[1] He was Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics (LSE) for almost 40 years, from 1982 until 2019.

Despite being retired from his professorship, Coker was Director of LSE IDEAS,[2] LSE's foreign policy think tank[3] and continued to be a regular participant or consultant in UK and NATO military education and strategic planning circles.

[11] In his 2019 book The Rise of the Civilizational State, Coker investigates how Xi Jinping’s China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia seek to challenge Western powers and liberal international order with concepts of civilizational states.

In this short essay that also references other major literature on the subject, Coker argues that "Our relationship with war is so long and deep that we could, if we wish, tell the story of humanity entirely through the lens of conflict.

"[13] The annual Christopher Coker Prize recognizes the best paper in strategic studies published in the journal International Politics in the previous year.