Leaving Dartmouth as Deputy Head of Strategic Studies and International Affairs at the end of 1984 Grove worked for a year for the Council for Arms Control before becoming a freelance academic and defence consultant.
[citation needed] During this time he also acted as consultant and co author for the first edition of the Royal Navy's The Fundamentals of British Maritime Doctrine (BR1806).
[citation needed] In 1997, Dr Grove was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Maritime Policy at the University of Wollongong, New South Wales.
[citation needed] In 2005, Grove moved to the University of Salford where he was Professor of Naval History and Director of the Centre for International Security and War Studies.
His works include Vanguard to Trident: British Naval Policy Since 1945 (1987), The Future of Sea Power (1990), The Price of Disobedience (2000) and The Royal Navy Since 1815 (2005).