Course features

Since the Second World War, matters of defence, intelligence, and security in the British state have become increasingly prime ministerial. This overload is evident in the roles, responsibilities, and increasingly the amount of time that Prime Ministers necessarily devote to securing the nation. The purpose of this class is to understand how we have arrived at this present moment, and to analyse what the causes and their various effects of this fundamental development of prime ministerial power are.

This module will cover the institutions through which defence, intelligence, and security are developed and administered in government. Its focus is necessarily broad. By mirroring the different issues and organs of state with which Prime Ministers carry out their responsibilities for national security, students will be challenged to think about the links between conventional and non-conventional threats that government is obliged to defend the nation against. This module will thus focus on this relationship between policy, organisation, and decision-making by prime ministers since 1945.

Each week, this module will cover a specific area of concern to UK national security. Subject areas include, for example, Crisis Management, UK-US Relations, the Strategic Nuclear Deterrent, Cyber Security, and more.

On this module, students will:

• Explore how British Prime Ministers have exercised authority and leadership in defence, security and intelligence decision-making since 1945.

• Analyse the institutional relationships between the Prime Minister, No.10, the Cabinet Office, and the wider defence and intelligence community.

• Develop a historically informed understanding of how major national-security decisions are taken at the centre of government.

• Connect historical case studies with practitioner insight into contemporary national-security governance.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Explain the constitutional and institutional structures through which national-security decisions are made in the UK state.

• Analyse key historical moments in British defence, intelligence and security policy and evaluate the role of the Prime Minister in those decisions.

• Assess the interaction between political leadership, civil service advice, intelligence assessments and military planning.

• Critically engage with both academic literature and practitioner perspectives on national-security decision-making.

• Apply historical case studies to understand contemporary challenges in defence, security and intelligence policy.

By the end of the module, students will have:

• Confidence in understanding Prime Ministerial involvement in decision making regarding foreign policy, defence and security.

• Recognition of the complexities of British Foreign Policy and the relationship between the Prime Minister and the defence and security apparatus.

• A background knowledge of the history of British Foreign policies since 1945.

• A detailed knowledge of moments such as the creation of the overarching ministry of defence in 1964 and the Intelligence Services Act 1994.

Assessment

You will be assessed via coursework (3,500 words).

The assessment period for this module will take place between 10 May - 4 June 2027.

Entry requirements

The standard entry requirements comprise:

• A 2:2 honours degree or international equivalent
• A CV and personal statement outlining your reasons for study
• English language band B (for example, IELTS 7.0 overall with a minimum of 6.5 in each skill).

For information on our English language requirements please see our English Language requirements page.

Further information

This is an on-campus module and students are expected to attend in person. Please contact us for further information on module timetabling.