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Department of War Studies
School of Security Studies

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Postgraduate reading lists

Here is a list of books and articles which you might want to have a look at before you arrive. We've arranged them by degree subject, but feel free to read whatever interests you!  These are not compulsory in any way, the aim is to give you a sense of themes/topics you will be exploring during your studies and point you to some of the key texts. 

When you arrive, you will have access to all of these, and more, in the King’s Library. 

MA Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies

MA Conflict, Security & Development

MA Intelligence & International Security

MA International Conflict Studies

MA International Relations & War

MA International Relations

MA National Security Studies

MA Peace, Security & International Law

MA Political & Strategic Communication

MA Terrorism, Security & Society

MA War Studies

MA Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies 

Key readings to prepare you for the year ahead:  

The Course textbook is available as an ebook through the library. You may also find it helpful to purchase a copy. 

  • Stefan Wolff & Christalla Yakinthou (eds.), Conflict Management in Divided Societies: Theories and Practice, London: Routledge, 2011. 

Background Reading 

There are a number of important books for the course. There are copies in the library, but you may find it very helpful to purchase several from this list: 

  • B Anderson, Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism, London: Verso, 2006. 
  • J Bercovitch, V Kremenyuk & I W Zartman (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Resolution, Sage Publications Ltd, 2008. 
  • S Bose, Contested Lands: War and Peace in Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus and Sri Lanka, London: Harvard University Press, 2007. 
  • C Cramer, Civil war is not a stupid thing: Accounting for violence in developing countries, London: Hurst, 2006 
  • S Bollens, City and soul in divided societies. Routledge, 2012. 
  • P Collier and N Sambanis (eds), Understanding Civil War: Evidence and Analysis, The World Bank. 
  • Volf, Miroslav. Exclusion & embrace: A theological exploration of identity, otherness, and reconciliation. Abingdon Press, 2010. 
  • T Gurr, Minorities at Risk: A Global View of Ethnopolitical Conflicts, Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1993. 
  • Roeder, Philip G., and Donald S. Rothchild, eds. Sustainable peace: Power and democracy after civil wars. Cornell University Press, 2005. 
  • E Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983. 
  • Adams, Julia, et al. States of memory: Continuities, conflicts, and transformations in national retrospection. Duke University Press, 2003. 
  • A Guelke, Politics in Deeply Divided Societies, London: Polity Press, 2012. 
  • E Hobsbawm Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism, London: Little, Brown, 2007. 
  • D Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 
  • J Hutchinson & A D Smith (eds.), Nationalism, Oxford University Press, 1994. 
  • J Hutchinson & A D Smith (eds.), Ethnicity, Oxford University Press, 1996. 
  • E Kedourie, Nationalism, Oxford, Blackwell, 1993. 
  • M Kerr, Imposing Power-Sharing: Conflict and Coexistence in Northern Ireland and Lebanon, Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006. 
  • A Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies, Yale University Press, 1977. 
  • J McGarry & B O’Leary, The Politics of Ethnic Conflict Regulation, London: Routledge, 1993. 
  • Lederach, John Paul. Preparing for peace: Conflict transformation across cultures. Syracuse University Press, 1996. 
  • J Montville (ed.), Conflict and Peacemaking in Multiethnic Societies, Lexington: Lexington Books, 1990.
  • A Maalouf, In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong, New York: Penguin Books, 2003. 
  • Ismail, Salwa. The rule of violence: Subjectivity, memory and government in Syria. Vol. 50. Cambridge University Press, 2018. 
  • M Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing, Cambridge University Press, 2004. 
  • M Moore (ed.), National Self-Determination and Secession, Oxford University Press 1998. 
  • R Paris, At War’s End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • A Smith, Theories of Nationalism, New York: Holmes & Meier, 1983. 
  • C Taylor, Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition, Princeton University Press, 1994. 
  • Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, New York: Basic Books, 1992. 
  • David Whittaker, The Terrorism Reader, Routledge, 2007. 
  • Dayton, Bruce W., and Louis Kriesberg, eds. Conflict transformation and peacebuilding: moving from violence to sustainable peace. Routledge, 2009.
  • Alex Schmid (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research, Routledge, 2011. 
  • Oliver Ramsbotham, Tom Woodhouse & Hugh Miall, Contemporary Conflict Resolution, Polity; 3rd ed., 2011. 
  • Stefan Wolff, Ethnic Conflict: A Global Perspective, Oxford: OUP, 2007.

 

MA Conflict, Security & Development

Background reading for CSD MA Programme 

Please note: This list is not exhaustive, but it should give you a good sense of the core themes and range of topics covered in the course. This list includes a number ofedited volumes as these capture a wide breath of perspectives and topics.  

