Samuel John Cox

The reputation of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC) as Australia’s centre of excellence for education in strategy and defence inspired me to uproot my life from Perth and move to Canberra to pursue postgraduate study.

Samuel believes that SDSC is staffed by “titans of Australia’s strategic and defence policy community. The list is long but I can proudly mention Evelyn Goh, Paul Dibb, Hugh White, Andrew Davies, Andrew Carr, Garth Pratten, John Blaxland and so on. Needless to say that Canberra is the place for internship, networking and job opportunities”.

Studying a Master of Strategic Studies in our current world is strategic, says Samuel. “Defence policy is timeless, interesting and provides the skills to pursue an exciting range of jobs”.

Samuel’s favourite course was Building a Defence Force: Defence force structure planning and acquisition and Intelligence and Security taught by Andrew Davies. “He is an outstanding, passionate professor who always made his courses relevant and applicable. For example, we wrote intelligence briefs or designed our own Australian Defence Force instead of submitting traditional essays. His required readings were recent and readily digestible, than tired, old journals”.

“SDSC provides a mature environment for early-career professionals to balance full-time work and part-time study. There are a range of national and international opportunities if students have the appetite and availability to pursue them. I was fortunate for the opportunity provided by the program to attend the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) national conference and junior leader development workshops. I also interned at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)”.

Samuel intends to serve the national interest and hope that he’ll be back to study again at the ANU.