Each Member of the main RCDS Course is required to write a dissertation of up to 10,000 words (the requirement is 15,000 words on the MA programme). This paper is a personal intellectual challenge, and enables Members to demonstrate their academic calibre. It is an opportunity to research a subject deeply, to provide fresh analysis, to test conventional wisdom, and to arrive at conclusions pointing to a way forward. Members have a free choice of subject provided it is a strategic issue. There will normally be an international relations, defence or security (broadly defined) focus.
A selection of the best papers from each course is published annually on this website, with an editorial introduction, as the Seaford House Papers.