Dr Peter Foot is an Associate Fellow within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP. Formerly GCSP’s Academic Dean for a 4-year term, Dr Peter Foot is Professor Emeritus Defence Studies, at the Canadian Forces College, Toronto and the Royal Military College, Kingston, Canada as well as remaining an Associate Fellow at GCSP, freelancing in Security and Defence issues, specialising in Afghanistan's transitional arrangements. Current research engages the issues of religion and violence and, separately, the impact of World War II on strategic imagination today.
He contributes regularly to military education across Europe, partly as a lecturer and mentor but also as External Examiner for Universities which accredit postgraduate education at staff colleges, including at the doctoral level. Dr Foot's most recent PhD examination was conducted at the National Defence University, Helsinki. His academic background is in American Diplomatic History from the University of Edinburgh and King's College London but has wide experience as a defence economist, in the UK Ministry of Defence, at the University of Aberdeen and in British staff colleges, including the first decade of JSCSC Shrivenham. More generally, Dr Foot maintains strong connections with the PfP Consortium of Defence Academies and Security Studies Institutes; he is active on the Consortium’s Publication Board. An enthusiast for start-ups in strategically changing environments, he has helped develop inter alia: the Baltic Defence College; the Peace Support Operations Training Centre, Sarajevo; the Leadership and Management in Defence programme for the Irish Defence Forces and the University of Ireland, Maynooth; and the ISOC-PfP Training Centre at Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia. He was awarded the Baltic Defence Medal in 2004 for his contributions to scoping multinational military education and its management. He serves as Academic Advisor to Transparency International’s Defence and Security Programme and to an EU-funded scientific study on non-lethal methods of countering suicide bombers. Most recently, in August 2012, he was academic lead on the NATO team visiting military training establishments for the EAPC Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP), including the baccalaureate course within initial officer training.