Strategic Studies (MLitt) 2026 entry

Course information may change. Module information and course content, teaching and assessment may change each year and after you have accepted your offer to study at the University of St Andrews. We display the most up-to-date information possible, but this could be from a previous academic year. For the latest module information, see the module catalogue.

• Compulsory

  • Modern War and Strategy: provides students with essential knowledge of strategy and military history from the French Revolutionary Wars to contemporary armed conflicts, using key concepts such as mechanisation to investigate what past and present wars tell us about the utility of force in the modern world.
  • Strategic Thought: provides students with essential knowledge of strategic theory and the history of strategic thought, with particular attention to the interaction between theory and practice, military doctrine and military science, as well as the enduring practical lessons of thinkers such as Machiavelli and Clausewitz.

• Optional

  Students choose two from the range of optional modules available that year. Modules usually affiliated with Strategic Studies include:

  • Carl von Clausewitz: Life, Work and Reception
  • The Military in Politics
  • The Influence of Seapower on History, 1805-Present
  • The American Way of War
  • The Genealogy of Modern Counterinsurgency
  • Directed Reading in the History of War and Strategy

  Modules across the School of International Relations are also available to choose from, depending on availability of spaces. These may include:

  • Conflicts, Security and Democracy in the Greater Caucasus
  • Contemporary Gulf Politics in a Changing Global Context
  • Erasing the Global Colour Line: Decolonisation and the Making and Unmaking of the Third World
  • Human Rights, Politics and Power
  • Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict
  • Outer Space Security
  • Political Order and Violence in the Middle East 
  • Security and Development in East Asia
  • State Responses to Terrorism
  • Terrorism and Liberal Democracy

  Optional modules are subject to change each year and require a minimum number of participants to be offered. They allow only limited numbers of students to ensure relatively small class sizes.

• Dissertation

  The final element of the MLitt is a 15,000-word dissertation. The dissertation should focus on an area of strategic studies in which you are interested. Each student is supported by a relevant supervisor from the School who will advise on the choice of subject and provide guidance throughout the research process. The completed dissertation must usually be submitted by mid-August.

  If students choose not to complete the dissertation requirement for the MLitt, there are exit awards available that allow suitably qualified candidates to receive a postgraduate diploma (PGDip). By choosing an exit award, you will finish your degree at the end of the second semester of study and receive a PGDip instead of an MLitt.