WELLINGTON-BORN university professor and think tank leader, Christopher Coker, has died at the age of 70.

Mr Coker was born in Wellington on March 28, 1953, though spent much of his childhood in Africa, where his father travelled to work as a banker.

Mr Coker later attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied history and was named the 'outstanding student' of his year group.

He would go on to become a professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics where he remained for 40 years, retiring in 2019.

Despite retiring from academia, Coker continued to be active in think tank circles, as the director of LSE Ideas, and maintained a presence in UK and NATO military education and strategic planning circles.

In his time he published more than 20 books, and made a number of significant interventions to critique the defence policies of governments of all stripes.