Michael Codner

Michael Codner is a Senior Associate Fellow for Military History. Until 2013, he was RUSI's Director of the Military Sciences Research Group. Subsequently he continued to be a Senior Research Fellow and was Director of Personnel Services until retiring in April 2021.

He has researched a range of subjects including defence policy, strategic theory and doctrine, insights from military history. military ethics, defence management, future concepts and the application of technology to military capability. He retired from the Royal Navy in October 1995 after a career as a seaman officer principally working in anti-submarine warfare and in the latter part of his career, maritime strategy and doctrine, future concepts, defence policy and international issues.

He was a lecturer in strategy and operational art at the US Naval War College, was a defence fellow at the Centre for Defence Studies, King's College, London and has held a NATO Fellowship working on coalition interoperability. His degrees are in Philosophy and Psychology (Brasenose College, Oxford). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

He has lectured regularly at University College, London, Southampton University, the University of St Andrews, the University of Greenwich and the Joint Services Command and Staff College.

His written work includes editorship and principal authorship of the First Edition of the Royal Navy’s BR1806: The Fundamentals of British Maritime Doctrine, editorship of A Question of Security: The British Defence Review in an Age of Austerity published by RUSI in 2011 and numerous articles, papers and chapters in journals and collections.