Dr Catherine Scott

Dr Scott is Senior Lecturer in Security Studies Education. She is currently Deputy Programme Director of the MA in International Affairs in the King’s Institute for Applied Security Studies and was Director of the MRes programme in the Defence Studies Department between 2020 and 2023.

Prior to joining the Defence Studies Department in 2016, Dr Scott held teaching positions in the History and Politics Departments at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and in the War Studies Department at King’s College London, where she previously managed the academic support contract with the Royal College of Defence Studies.

She received her PhD in International Politics and Security from King’s College London, her MA in Slavonic and East European Studies from University College London, her BA (Hons) in War Studies and Geography from King’s College London and her PG Cert in the Management of Teaching and Learning from Goldsmiths College, University of London

Dr Scott is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a member of the British International Studies Association, the Royal African Society, the African Studies Association of the UK and formerly convened the Africa Research Group at King’s College London. She was Managing Editor of Conflict, Security & Development for many years and continues to serve on the journal’s Editorial Review Board.

Research Interests

Dr Scott’s main research interest has been in the field of state failure and formation in sub-Saharan Africa. Her monograph on this subject, State Failure in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Crisis of Post-Colonial Order, was published with I.B. Tauris in June 2017.

Her wider research interests fall within the following areas:

• State failure and fragility
• Post-colonial politics and security
• Changing world orders and sovereignty regimes
• Civilisationalism and ethno-nationalism
• Security and Global Health

Doctoral Supervision

Dr Scott is happy to consider PhD proposals in the above subject areas.

Teaching

Dr Scott teaches across a range of postgraduate courses in the security studies field and between 2018 and 2022 convened the core International Security Studies module for three of the Defence Studies Department’s masters’ programmes and the Advanced Command and Staff Course at the UK Defence Academy. She leads a MA module on ‘Global Challenges’ in the School of Security Studies and runs a MA Special Subject on ‘State Failure in Fragile Contexts’ in the Defence Studies Department.