  • International Development: Ideas, Experience, and Prospects edited by Bruce Currie-Alder, Ravi Kanbur, David M. Malone, Rohinton Medhora, [Note: several chapters worth reading and all of them are easily available online at https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/handle/10625/52720 See in particular chapters by Harriss, Hulme, Berdal, Krause, Khadiagala ] 
  • Building Peace after War by Mats Berdal (Routledge, 2009) [Note: especially Introduction] 
  • Peaceland: conflict resolution and the everyday politics of international intervention by Séverine Autesserre (CUP, 2014) 
  • Power After Peace – The Political Economy of State-Building, edited by Mats Berdal and Dominik Zaum (Routledge, 2012)[Note: Introduction provides useful overview of issues and debates] 
  • Greed & Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars, edited by Mats Berdal & David Malone (Lynne Rienner: 2000) [Note: see in particular “Introduction” and chapters by P.Collier, D.Keen and D.Shearer] 
  • Building States to Build Peace, edited by Charles Call (Lynne Rienner: 2008)
  • The Political Economy of Civil War and UN Peace Operations, edited by Mats Berdal and Jake Sherman (London: Routledge, 2023).

Some Case Study Readings 

  • United Nations Interventionism, 1991-2004, edited by Mats Berdal and Spyros Economides (CUP, 2007) [Note: useful collection of case studies of UN interventionism] 
  • Dancing in the glory of monsters: the collapse of the Congo and the great war of Africa by Jason Stearns (Public Affairs, 2012) [Note: engaging and highly readable account, touching on many issues covering the course] 

 

MA Intelligence & International Security

 

  • David Omand, Securing the State
  • Christopher Andrew, The Secret World
  • Robin Butler, ‘Review of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction’, particularly chapter 1. (Accessible at http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/14_07_04_butler.pdf ) 

 

MA International Conflict Studies

The following are useful introductory texts for students commencing this degree programme:

Introductory books:

  • Jolle Demmers, Theories of Violent Conflict: An Introduction (Routledge, 2016).
  • Karin Fierke, Critical Approaches to International Security, second edition, (Polity, 2015).
  • Tim Jacoby, Understanding Conflict and Violence (Routledge, London and New York, 2007).

The following texts cover central topics in the module and represent the diverse approaches contained in the study of war, conflict, violence and security in global politics.

  • Anna M. Agathangelou and L.H.M. Ling, Transforming World Politics: From Empire to Multiple Worlds (Routledge, 2009).
  • Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Routledge, 2014).
  • Alex Anievas, Nivi Manchanda, and Robbie Shilliam (eds) Race and Racism in International Relations: Confronting the Global Colour Line (Routledge, 2015).
  • Claudia Aradau, Jef Huysmans, Andrew Neal and Nadine Voelker (eds) Critical Security Methods (Routledge, 2014).
  • Ulrich Beck, World at Risk (Polity, 2009).
  • Shampa Biswas, Nuclear Desire: Power and the Postcolonial Nuclear Order (Minnesota, 2014).
  • Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence (London, Verso, 2004).
  • Martin Coward, Urbicide: The Politics of Urban Destruction (Routledge 2009).
  • Michael Dillon and Julian Reid, The Liberal Way of War: Killing to Make Life Live (New York, 2009).
  • Jean Bethke Elshtain, Women and War (New York, 1987).
  • Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Penguin 1967).
  • Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population (Palgrave 2007).
  • Derek Gregory and Alan Pred (eds), Violent Geographies: Fear, Terror and Political Violence (Routledge, 2007).
  • Derek Gregory, The Colonial Present (Blackwell, 2004).
  • Siba N’Zatioula Grovogui, Sovereigns, Quasi-Sovereigns, and Africans: Race and Self-Determination in International Law (Minnesota, 1996).
  • Anthony Giddens, The Nation-State and Violence (Cambridge, 1985).
  • Lene Hansen, Security as Practice: Discourse Analysis and the Bosnian War (Routledge, 2006).
  • Vivienne Jabri, War and the Transformation of Global Politics (London and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 and 2010).
  • Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars (Cambridge, Polity, 1999, 2006, 2012).
  • Sankaran Krishna, Globalization and Postcolonialism: Hegemony and Resistance in the 21st Century (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).
  • Mustapha Kamal Pasha, Islam and International Relations: Fractured Worlds (Taylor & Francis, 2017).
  • Oliver Richmond, The Transformations of Peace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
  • Meera Sabaratnam, Decolonising Intervention: International Statebuilding in Mozambique (Rowman & Littlefield 2017).
  • Edward Said, Orientalism. (London: Penguin, 2003).
  • Laura Shepherd, Gender, Violence and Security: Discourse as Practice (Zed Books, 2013).
  • Debra Thompson, The Schematic State: Race, Transnationalism, and the Politics of the Census (Cambridge 2018).
  • Robert Vitalis, White World Order, Black Power Politics: The Birth of American International Relations (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015).

