For most people, even those involved at the highest levels of strategic planning and capability development, there is little if any awareness of the vast ocean of academic material that is available to them, and which deep insight into many of e major issues associated with modern risk and crisis management.

There are 8 modules, each module with a full-developed support pack, including an introductory paper, assignment instructions, an initial reading list and access to a library of academic papers.

The reading list is offered as the starting point for your own exploration of the literature, and at the end of the module you need to deliver a module paper of 4,000-6,000 words, 50% of which is a literature review, based on your module reading, and 50% which outlines how the information you have gathered could be of use in developing real-world understanding and capabilities. Some people use the course as a purely academic programme, others use it to do research around their own areas of expertise, and therefore see it very much as a foundation for the next stage of their career development. 

The overall feel of the programme is that it is designed to develop ‘pracademics’ – people who mix practitioner experience and insight with academic research and an understanding of the academic theories and models associated with their own area of interest.

Because it involves high-level strategic perspectives, it is appropriate to anyone working in an environment characterised by complexity – complex organisations working in complex environment, facing complex problems that require complex solutions.