In his nearly two years as an instructor in Missouri State University’s School of Defense and Strategic Studies (DSS), Dr. Christopher Ford has already brought a wealth of experience and expertise to the program.
Ford is an expert in foreign relations and national security. He has worked as a senior government official with the U.S. State Department, the National Security Council, the U.S. Senate and as a Navy intelligence officer.
Most of Ford’s previous research focuses on China, but recently he has included Russia and Iran in his research. Currently, he examines how issues such as strategic culture, political ideology, domestic political legitimacy narratives and ideologically shaped interpretations of history all impact national policy and strategic competition. Past research projects include nuclear weapons policy, nonproliferation, arms control, nuclear disarmament and national security export controls.
“My fascination with the interplay of the ‘conceptual’ and the ‘concrete’ in driving policy and strategy goes back a long way,” he said. He traces that interest back to his days at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, where he worked on his doctorate. His dissertation explored the role of political ideology in shaping South African regional relations.
“I think I bring a lot to the table in those practical regards,” Ford observed. “But I’m also very ‘academic’ in my approach and extremely active in my scholarship. [I’m] writing and publishing constantly.”
“Practice-focused” program
Ford described the DSS program as a “very ‘practice-focused’ school.”
“It is one of the great strengths of DSS that our faculty not only provide students with a scholarly and academic perspective on defense and strategic issues but also teach them based upon extensive practical experience in government as policymakers,” he said.
“What seems to make sense in theory, after all, doesn’t always work in practice,” he continued. “We try to make sure we focus on the complexity and complications of the world as it is, not just as we might like it to be.”
Modeling the scholar-statesman mentality
Accordingly, Ford enjoys modeling what he describes as a “scholar-statesman” mentality in the classroom. He hopes his students will benefit from his years of personal experience in government by engaging with “policy-directed” writing and research assignments.
“I like to give my students illustrations of the challenges, tensions and issue-balancing involved in policy making that go far beyond just what appears in our readings,” he explained.
Students produce policy memoranda and deliver policy briefings, fielding challenging questions “as if they were advising senior national security leaders,” Ford said. “I think it’s important to make them as well-versed as possible in theoretical issues in defense and strategic studies, but also able to translate those conceptual frameworks down into practical policy advice.”
Real joy for research and writing
Ford described his impressive research and publishing record as “something of an obsession.”
“I love writing, am fortunate enough to be able to do it quickly, and enjoy both the crafting of prose and the learning process involved in pulling information together and trying to synthesize it into coherent analysis and argumentation,” he said. “Writing is probably my favorite thing to do in the world, and if I didn’t have outlets for it I might go a bit mad!”
Ford found his most recent publication, which he co-authored with friend and colleague Dr. Craig Wiener of the MITRE Corporation, to be especially interesting. The article challenges policymakers to think about competitive strategy in an arms race with China over artificial superintelligence (ASI).
Writing the article allowed him to explore the intersection of national security technology and national security policy.
“This was a chance to articulate something that may be of real policy consequence by cross-pollinating between the conceptual and the practical,” he said. The article presents “lessons and analogies from one area of policy and scholarship to bear in evaluating strategy in another.”
“It was good, wonky fun, but also, I think, highly relevant to first-order issues of national strategy today.”
DASSO journal highlights DSS research
Ford is not just a prolific researcher and respected scholar. He also launched the academic journal, Defense and Strategic Studies Online (DASSO) in 2024. The journal is housed within Missouri State’s DSS program.
“I’ve been very excited by the opportunity to start up DASSO,” Ford said. As DASSO’s editor, he views the journal as an opportunity for DSS to not only educate students but also to contribute to national security scholarship and policy thinking as an institution.
“Our country faces unprecedented challenges from foreign competitors and threats from foreign adversaries,” Ford noted. “DASSO provides us with a way to push what is hopefully insightful and thought-provoking, policy-focused writing out into the public arena.”
Along with work written by external policy experts, DASSO publishes research written by DSS faculty and students.
“It can be hard for a young policy scholar to make a name for himself or herself, and beginning to build a track record of publications is important to their career progress,” Ford explained. “With DASSO, we’re delighted to be able to help.”
Ford said he hoped DSS’s “practically-focused but theoretically-informed” scholarship is viewed as one of the program’s greatest strengths. This scholarship, he said, “both informs today’s national security policy community and educates the leaders of tomorrow’s.”
Photo provided by Christopher Ford.
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