Dr Simon Anglim

Dr Simon Anglim is a military historian who convenes the MA Contemporary War and Warfare module and the second year BA War and Society module, as well as teaching on other modules. He previously taught at Brunei University, the University of Surrey and in the Sultanate of Oman. His research interests include insurgency and counterinsurgency, the strategy and history of special forces and unconventional warfare from the Second World War to the present, the life and military career of Major General Orde Wingate, the British Army in the Middle East since the 1930's, with special reference to their presence in the Oman Djebel War of the 1950's and the Dhofar Insurgency of the 1960's to the 1970's.

He is the author of Orde Wingate: Unconventional Warrior published by Pen & Sword in 2014. His monograph, Orde Wingate and the British Army, 1922-1944 was shortlisted for the 2011 Templer Medal, eventually coming third.  He also completed a historical survey of General Wingate's operations for a Washington consultancy working with the US Department of Defence. He has also published over thirty shorter papers and articles and is now working on a new study of the Oman Djebel War of the 1950's.   

He co-coordinates the KCL War Studies-HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Initiative, which gives postgraduate students the opportunity to write their dissertations on subjects set by this major NATO HQ in return for guidance and advice and the opportunity to attend ARRC-sponsored events.

He is the King’s representative to the Military Education Committee of the University of London and is the Historical Advisor to the Chindit Association.  He has been an invited speaker at the University of Oxford Changing Character of War Series, the Royal United Services Institute (three times), the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (four times), 77 Brigade of the British Army,  a British Army Directorate General Doctrine and Training ‘Small Wars’ Seminar, The Special Forces Club, the Army and Navy Club and the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in London and has spoken and/or chaired at a number of staff and student-organised events at King’s.

Subject areas:

• History of the British Army since the 1945'
• Contemporary Strategy and Military Operations
• Military Ethics and Civil-Military Relations
• Special Forces
• The Sultanate of Oman. 

Teaching

• Convenor – MA Contemporary War and Warfare
• Convenor – BA War and Society
• Teach on BA Conduct of War and BA War on Terror.
• Supervising 2 PhDs

Publications:

Books:

• Orde Wingate and the British Army, 1922-1944 (London: Chatto and Pickering 2010)
• Orde Wingate: Unconventional Warrior (Barnsley: Pen & Sword 2014)

Key Papers and Articles

• ‘British Special Forces in the 2020s: Still a National Asset’, Military Strategy Magazine, Volume 7 No.1, Spring 2020
• ‘An Educated Military: Military Professional Education and the Profession of Arms’, in Nathan K Finney and Tyrell O Mayfield (Editors) Redefining the Modern Military: The Intersection of Profession and Ethics (Annapolis: USNI 2018)
• ‘MI(R) and Covert Operations, 1939‑42'
•  Intelligence and National Security, Volume 20 No.4, December 2005, pp.631‑653
• ‘Orde Wingate in the "Phony War" and After, 1939‑1940'
•  Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Volume 84 Number 338, Summer 2006, pp.175‑188
• ‘Orde Wingate, "Guerrilla" Warfare and Long‑Range Penetration, 1940‑44'
•  Small Wars and Insurgencies Volume 17 Number 3, September 2006, pp.241‑262
• ‘Orde Wingate and the Special Night Squads – A Feasible Policy for Counterterrorism?’
•  Contemporary Security Policy Volume 28 Number 1, April 2007, pp.28-41 
• ‘Callwell versus Graziani: How the British Army applied “Small Wars” methods in major   operations against the Italians in 1940-1941’
• Small Wars and Insurgencies Volume 19 Number 4, December 2008, pp.588-608
• Read his piece on the Contemporary War module here
• Read his piece for the Strategy Bridge on ISIS' forebears here
• Read his piece for the Strategy Bridge on the value of military education here  
• Read his piece for the Strategy Bridge on his visit to the sites of the Djebel War here
• Global Britain, Global Army? The Review and Land Warfare - in 'The Integrated Review in Context: Defence and Security in Focuse (KCL Centre for Defence Studies 2021)
• The Review and the Army Revisited: The Implications of the War in Ukraine in 'The Integrated Review in Context: One Year On' (KCL Centre for Defence Studies 2022)