Patrick Porter is Professor International Security and Strategy at the University of Birmingham. He is Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). His main research interests are U.S. and British grand strategy, the interaction of power and ideas in international relations, and diplomatic and military history. He has published in International Security, War in History and The Journal of Strategic Studies. He grew up in Melbourne, Australia, before completing his doctorate at the University of Oxford. He enjoys ancient history, cricket and cigars.
"""In the welter of critiques of Tony Blair's leading the UK into the war in Iraq, Patrick Porter's stands out for its honesty, deep research, and conclusion that bad ideas, sincerely and widely held, bear primary responsibility. The beliefs that regime change was a moral imperative and required for world security and also that a better government could be readily established produced a combination of fear and confidence that proved lethal."" - Robert Jervis, Author of How Statesmen Think"