Those working in Defence Studies explore the convergence between war and politics. It is, in the words of the editor of this new Routledge collection, ‘the socio-technological study of how martial force is understood, built, and deployed’. Indeed, the term ‘Defence Studies’ has its origins in the establishment in 1927 of the UK’s Imperial Defence College (later named the Royal College for Defence Studies in 1970), but research falling under that rubric has long been a global endeavour.

Scholars of Defence Studies ask questions such as:

What are the driving factors of defence policy?

Why is history important for understanding emergent warfare?

How might actors prepare for defence and war?

Are defence policies appropriate for expected events?

Now, in response to the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of literature, Routledge announces a new title in its Critical Concepts in Military, Strategic, and Security Studies series. Edited by David J. Galbreath, Professor of International Security at the University of Bath, and Director of its Centre for War and Technology, Defence Studies is a four-volume collection which brings together the very best scholarship in a one-stop anthology of major works.

The collection is fully indexed and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is destined to be valued by researchers, teachers, and advanced students as a vital research and pedagogic resource.