Professor Doug Stokes is a leading scholar of geopolitics, international security, and great power competition. He is Professor of International Relations, Head of Department, and Vice President for Institutional Development at Modul University Vienna, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter. He directs two strategic consultancies providing geopolitical analysis and tailored solutions to international clients and institutions.
His most recent work includes a study of Britain's critical minerals vulnerability in International Politics and the fourth edition of US Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press, March 2026).
His book Against Decolonisation (Polity Press) was nominated for the TLS Book of the Year 2023. Lord Sumption praised its arguments as having "rarely been made with such verve and force"; Dr Munira Mirza called it "highly insightful and persuasive"; and the TLS described it as "incisive, humane and brave." His earlier books, published by Johns Hopkins University Press and Zed Books, examined US grand strategy, coercive statecraft, and global energy geopolitics.
He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Danube Institute and serves on the advisory boards of the Knapp Foundation and the Free Speech Union. Former roles include Senior Adviser to the Legatum Institute, Thomas Telford Fellow at the Council on Geostrategy, and over a decade as a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). His policy work has been referenced by senior ministers, including the Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary.
A prominent commentator, he writes regularly for The Times, The Telegraph, The Spectator, The Critic, and other major outlets. Born to a working-class family in Hackney, East London, he was the first in his family to attend university. Before his postgraduate studies, he lived and worked in post-war Bosnia, co-founding an NGO focused on ethnic reconciliation in the volatile town of Brčko.
Professor Stokes is available for advisory engagements, speaking, and consultancy on geopolitical risk, great power competition, critical minerals and energy security, and transatlantic strategy.
