-making.
• Effective team building.
• Professionalism in leadership.
• Character reliability under stress.
• Behaviours that respect others.
• Making practical sense of values and standards.
• Opportunities and risks offered by AI technologies.
• Protecting against moral injury and promoting moral health.
• Questioning and using traditional just war theory.
• Having a warrior code.
• Interrogating tensions between ethics and law.
• Gaining clarity about core moral principles.
• Exercising virtue.

Military ethics is all of the above, and more. This richly diverse field of studies ranges from high-level strategic questions about what rises to the level of an armed attack under international law, through operational challenges about how to deploy personnel, to tactical questions regarding particular uses of force. 

Ethical challenges run across defence, security and resilience. Military personnel, and other relevant decision-makers must be equipped to make the best available choices in the face of strategic and operational questions about new defence technologies, sub-threshold hostile action by (potential) adversaries, challenging personnel behaviours, etc.  To support your personal development and skill set, the Strategic Study Institute (SSI) has access to world-leading research across: human performance, ethics, governance and the law; homeland security; geopolitics; technological advantage; chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear protection; physical, climate risk, and more. 

Together, we ask the tough questions and consider what ethical approaches are adequate for changing security environment(s). No one has all the answers. But the SSI takes seriously the ethical dimensions of military and related decision-making, and we look forward to working with you.

Professor Esther D. Reed works in military ethics. Research interests include evolutions in just war reasoning for changing threat environments, new weapons technologies and accountability for the taking of human life, deterrence, just and prudent responses to adversary hostilities below the threshold of war, religious teachings about war and peace, virtue ethics, ethical decision-making, ethical leadership, ethical teaming, human-machine teaming, the ethics of institutions. She is also working currently at the interface between military ethics and moral injury, and on the ethics of weapons control.

Publications include articles on militarised humanitarian intervention and targeted killings, natural law reasoning, and theological perspectives on the ethics of territorial borders.

She has monographs on Theology for International Law and The Limits of Responsibility: Engaging Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a Globalizing Era, and co-edited a collection on Civil Liberties, National Security and Prospects for Consensus: Legal, Philosophical and Religious Perspectives.

Recent publications are 'Accountability for the Taking of Human Life with LAWS in War', Ethics & International Affairs 2023;37(3); ‘On Limited Force: Prudence Below the Threshold of War’, Studies in Christian Ethics, forthcoming.

Esther has lead-supervised 16+ research students to successful completion of MbyRes/MPhil/PhD theses. She has collaborated with military personnel/organisations and the mining sector.