Professor Theo Farrell FAcSS

Theo Farrell is Professor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Wollongong, Australia. He is Visiting Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of Royal Society of New South Wales, the Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (UK), and former President of the British International Studies Association.

Professor Farrell was previously Professor of War in the Modern World and Head of the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. He serves on the editorial boards of International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, and European Journal of International Security.

Professor Farrell has received ten research council awards, including an RCUK Global Uncertainties Research Fellowship. He is also an expert on the conflict in Afghanistan. Professor Farrell acted as advisor to ISAF Command in Kabul and to the UK government on the British campaign in southern Afghanistan. His most recent book, Unwinnable: Britain’s War in Afghanistan, 2001-2014 (Vintage, 2018), was shortlisted for three national awards and is a Sunday Times book of the year. Professor Farrell’s current research project on human-machine teaming and future military operations, is co-led with Professor David Galbreath and funded by the Australian Army.

Research Interests

• Strategy and the conduct of war
• Technological change, organisational innovation, and military transformation
• International law, military culture, and the use of force
• The Afghanistan conflict since 2001

 

Publications

Books

• Theo Farrell, Unwinnable: Britain’s War in Afghanistan, 2001-2014 (London: The Bodley Head, 2017 and Vintage, 2018), 525pp.
• Theo Farrell, Sten Rynning and Terry Terriff, Transforming Military Power Since the End of the Cold War: Britain, France and the United States, 1991-2012 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 303pp.
• Theo Farrell, Frans Osinga and James Russell, editors, Military Adaptation in the Afghanistan War (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013), 345pp.

Book chapters

• Theo Farrell, ‘Britain’s War in Afghanistan, 2001-2014,’ in Thomas G. Mahnken, editor, Learning the Lessons of Modern War (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2020), pp. 112-136.
• Theo Farrell and Olivier Schmitt, ‘The Causes, Character, and Conduct of Armed Conflict, and the Effects on Civilian Populations, 1990-2010,’ in Volker Turk, Alice Edwards and Cornelis Wouters, editors, In Flight from Violence and Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and UNHCR, 2017), pp. 25-58.

Research articles

• Theo Farrell, ‘Military Adaptation and Organisational Convergence in War: Insurgents and International Forces in Afghanistan’, Journal of Strategic Studies (2020): 25pp.
• Theo Farrell, ‘Unbeatable: Social Resources, Military Adaptation, and the Afghan Taliban,’ Texas National Security Review, vol. 1, no. 3 (2018): 58-75. 

For a full list of publications please refer to the Research Portal