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Professor Malcolm Chalmers

Position: Professorial Fellow

Malcolm Chalmers is Professorial Fellow in British Security Policy at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), and has been in this position since January 2008. He is a member of the Defence Secretary's Defence Advisory Forum. He was previously Special Adviser to Foreign Secretaries Jack Straw MP and Margaret Beckett MP. He contributes to RUSI’s capacity for research across a range of defence and foreign policy issues. His current research focuses on contemporary UK defence policy, nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and defence economics.

Malcolm is also Professor of Defence and Foreign Policy in the Department of War Studies, Kings College, London (where he currently teaches), and Professor of International Politics in the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. Malcolm has a BA in Economics from the University of Cambridge, an MA in Development Economics (with Distinction) from the University of East Anglia, and a PhD in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford. He has been an economist in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Government of Botswana (1977-80), Visiting Fellow at the Center for International Security and Arms Control, Stanford University (1989-90), and Senior Consulting Fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies (2001-2004). During 2005-2008, he was a member of the Higher Education Funding Council’s Sub-Panel for Politics and International Studies. He has been Chair of Saferworld and remains a member of its Board of Trustees.

Selected Publications

• Capability Cost Trends: Implications for the Defence Review, Future Defence Review Working Paper No. 5, January 2010
• Chinese and British Perspectives on the Road to the NPT 2010 (editor), Workshop Report, November 2009
• Preparing for the Lean Years, Future Defence Review Working Paper No. 1, July 2009
• ‘The myth of defence inflation’, in RUSI Defence Systems, June 2009
• ‘Britain's new nuclear debate’, in RUSI Journal, April 2009
• ‘Britain and the World: Options for UK Foreign and Security Policy’, in Varun Uberoi, Adam Coutts, Iain McLean, and David Halpern (eds)., Options for a New Britain, Palgrave, 2009. Order from Amazon
• 'Developments in UK Foreign and Security Policy since 1997', draft discussion paper, July 2008
• ‘The new politics of intervention’, Renewal, 17, 1, 2009, pp. 37-43
• ‘A Force for Influence: Making British Defence Effective’, RUSI Journal, December 2008
• 'Defence in the Round', draft discussion paper, November 2008
• Oral evidence to Foreign Affairs Committee Inquiry on Global Security: Non-Proliferation, 5 November 2008
• ‘Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation: strengthening the links’, memorandum of evidence to Foreign Affairs Committee Inquiry on Global Security: Non-Proliferation, September 2008
• Global Inequality and Security Policy: A British Perspective, Routledge / RUSI, May 2008
• 'British Security Policy in transition', RUSI Discussion Paper, March 2008
• 'Engaging Iran', Fabian Review, Winter 2007
• ‘Spending to Save: the cost-effectiveness of conflict prevention’, Defense and Peace Economics, 18, 1, February 2007, pp. 1-24. The full study on which this is based is here> 
• ‘Long Live Trident?’, Physics World, August 2005
• Rescuing the State: Europe's Next Challenge (editor), Foreign Policy Centre / British Council / European Commission, March 2005
• Evaluation of the Conflict Prevention Pools: Synthesis Report (co-author), Evaluation Report, Cabinet Office / DFID / FCO / MoD / HMT, March 2004
• Security Sector Reform in Southern Africa (editor), International Institute for Strategic Studies, November 2003. Available here>
• Estimated UK Employment Dependent on Ministry of Defence Expenditure and Defence Exports , (with AJW Turner and K Hartley), Defence Analytical Services Agency, Ministry of Defence, Defence Statistics Bulletin No. 5, March 2003
• ‘The New Chapter to the Strategic Defence Review: some observations’, in House of Commons Defence Committee, A New Chapter to the Strategic Defence Review, HC 93-ii, May 2003, pp 150-155. Available here
• ‘The new activism: UK defence policy since 1997’, New Economy, Vol. 9, No. 4, December 2002, 206-211
• ‘The Economic Costs and Benefits of UK Defence Exports’, Fiscal Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3, September 2002, 305-342. (with Neil Davies, Keith Hartley and Chris Wilkinson)
• ‘The United Kingdom, Nuclear Weapons and the Scottish Question’ The Non-Proliferation Review, 9, 1, Spring 2002, 1-15. (with William Walker)
• The Economic Costs and Benefits of UK Defence Exports, Research Monograph Series 13, Centre for Defence Economics, University of York, November 2001 (with Neil V Davies, Keith Hartley and Chris Wilkinson) 
• 'The Atlantic burden-sharing debate - widening or fragmenting?', International Affairs, Vol. 77, No. 3, July 2001, pp. 569-586
• Uncharted Waters: The UK, Nuclear Weapons and the Scottish Question, Tuckwell Press, 2001. 196 pages. Co-authored with William Walker
• A Transatlantic New Deal: What Europe should pay to promote US engagement, Foreign Policy Centre, London, January 2001
• ‘Paying for EU enlargement: can a new burdensharing bargain be sustained?’ Political Studies Association Conference Proceedings, London, 2000
• Sharing security: the political economy of burdensharing, Macmillan, 2000. 230 pages
• Security Sector Reform: a role for the European Union, Saferworld, 1999. 25 pages
