Welcome to History and Strategic Studies

The Department of History was established in 1965. Since then it has developed and taught courses in Nigerian, African, European, American and Asian history, covering different periods. The Department has equally focussed on areas such as the History of Political Thought, History of International Relations, Historiography and Economic History. A major aim of the Department at its inception was to produce graduates to meet the manpower needs of the country. This aim has been fulfilled over the years.

In its desire to advance its contribution to national development, and in line with the philosophy of the University of Lagos to undertake periodic review of programmes to ensure quality and relevance, the Department recently decided to expand the scope of its courses. The Department has added “Strategic Studies” to its name to reflect the expansion and to advertise the intrinsic value of its course offerings.

The addition of the sub-field of strategic studies is based on the recognition of the role which strategy plays in all human activities: at the individual, the corporate, institutional, national and international levels. Strategy is evident in all situations in which the actor has to choose among possible alternative courses of action within the limits of available resources to attain certain ends. The strategist is required to maximise ends through a rational deployment of scarce resources. The strategist employs available resources to attain certain objectives, be they economic, commercial, social, cultural, political, financial, personal or otherwise. Because strategy is inherent in all situations requiring choice among competing/alternative courses of action, training in strategic studies prepares the individual to operate more effectively in a complex globalized world.