Stuart became the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick in February 2016, moving from his previous role as the University's Provost and prior to this as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research (Arts and Social Sciences). Stuart has been part of Warwick's community since 2007, when he joined the Politics and International Studies department as Professor of International Security.

Working with colleagues, Stuart is responsible for ensuring the University of Warwick delivers excellent education and research within the region, nationally and internationally. Stuart's work is in the field of security studies for which he has previously held senior posts at the University of Birmingham, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the British International Studies Association.
His research has focused on constructivist and cultural accounts of security. This is reflected in a number of written works which include contributions to the International Relations, International Affairs and Government and Opposition journals. He have published Culture, Crisis and America's War on Terror (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and Securitizing Islam (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and was author, co-author or editor of a further dozen books.

For eight years, Stuart was Director of the ESRC's New Security Challenges Programme, which supported nearly 50 research projects based at a variety of UK universities and other institutions.

Stuart has supervised successful PhD students in Birmingham and Warwick, and has been an external examiner on PhDs in various universities around the UK. He has also worked as a mentor with postdoctoral fellows, funded by the ESRC, EU and British Academy. In 2006, Stuart was elected as an Academician in the Academy of Social Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.