History of Warfare

The History of Warfare Group brings together researchers whose individual expertise ranges from the ancient to the modern world. Its distinguishing feature is a strong commitment to advanced archival research that combines established historical methods with innovative approaches to the past drawn from the social sciences and other humanities disciplines.

Members of the Group, including a thriving cohort of postgraduate research students, organise and participate in regular and ad hoc research seminars, including the Military History and International History seminars, both held at the University of London's Institute of Historical Research.


Research within the Group focuses on the origins, conduct and consequences of modern wars; strategic theory and war planning; land, sea and air warfare in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the history of intelligence and espionage in peace and war; the history of international relations, with a special emphasis on the international history of the era of the two world wars and the Cold War; the relationship between armed forces and the rise of the modern state; armaments policy, arms races, and the cultural and social history of weapons technology.