 

MA Peace, Securty & International Law 

Books: 

  • Jan Klabbers, International Law, Fourth edition., Cambridge :, Cambridge University Press, 2024.
  • Ian Hurd,  How to Do things with International Law, Princeton, NJ :, Princeton University Press , 2017
  • The Cambridge Companion to International Law, ( Crawford, Koskenniemi &  Ranganathan eds,) Cambridge University Press, 2012

Chapters and Articles:

  • Martti Koskenniemi, What is International Law for?  in International law , Evans, Malcolm D., Sixth edition., Oxford :, Oxford University Press ,2024
  • Monica Hakimi, "Why should we care about international law?", Michigan Law Review, 118(6), 2020
  • Hilary Charlesworth, "International Law: A Discipline of Crisis" Modern law review, 65(3), 2002

 

MA International Relations & War

These are some of the core readings for Year 1 of the MA programme. You will have free online access to them once enrolled, but if you would like to get a head start on your reading, we recommend these as a starting point.

  • Security Studies: An Introduction, eds. Paul Williams and Matt McDonald (2023) [Note: paperback and e-version are considerably cheaper on Routledge website]
  • Understanding International Relations, Chris Brown (2019)
  • Strategy and The Future of War: A History, Lawrence Freedman
  • ‘Decolonising War’, Tarak Barkawi: free preprint version available here:

https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66030/1/Barkawi_Decolonizing_War.pdf

These books are recently published general surveys of war as a phenomenon, which should also serve as a good introduction to war studies as a discipline:

  • War: How Conflict Shaped Us, Margaret McMillan
  • War: A Genealogy of Western Ideas and Practices, Beatrice Heuser
  • What Is War For? Jack McDonald
  • An Introduction to War Studies: volume commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Department of War Studies

These are a few favourites from our team of lecturers:

  • A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East, David Fromkin
  • Battlestar Galactica and International Relations, eds. Nicholas Kiersey and Iver Neumann
  • Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, Chris Miller
  • Global Politics: Myths and Mysteries, Aggie Hirst, et al.
  • Global Strategic Trends 7, UK Ministry of Defence
  • The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, Amitav Ghosh
  • Twelve Feminist Lessons of War, Cynthia Enloe
  • War (Oxford Reader) ed. Lawrence Freedman
  • War in European History, Michael Howard

 

MA International Relations

The following are useful introductory texts for students

 

  • Anievas, A., Manchanda, N. and R. Shilliam (eds.), Race and Racism in International Relations: Confronting the Global Colour Line (Routledge)
  • Berenskötter, F (ed). Concepts in International Relations: A New Introduction (SAGE)
  • Booth, K. and T. Erskine (eds.). International Relations Theory Today (Polity Press).
  • Brown, C. Understanding International Relations (Palgrave). 
  • Dunne, T.; Kurki, M, and S. Smith (eds.) International Relations Theories. Discipline and Diversity (Oxford University Press).
  • Edkins, J. and M. Zehfuss (eds.). Global Politics: A New Introduction (Routledge).
  • Hirst, A, de Merich, D,  Hoover, J and  Roccu R.  Global Politics. Myths and Mysteries (Oxford).
  • Morgenthau, H. Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (McGraw Hill Education)
  • Sørensen, G.; Møller, J. and R. Jackson. Introduction to International Relations: Theories and Approaches (Oxford University Press). 
  • Tickner, A. B. and K. Smith (eds.) International Relations from the Global South: Worlds of Difference (Routledge)
  • Weber, C. International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction (Routledge).
  • Zarakol, A. Hierarchies in World Politics (Cambridge University Press)

 

MA National Security Studies

We look forward to welcoming you to the Programme in the new academic year. In the meantime, please feel free to start reading into the subject (its history, practice, politics and philosophical dimensions) with the following curated suggestions as a starting point.

Concept of Security

David A. Baldwin, The Concept of Security. Review of International Studies 23(1), 1997, 5-26, https://dbaldwin.scholar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf4596/files/dbaldwin/files/baldwin_1997_the_concept_of_security.pdf

National Security Studies

  • John P. Burke, Honest Broker? The National Security Advisor and Presidential Decision Making (Texas A&M University Press, 2009).
  • Michael Clarke, Adam Henschke, Matthew Sussex, Tim Legrand (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of National Security (Palgrave, 2022).
  • Gearson, Briffa and Devanny, National Security Studies. In M.S. Goodman, R. Kerr and M. Moran (eds.). An Introduction to War Studies (Elgar, 2024), 136-152, https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781802203325/book-part-9781802203325-16.xml.
  • Michael J. Glennon, National Security and Double Government (Oxford, 2014).
  • Morton Halperin, Priscilla Clapp and Arnold Kanter, Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy 2E (Brookings, 2006).
  • Paul O’Neill (ed.) Securing the State and its Citizens: National Security Councils from Around the World (Bloomsbury, 2022).
  • Peter W. Rodman, Presidential Command (Penguin, 2010).

