Dr David Jordan

Dr David Jordan is a Senior Lecturer in Defence Studies, based at the Defence Academy of the UK, and the Co-Director of the Freeman Air & Space Institute

David joined King’s in 2000, and has served variously as the Chair of the Exam Board, Director of Teaching, Academic Director for the RAF Division at the Defence Academy and as Air Warfare Historian to the Higher Command & Staff Course. He is currently the Academic Director (Air) for the Advanced Command & Staff Course.

David has written on a number of aspects of air and space power, including as one of the authors of Understanding Modern Warfare (Cambridge, 2016, 2^nd Edition), and on British military history and contemporary military operations. He has appeared on various radio and television programmes as an expert commentator and historian, and commented on air power and defence matters in newspapers ranging from The Sunday Times through to Weekendavisen in Denmark.

He is a Director of the RAF Centre for Air & Space Power Studies (RAFCASPS) and a member of the Chief of the Air Staff’s Air Power Workshop. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.

MA Special Subject:

• Development and Practice of British Air Doctrine 1912 to 1945

Research Interests

• Air and Space Power
• Air Power history
• First and Second World Wars
• British Military Operations since 1945
• Falklands War
• Air Power and the 1991 Gulf War

Teaching

David’s teaching includes modules on Air Power, the Falklands War, the history of the Royal Air Force and Air Power Theory and Doctrine.

PhD Supervision

He is happy to consider PhD applications from those wishing to study the history of the Royal Air Force; air power theory and doctrine; air power and joint operations/multi domain integration; contemporary uses of air power; space power, (particularly its relationship to national power and/or contribution to military operations) and British military history since 1914.

PhD Researchers:
Cliff ‘GSL’ Fletcher-Jones, ‘Tethered to Terra: A spacepower theory that explores the human-space relationship and, using strategic principles of Sun Tzu, considers the human response to actions taken in the space domain'

Duncan McCrory, ‘Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance in Anti-Access/Area-Denial Environments’

Julia Balm, ‘Maslovian Approaches to Space Strategy: A Strategic Theory on Thriving in the New Space Age’

Arun Dawson ‘Acquisition in the Royal Air Force: A Study in British Grand Strategy’

Richard Harrison, ‘The organisational and cultural challenges of maintaining the combat power of an air force during extended and high-intensity conflict.’

Robert O’Dell, ‘An analysis of Post-War Royal Air Force Maritime operations, examining the technical, operational, single-Service, Joint, political and economic factors which influenced the evolution of RAF Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) capabilities.’

JJ Stringer, ‘How and Why the RAF adjusted its posture from the strategic to the tactical: 1945-1995’

Aleix Nadal Campos (2^nd Supervisor), ‘Understanding the development of British military thinking on outer space in the New Space age’

Recent PhDs include Dr John Shields (Air Power in the Falklands Conflict) and Dr Richard D Newton (The RAF and Tribal Control: Airpower and Irregular Warfare between the World Wars)

 Publications

• Understanding Modern Warfare (Cambridge, 2016, 2^nd Edition; 1^st ed 2008; with James Kiras, Ian Speller, David Lonsdale, Chris Tuck & Dale Walton)
• ‘Royal Navy Concepts of Air Power’, in Greg Kennedy (ed), Britain’s War at Sea 1914-1918: The War They Thought and the War They Fought (Routledge, 2016)
• ‘The Defence Review Dilemma: The British Experience’, Freeman Paper No.5
• 'Invented and Predicted Futures: Britain and the Challenge of Air Defence', Freeman Paper No.4
• 'Britain's Air Defences: Inventing the Future?', Freeman Paper No.2
• ‘Air Power and Intervention: The Royal Air Force Experience in the Former Yugoslavia, 1992-1995’, The RAF Air Power Review. Vol 21: 3 (2018)
• Learning to Fly: The Royal Flying Corps and the Development of Air Power, British Journal for Military History, 4:2 (2018)
• 'In At The Deep End': RAF Harrier Operations During the Falklands War, RAF Air Power Review, Vol21:2 (with John Shields)
• The Most Daring Raid? The Royal Air Force, Operation Black Buck and the Falklands War, 1982, RAF Air Power Review, Vol21:2 (with John Shields)

Dr David Jordan PURE Profile