Department of War Studies, King's College London

The Department of War Studies (DWS) is an academic department at King's College London based in London, United Kingdom. It ranks amongst the top departments for international relations in the world. The department is devoted to the multi-disciplinary study of war and diplomacy within the broad remit of international relations.

The department's alumni includes senior government officials, military personnel, diplomats, journalists, academics and businesspeople. Amongst them are former Prime Minister of Jordan Marouf al-Bakhit; Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq Nikolay Mladenov and former Commandant General Royal Marines Sir Robert Fry. The department is affiliated with numerous think-tanks and foreign policy institutions. It also houses numerous research institutes and centres, including the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives.

Since 2013, the Head of Department has been Theo Farrell, who is also the Professor of War in the Modern World. The Department of War Studies is located on the 6th floor of the King's Building on the Strand Campus of King's College London.

History
A Department of Military Science existed at King's College London from 1848–1859. Military Science was subsequently approved as a subject for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science general degrees from 1913, and was taught under the Faculty of Arts and also the Faculty of Engineering.

In 1926 the intervention of William Norton Medlicott prevented the Department of History from ridding itself of the lectureship in Military History. With War Office support the Military Studies Department was established in 1926 and formed part of the Faculty of Arts, with Major General Sir Frederick Barton Maurice holding the Chair. It became known as the War Studies Department in 1943 but was discontinued in 1948, although the subject continued to be taught under the Department of Medieval and Modern History.

Following the World War II, there was an initiative by senior members of University of London notably Lionel Robbins, Sir Charles Webster and Keith Hancock, to revive Military Studies at the University. In 1953, Sir Michael Howard was appointed to the Lectureship in Military Studies, and by 1962 Sir Michael was able to reinstate the Department of War Studies to offer postgraduate courses.

A Bachelor of Arts degree in War Studies was offered from 1992 onwards. The department became part of the School of Humanities in 1989 and the School of Social Science and Public Policy in 2001.

In 2012 the department celebrated its 50th anniversary, with a series of celebratory events to mark the occasion.

Government and politics

 * Marouf al-Bakhit (PhD 1990), former Prime Minister of Jordan
 * Martin Bourke (MA 1970), former Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands
 * Tan Chuan-Jin (MA 1999), Singaporean Member of Parliament
 * Kayode Fayemi (PhD 1987), Ex-Governor of Ekiti State, Nigeria
 * Mark Francois (MA 1987), UK Armed Forces Minister and Conservative Member of Parliament
 * Sir Christopher Geidt (MA 1987), Private Secretary to the Sovereign (Queen Elizabeth II)
 * Natalia Gherman (MA 1999), Prime Minister of Moldova
 * John Hillen (MA 1993), former Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs
 * Dan Jarvis (MA, 2011), Labour Member of Parliament
 * Jiří Šedivý (MA 1994), Czech Defence Minister
 * Keith Simpson (MRes 1972), Conservative Member of Parliament
 * Pritam Singh (MA 2004), Singaporean Member of Parliament
 * Shaun Spiers (MA 1985), former MEP and Chief Executive of CPRE

Military, security and diplomacy

 * A.T.M. Zahirul Alam (MA 1993), Force Commander of UNMIL
 * Sir Adrian Bradshaw (MA 2005), Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe and former UK Commander of Land Forces
 * Paul Crespo (MA 1990), former US Marine captain, risk analyst and activist
 * Peter Drissell (MA 1994), former Commandant-General of the RAF Regiment
 * Richard A. Falkenrath (PhD 1993), former Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism at NYPD
 * John Freeman (PhD 1984) British Ambassador to Argentina
 * Sir Robert Fry (MA 1987), former Commandant General Royal Marines
 * Sir Wira Gardiner (MA 1980), New Zealander public servant
 * Syed Ata Hasnain (MA 2006), Former Military Secretary of the Indian Army
 * Md Hashim bin Hussein (MA 1991), Head of the Malaysian Army
 * Ola Ibrahim (MA 2002), Head of the Nigerian Armed Forces
 * Sir Simon Mayall (MA), Middle East Advisor at the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense
 * Nikolay Mladenov (MA 1996), SRSG for Iraq and Head of UNAMI
 * Hugh Mortimer (MA 1973), British Ambassador to Slovenia
 * Tim Radford (MA), General Officer Commanding, Force Troops Command
 * Maroof Raza (MA), Indian strategic affairs analyst
 * Ayesha Siddiqa (PhD 1996), Pakistani military scientist
 * Stuart Skeates (MA 1999), Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
 * Frank A. Rose (MA 1999), U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance

Academia, media and business

 * Ali Ansari (MA 1990), Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies
 * Ruaridh Arrow (BA 2001), journalist, writer and film-maker
 * Abdul Razak Baginda, (MA 1984), Malaysian political analyst
 * Brian Bond (MA 1962), Military historian
 * Ahron Bregman (PhD 1994), British-Israeli political scientist
 * Paula Broadwell (PhD Student), biographer of General David Petraeus
 * Matthew Bryden (PhD Student), Canadian political activist
 * Gwynne Dyer (PhD 1973), Journalist
 * Andrew Exum (PhD 2010), Middle East Scholar
 * Daniel Ford (MA 2010), Author
 * Ian Gooderson (MA, PhD), Naval historian
 * Andrew Gordon (PhD 1983), Naval historian
 * Eric Grove (MA 1971), British Naval historian
 * Rosemary Hollis (MA 1975) British political scientist
 * Sam Instone (BA 1998), Founder and current Chief Executive of AES International
 * Andrew Lambert (MA, PhD), Military historian
 * Michael A. Levi (PhD 2006), CFR Senior Fellow
 * Sophie Long (BA 1997), BBC News presenter
 * Peter R. Neumann (PhD 2002), Terrorism expert
 * Peter Paret (PhD 1960), Military historian
 * Tom Rogan (BA 2008), Journalist
 * Philip Sabin (PhD 1984), Military historian
 * Yezid Sayigh (PhD 1987), Middle East scholar
 * Gary Sheffield (PhD 1994), Military historian
 * David Stahel (MA 2000), Historian
 * Nicholas Stuart (MA 1984), Journalist
 * Geoffrey Till (PhD 1976), Maritime historian
 * Alexander Windsor, Earl of Ulster (BA 1996), 25th in the line to the throne
 * Kieran West (MA 2005), Olympic champion rower
 * Colin White (MA 1975), former Director of the Royal Naval Museum

Past and present faculty

 * James M. Acton
 * Robert J. Art
 * Mats Berdal
 * Didier Bigo
 * Philip Bobbitt
 * Brian Bond
 * Ahron Bregman
 * Bill Durodié
 * Nicholas Eftimiades
 * Joel Hayward
 * Michael Howard
 * Vivienne Jabri
 * Ashley Jackson
 * Stephen Jolly
 * Mark Laity
 * Andrew Lambert
 * Lawrence Freedman
 * Thomas Gomart
 * Barry M. Gough
 * Beatrice Heuser
 * Richard Ned Lebow
 * Anatol Lieven
 * Colin J. McInnes
 * Anand Menon
 * John Nagl
 * Peter R. Neumann
 * David Omand
 * Richard Overy
 * Friedbert Pflüger
 * Jonathon Riley
 * Andrew Roberts
 * Philip Sabin
 * John Sawers
 * Yezid Sayigh
 * Nigel Sheinwald
 * Jack Spence
 * Julian Thompson
 * Cedric Thornberry
 * Guglielmo Verdirame
 * Kenneth Waltz
 * Simon Wessely
 * Peter Zimmerman

Tolstoy Cup
The Tolstoy Cup is an annual football match played between the students of the Department of War Studies at King's and the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford since 1995. The rivalry between 'Peace Studies' and 'War Studies' was featured on the Financial Times list of "Great college sports rivalries". The competition is named after War and Peace, the 1869 novel written by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. The "trophy" is a framed copy of the book. It is kept by the department of the current winners.