Michael Clarke is a Visiting Professor at King's College London and at the University of Exeter. He was the founding director of the Centre for Defence Studies, and then the International Policy Institute, both at King's College London, before he became Deputy Vice-Principal at King's. In 2007 he left King’s upon his appointment as the Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute.

He was a specialist adviser to several parliamentary committees from 1997 to 2024, latterly with the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. He has previously been a member of the Chief of Defence Staff's advisory board and the Prime Minister's National Security Forum.

He is a Fellow of King’s College London, the University of Aberystwyth and the Royal College of Defence Studies. He is currently Defence and Security Analyst for Sky News.

His latest book, Great British Commanders: Leadership, Strategy and Luck, was published by Pen and Sword in October 2024.

Research Interests

• United Kingdom defence policy, with particular reference to the current transformation of the UK’s Armed Forces and strategic challenges for the future;
• European security and the NATO framework, with particular attention to the evolution of the Joint Expeditionary Force and other emerging ad hoc military frameworks within the Alliance;
• The war in Ukraine, its origins, development and its implications for the future of Europe, the western alliance and the emergent politics of a new international order.

Recent publications in book, journal article and individual chapters

• Great British Commanders: Leadership, Strategy and Luck, London, Pen & Sword, 2024.
• ‘Foreign and Defence Policy’, in Seldon, Anthony, ed., The Conservative Effect, 2010-2024, Oxford, Routledge, 2024.
• ‘What is NATO For?’ in Webber, Mark, ed., The Oxford NATO Handbook, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2024.
• Britain’s Persuaders: Soft Power in a Hard World (joint author) London, I.B.Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2021.
• The Challenge of Defending Britain, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2019.
• Tipping Point: Britain, Brexit and Security in the 2020s, (joint author) London, I.B.Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2019.
• ‘Planning and Fighting a War: The Iraq Inquiry’s Judgements on the Armed Forces’, Journal of the Royal United Services Institute, 161 (6) December 2016.
• ‘Reflections on the Chilcot Report: the Army,’ Political Quarterly 87(4) 2016.

Media articles include frequent columns in The Sunday Times, The Sun, and a range of the international press, either in English or translated.