Arun Dawson is a PhD candidate at the Freeman Air and Space Institute, King’s College London, and a Researcher with the UK Nuclear Deterrence Network (NDN). His work investigates how states build and sustain military power in the air domain, with research spanning Cold War fighter jet procurement to the UK’s planned resumption of an airborne nuclear deterrent. Multidisciplinary training in engineering (Oxford) and war studies (King’s) informs his approach to these questions.

Alongside his academic career, Arun has served as Parliamentary Researcher to Lord Stirrup, former Chief of the Defence Staff, and consults on geopolitical risk for Dow Jones. Previously, he interned in the Defence Investment Division at NATO Headquarters and was a Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

His external engagement includes written evidence to the House of Commons’ Public Accounts and Defence Committees, as well as radio, print and TV commentary for outlets such as the BBC and France 24 on developments in drones, fighter jets, nuclear weapons and related issues. Arun was awarded the Associateship of King’s College in 2024.

Research Interests

• Air power
• Capability and force design
• Defence industrial policy and rearmament
• Deterrence (nuclear and conventional)
• Grand strategy
• The Arctic/High North

Recent Publications

• (with Daniel Skeffington) Seizing the Initiative: Strengthening the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Signalling Capabilities (Policy Exchange, 2026), ISBN 978-1-918832-11-2
• (with the Air and Space Power Association) Written Evidence: Inquiry on Defence in the High North (House of Commons Defence Select Committee, 2026)
• Written Evidence: Inquiry on The UK's F-35 Stealth Fighter Capability (House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, 2025)
• (with Aleix Nadal) ‘Concept to Combat: The Royal Air Force, Small Drones and the War in Ukraine’, European Review of International Studies 11, 3 (2025): 321-357
• ‘The case for RAF Arctic and High North readiness’, Freeman Commentary (Freeman Air and Space Institute, 2023)
• Higher Level Airspace: An International Analysis of Current Trends and Strategic Drivers (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 2023), ISBN 978-92-845-0222-6
• ‘Cold Comfort: The Challenges Facing the RAF’s Return to the Arctic’, Freeman Paper 12 (Freeman Air and Space Institute, 2022), ISSN 2754-0510
• ‘Changes in the Pipeline: The Green Energy Transition and USA Futures’, contribution to Global Strategic Trends 7th edition (Ministry of Defence Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, 2021)

He has also contributed as a research assistant to projects including Paul Kennedy’s Victory at Sea (Yale University Press, 2022); John Gearson’s Operation Banner Primer: An Account of the British Military’s Deployment to Northern Ireland, 1969-2007 (Centre for Defence Studies, 2022); and Jamie Gaskarth, Maeve Ryan and William Reynolds’ UK Strategic Defence Reviews since 1998: Planning, Implementing and Learning from Outcomes.

Teaching

Arun’s teaching experience spans professional military education, undergraduate and postgraduate study, and government training. He has taught on the Intermediate Officer Development Course at the UK Defence Academy and the RAF’s Executive Warrant Officers’ Programme, and is due to teach on the two-star Air and Navy Directors’ Course. His international PME experience includes regular teaching for one-star officers at Sri Lanka’s National Defence College and a research fellowship at the Baltic Defence College.

At King’s, Arun has taught on modules including: History of the International System; Military Strategy; War, Technology and Innovation; and Strategic Thought. He has also contributed to widening-participation initiatives such as the K+ Programme and international summer schools like the University of Texas Maymester. In partnership with the Policy Institute and King’s Edge, he designed and led the inaugural KCL Policy Lab for 150 students from across the university.

Beyond university teaching, Arun designs and delivers bespoke courses for public- and private-sector clients. He is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research Project Summary:

States seem to arm sub-optimally - why?

This thesis addresses the apparent divergence between political objectives and the military capabilities acquired to achieve them – the ‘grand strategy–defense strategy gap’ (Brands & Montgomery, 2020). It contends that conventional explanations for the “gap” overlook the multifunctional character of military power and airpower in particular. This arises from a conceptual limitation: grand strategy often categorises capabilities as military, economic or diplomatic when in practice they can and often do fulfil multiple roles. Thus, what appears as a mismatch between force design and strategic intent may instead reflect the complex and at times contradictory demands placed on military capabilities within the broader architecture of grand strategy.

To support this argument, the thesis examines six cases of British combat air procurement, spanning the Suez Crisis to the end of the Cold War. These cases reveal that decisions about fighter jets were rarely dictated by military utility alone. Rather, they embodied broader diplomatic and economic imperatives, too. Aircraft procurement thus became a tangible medium through which rival grand strategies – Atlanticist, European or autonomist – were expressed and contested.

Grounded in extensive archival research in the UK and abroad, this study contributes to long-running debates about twentieth-century Britain. It reframes narratives of decline, not to dismiss them, but to reveal a more complex story shaped as much by adaptation as retreat. In doing so, the thesis engages with the broader question of how middle powers conceive and conduct grand strategy.

Finally, by situating defence procurement within the “long view”, this project illuminates enduring dilemmas facing contemporary policymakers: sovereignty versus alliance dependency, capability versus cost, and technological ambition versus operational risk. These tensions are not anomalies of the present but structural features of international politics, made only more acute by the renewed uncertainties of great-power competition.

Supervisory Team: Professor John Gearson and Dr David Jordan