• “Bombs Away’? Britain and nuclear weapons under New Labour’, Security Dialogue, 30, 1, 1999, 61-74
• Kosovo: the crisis and beyond, Saferworld, 1999. 23 pages
• ‘UK nuclear weapons policy after the SDR’, in Centre for Defence Studies, Brassey’s Defence Yearbook 1999, Brassey’s, 1999, 253-266
• Developing the Asia Europe dialogue: Political cooperation and conflict prevention, Saferworld, 1998 (with Owen Greene). 36 pages
• Democratic Accountability and Parliamentary Control in the Military Sphere in the Newly Independent States, Bradford University/CPIS, Moscow, 1998, 301 pages (in Russian). Edited with Owen Greene and Alexander Nikitin.
• The proposed UK annual report on strategic exports, Saferworld, 1998. 17 pages
• British security policy: Broadening the agenda, Saferworld, December 1997 (with David Mepham). 33 pages
• British Arms Export Policy and Indonesia, Saferworld, 1997. 44 pages
• Defence for the 21st Century: towards a post-Cold War force structure, Fabian Society, 1997. 29 pages
• British Nuclear Weapons Policy: The Next Steps, International Security Information Service, 1997. 30 pages
• Developing Arms Transparency: the future of the UN Register, University of Bradford and CPDNP, 269 pages, 1997 (edited with Owen Greene and Mitsuro Donowaki)
• ‘The debate on a regional arms register in South-East Asia’, The Pacific Review, 10, 1, 1997, 104-123
• ‘Conceptualising arms control after the Cold War’, in Michael Clarke (ed), Brassey’s Defence Yearbook 1997, Centre for Defence Studies / Brassey’s, 1997, 273-288
• ‘ASEAN and Confidence-Building: Continuity and Change after the Cold War’, Contemporary Security Policy, 18, 1, 1997, 36-56
• ‘Sharing the burden of European defence’ in Jane Sharp (ed), About Turn: Forward March with Europe, IPPR / River Oram Press, 1996, 107-122
• ‘What do we need the armed forces for?’, in John Gittings and Ian Davis (eds), Rethinking defence and foreign policy, Spokesman Books, 1996, 27-38
• ‘Openness and Security Policy in South-East Asia’, Survival, 38, 3, 1996, 82-98
• Confidence-building in South-East Asia, Westview Press, 1996. 279 pages
• Asia-Pacific Security and the UN, Bradford University and Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament, 1995 (edited with Owen Greene and Xie Zhiqiong). 194 pages
• Taking Stock: the UN Register After Two Years, Westview Press, 1995 (with Owen Greene). 288 pages
• ‘Military spending and the British economy’, in David Coates and John Hillard (eds), UK Economic Decline: Key Texts, Harvester-Wheatsheaf, 1995
• Developing the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, Westview Press, 1994 (edited with Owen Greene, Edward J. Laurance and Herbert Wulf). 340 pages
• ‘The Development of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms: Prospects and Proposals’, The Non-Proliferation Review, 1, 3, 1994, 1-17 (with Owen Greene)
• ‘The UN Arms Register: An Emerging Global Transparency Regime?’, Contemporary Security Policy, 15, 3, 1994, 58-83 (with Owen Greene)
• ‘Expanding Europe's security community’, Current Politics and Economics of Europe, 3, 2, 1993, 111-130
• ‘Developing a security regime for Eastern Europe’, Journal of Peace Research, 30, 4, 1993, 427-444
• ‘Security Burdensharing and the Transatlantic Relationship’, Paradigms, 7, 2, 1993, 22-32
• Implementing and Developing the UN Register of Conventional Arms, Peace Research Report Number 32, Bradford University, May 1993, 120 pages. (with Owen Greene)
• ‘Britain and alliance burden-sharing’, in Michael Clarke and Philip Sabin (eds), British defence choices in the twenty-first century, Brassey’s, 1993, 102-129
• Biting the Bullet: Britain's European defence option, Institute for Public Policy Research, 1992. 80 pages
• ‘Reciprocal Disarmament: A Game Proposal’, Naval War College Review, 44, 3, 1991, 58-74
• Western security and Soviet reform, Saferworld, 1991. 40 pages
• Reciprocal Unilateralism as a complement to CFE, AFES Press, Mosbach, 1990. 72 pages
• ‘Beyond the Alliance System’, World Policy Journal, 7, 2, 1990, 215-250
• ‘Soviet weapons procurement in the 1980's’ Defense Analysis, 6, 3, 1990, 255-262
• ‘Beyond CFE: Cutting Conventional Procurement’, Arms Control Today, 1990, 13-17
• ‘An unstable triumvirate? European security structures after the Cold War’, Current Research on Peace and Violence, 13, 3, 1990, 175-195
• UK Defence Requirements 1990-2000, Saferworld, 1990. 28 pages
• ‘Conventional forces in Europe’ in Dan Smith (ed), European Security in the 1990's, Pluto Press, 1989, 67-79
• ‘The Tank Gap Data Flap’, International Security, 13, 4, 1989, 187-194 (with Lutz Unterseher)
• ‘Is there a tank gap?’ International Security, 13, 1, 1988, 5-49 (with Lutz Unterseher)
• ‘The future of the Royal Navy’s frigate and destroyer fleet’, memorandum published in House of Commons Defence Committee, ‘The Future Size and Role of the Royal Navy’s Surface Fleet’, Sixth Report of the Defence Committee, London, HMSO, 1988
• The 1987 Defence Budget: Time for Choice? , Peace Research Report Number 17, Bradford, 1987. 134 pages
• Trends in UK Defence Spending in the 1980's, Peace Research Report Number 11, Bradford, 1986. 91 pages
• Paying for Defence: Military Spending and British Decline, Pluto Press, 1985. 200 pages

RUSI articles and analysis by this author

Engaging Iran 22 Jan 2008
The British left must face-up to the truth: Iran could still develop a nuclear bomb in the next few years. This can only be avoided, says Malcolm Chalmers, by engagement and diplomacy.

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