Since its establishment in 1980 the Department has awarded M.Sc. degrees to 111 officers of the Armed Forces and 514 civilians. Thereby, it has made a significant contribution to the development of national expertise in the fields of defense and security studies. The academic training imparted by the Department is geared towards the development of requisite academic knowledge, analytical ability for evaluation of national, regional and international strategic environment and policies. Since 1980, 69 M.Sc. theses and 556 Seminar Papers have been written on wide-ranging subjects in the field of Defense, Strategic and Security Studies.

A vast majority of these theses dealt with policy-oriented issues of contemporary strategic importance. The quality of the theses and Seminar Papers has been very good and widely appreciated. Apart from its highly successful Master's degree programme, the Department since 1998 has also been running an M. Phil programme and M.Phil degree was awarded to 2 students.

The Department continues to work in close liaison with the Armed Forces and other national institutions in the related fields. The Department Faculty, in addition to its regular teaching, contributes research articles to various professional journals and delivers lectures at the National Defense College, Foreign Services Academy, Joint Services Staff College Islamabad and Staff College Quetta.