Contact Professor Laura Cleary

Background

Professor Laura Cleary is the Director of Oakwood International Security.  She has three decades of experience as an academic, author and consultant specialising in security governance and management.
Prior to establishing Oakwood International Security, Professor Cleary was Head of the Centre for International Security and Resilience at Cranfield University. She joined Cranfield in 2002 to head its Defence Diplomacy Education programme, Managing Defence in the Wider Security Context (MDWSC).  As academic director for that programme she taught 150 nationalities across four continents, and acted as a consultant and advisor to MODs and Parliaments in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa.  A leading expert in the fields of International Defence Engagement (IDE), governance and defence transformation, her research in the field has contributed to British policy formation and strategic planning.

In 2017 she was shortlisted for a Women in Defence Award for her Outstanding Contribution to British Defence.  In 2006 and again in 2019 she was awarded the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom Director’s Commendation for Contributions to UK Defence Relations. Professor Cleary is also the recipient of two teaching awards, one from the Political Studies Association (1997) and the other from Cranfield Defence and Security (2010).    She has a PhD from Glasgow University on Soviet Defence Conversion and a BA in International Politics and History from Indiana University.

Current activities

Professor Cleary is a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University.  She continues to teach on the MDWSC course as well as on other Executive Education courses and MScs.  Her teaching and research expertise is in the following areas:
- MSc and Executive level course design and delivery
- International Security
- Security Sector Governance
- Civil-Security Relations in Transitional States
- Defence Transformation
- International Defence Engagement

Clients

  •     UK MOD
  •     FCO and DFID through the Conflict Pool
  •     Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Ireland
  •     Scottish Government
  •     OSCE
  •     Government of Nepal
  •     EU.

Publications

Articles In Journals

Conference Papers

  • Mcconville TA, Cleary LJR & Olley G (2006) Defence Management: The Structural Underpinning of Democracy. In: Leadership and Management Studies in Sub-Saharan Africa Conference, Zanzibar, 1 June 2006.

Books

  • Cleary LR & Collantes-Celador G (2021) Chapter 3: governance: concept and challenges. In: Managing security: concepts and challenges, London: Routledge.
  • Wilkinson E & Cleary LR (2021) Chapter 2: If you can’t be secure, be resilient. In: Managing Security Concepts and Challenges, Abingdon, UK: Routledge, p. 20-41, ed. 1st.
  • Cleary LR & Darby R (2021) Chapter 15: managing security: continuity and change. In: Managing security: concepts and challenges, London: Routledge, p. 228-234.
  • Cleary LR (2021) Chapter 6: accountability: a tangled web. In: Managing security: concepts and challenges, London: Routledge, p. 82-96.
  • Cleary LR & Darby R (2021) Chapter 1: Introduction: change within context. In: Managing security: concepts and challenges, London: Taylor and Francis.
  • Cleary LR (2017) Chapter 1: Half measures and incomplete reforms: the breeding ground for a hybrid civil society in Ukraine. In: The Ukrainian Crisis: The Role of, and Implications for, Sub-State and Non-State Actors, Abingdon: Routledge, p. 7-23.
  • Cleary LR (2016) Eastern Europe & Central Asia. In: Security Sector Horizon-Scanning 2016 - Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Shrivenham: Cranfield University, p. 1-35.
  • Cleary LR (2016) Ukraine. In: Security Sector Horizon-Scanning 2016 - Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Shrivenham: Cranfield University, p. 201-260.
  • Matthews R, Darby R & Cleary LR (2016) Southeast Asia. In: Security Sector Horizon-Scanning 2016 - Southeast Asia, Shrivenham: Cranfield University, p. 1-22.
  • Cleary LR (2016) East Africa. In: Security Sector Horizon-Scanning 2016 – East Africa, Shrivenham: Cranfield University, p. 1-24.
  • Cleary LR (2016) Ethiopia. In: Security Sector Horizon-Scanning 2016 – East Africa, Shrivenham: Cranfield University, p. 25-71.
  • Cleary L, Craig M (eds), (2016) Security Sector Horizon-Scanning 2016 - North Africa, Shrivenham: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary L, Craig M (eds), (2016) Security Sector Horizon-Scanning 2016 - West Africa, Shrivenham: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary L, Craig M (eds), (2016) Security Sector Horizon-Scanning 2016 – East Africa, Shrivenham: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary LR (2015) Ethiopia. In: Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - Horn of Africa, Shrivenham, UK: Cranfield University, p. 29-69.
  • Cleary L, Craig M (eds), (2015) Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - North Africa, UK: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary LR (2015) Horn of Africa. In: Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - Horn of Africa, Shrivenham, UK: Cranfield University, p. 13-28.
  • Cleary L, Craig M (eds), (2015) Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - Horn of Africa, UK: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary L, Craig M (eds), (2015) Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - South Asia, UK: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary L, Craig M (eds), (2015) Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - Gulf, UK: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary L, Craig M (eds), (2015) Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - Near East, UK: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary LR (2015) Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In: Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Shrivenham, UK: Cranfield University, p. 13-37.
  • Craig M, Cleary L (eds), (2015) Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - Eastern Europe and Central Asia, UK: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary LR & Caddick-Adams P (2015) Ukraine. In: Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Cleary LR, Dorman AM, Craig M (ed.), Shrivenham, UK: Cranfield University, p. 156-204.
  • Cleary L, Craig M (eds), (2015) Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2015 - West Africa, UK: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary LR (2014) The Horn of Africa. In: Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2014, Shrivenham, UK: Cranfield University, p. 228-234.
  • Cleary L, Craig M (eds), (2014) Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2014, UK: Cranfield University.
  • Cleary LR (2014) Ethiopia. In: Security Sector Horizon Scanning 2014, Shrivenham, UK: Cranfield University, p. 281-315.
  • Cleary LR & Dorman AM (2014) Executive Summary. In: Security Sector Horizon Scanning, Shrivenham: Cranfield University, p. i-319.
  • Cleary LR, McConville T & Olley G (2011) Defence management: the structural underpinning of democracy: a case study from Africa. In: Leadership & Management Studies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Littrell R, Nel PS (ed.), San Diego, CA: University Readers, p. 223-239.
  • Cleary L (eds), (2006) Managing Defence in a Democracy, Routledge.
  • Cleary LJR (2003) Still the People's Army? Armed Forces and Society in Bulgaria. In: Soldiers and Societies in Postcommunist Europe: Legitimacy and Change, Palgrave MacMillan, p. 153-168.
  • Cleary LJR (2002) The New Model Army? Armed Forces and Society in Bulgaria. In: The Challenge of Military Reform in Post-Communist Europe: Building Professional Armed Forces, Palgrave MacMillan, p. 133-148.