UK National Security

Statecraft approaches to Security

Climate and Security

Philosophical and political context

  • Raymond Geuss, Philosophy and Real Politics (Princeton, 2008).
  • Geoffrey Hawthorn, Running the World through Windows. New Left Review 5, September/October 2000, 101-110.
  • Peter Mair, Ruling the Void (Verso, 2023).

Order, Disorder and Systemic critique

  • Alex Callinicos, The New Age of Catastrophe (Polity, 2023).
  • Nancy Fraser, Cannibal Capitalism (Verso, 2023).
  • Wolfgang Streeck, Taking Back Control: States and State Systems after Globalism (Verso, 2024).
  • Helen Thompson, Disorder (Oxford, 2023).
  • Ayse Zarakol, Rethinking International Order. Ethics & International Affairs 38(2), 2024, 200-208, doi:10.1017/S0892679424000200.  

 

MA Political & Strategic Communication

 

  • Persuasion and Power: The Art of Strategic Communication  James P. Farwell 
  • The Violent Image: Insurgent Propaganda and the New Revolutionaries Neville Bolt

 

MA Terrorism, Security & Society

 

  • Scott Atran, Talking to the Enemy: Violent Extremism, Sacred Values, and What it Means to Be Human (London: Allen Lane, 2010) 
  • Tore Bjorgo (ed.), Root Causes of Terrorism (London: Routledge, 2005) 
  • Bruce Bognor, Lisa M. Brown, Larry E. Beutler, James. N. Breckenridge, Philip G. Zimbardo (eds.), Psychology of Terrorism.  (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2007) 
  • Ronald Crelinsten, Counterterrorism (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008) 
  • Martha Crenshaw (ed.), Terrorism in Context (Pennsylvania State University Press: Philadelphia, 2001) 
  • Audrey Cronin, How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009) 
  • Audrey Cronin, James Ludes (eds.), Attacking Terrorism (Georgetown, 2004)
  • Paul K. David and Kim Cragin (eds.), Social Science for Counterterrorism: Putting the Pieces Together (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2009) (Download for free at: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG849/)  
  • Paul K. David and Kim Cragin (eds.), Social Science for Counterterrorism: Putting the Pieces Together (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2009) (Download for free at: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG849/)  
  • Frank Foley, Countering Terrorism in Britain and France: Institutions, Norms and the Shadow of the Past (Cambridge University Press, 2013) 
  • Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006) 
  • Walter Laqueur, A History of Terrorism (Transaction, 2001) 
  • Shiraz Maher, Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea (London: Hurst, 2016)  
  • Peter Neumann, Old and New Terrorism (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009)
  • David Omand, Securing the State (London: Hurst and Co., 2010) 
  • Samir Puri, Fighting and Negotiating with Armed Groups: the Difficulty of Securing Strategic Outcomes (Oxford: Routledge, 2016)  
  • M. Brooke Rogers, Richard Amlot, G. James Rubin, Simon Wessely, & Kristian Krieger (2007)) Mediating the social and psychological impacts of terrorist attacks: The role of risk perception and risk communication. International Review of Psychiatry, 19(3), 279-288. 
  • M. Brooke Rogers and Julia M. Pearce (2013) Risk communication, risk perception and behaviour as foundations of effective national security practices. In B. Akhgar, & S. Yates (Eds.), Strategic intelligence management (pp. 66-74). Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.   
  • Marc Sageman, Understanding Terrorist Networks (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press, 2004) 
  • Andrew Silke (ed.) Terrorists, Victims and Society: Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and its Consequences.  Wiley Series in Psychology of Crime, Policing and Law (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2003).   
  • Andrew Silke, The Psychology of Counter-Terrorism (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011) 
  • Robert J. Ursano, Carol S. Fullerton and Ann E. Norwood (eds.), Terrorism and Disaster: Individual and Community Mental Health Interventions.  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) 

 

MA War Studies

 

  • On war by Carl von Clausewitz; J. J. Graham; F. N. Maude; Jan Willem Honig c2004  
  • War in European history by Michael Howard 2009  
  • War by Lawrence Freedman 1994  
  • War & society by Miguel Angel Centeno; Elaine Enriquez  2016  
  • Strategy: a history by Lawrence Freedman 2013 
  • Military Strategy by John Stone 2011