Dr Rob Johnson
Dr Johnson’s specialisms are in War; Statecraft; Strategy and Strategic Thinking; Military Operations; and Decision-Making
I work on the History of War and Strategy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular interest in the World Wars. My research is concerned with Statecraft, Armed Conflict and Strategy in the West, the Middle East, and Asia. Thematically, I work on strategic leadership, conventional and unconventional operations, tactical developments, intelligence, and cyber.
At Pembroke, I direct a research team and assist visiting fellows, but I also conduct policy engagement with UK, US and other governments and their armed forces as professional education.
I am the Director of the Oxford Changing Character of War Centre which is an interdisciplinary study of strategy and war. In 2021, the research priorities of the CCW Centre are the changing relationship between war and the state, war in a connected world, and the impact of new and emerging technologies.
The CCW Centre hosts Visiting Research Fellows and works with non-resident Research Fellows across the world. CCW has been particularly successful in developing the dialogue between scholars, armed forces, governments and multinational organisations, and engaging in joint research projects, conferences, and seminars. There are two weekly seminar series in termtime, open to all.
My own research has focused on strategic questions, centred on how governments develop strategic thinking, integrate new technologies (such as cyber) as instruments of offence and defence, and counter coercion in international relations. I published an edited volume with scholars in the United States and Europe entitled Military Strategy in the 21st Century: The Challenge for NATO (Hurst and OUP, 2020), with Janne Haaland Matlary. I also published The Conduct of War: Synthetic, Connected, and Kinetic (Routledge, 2021), with two Dutch colleagues Tim Sweys and Martijn Kitzen. The other recent edited work with Tim Clack was World Information War (Routledge, 2021). In addition to these very contemporary fields, I published a monograph Lawrence of Arabia On War (Bloomsbury, 2020) which examined T.E. Lawrence's ideas on war and its consequences.
In 2021, I was awarded the Research Leaders Award by the Department of Politics and International Relations for my contributions to research impact. This was the result of several years of engagement with various governments, where I could bring the benefits of deep and rigorous research to policy issues.
Currently I am examining cyber operations and strategy, the military applications of AI and robotics, and strategic coercion.
•Lawrence of Arabia on War (Bloomsbury, 2020)
•The Great War and the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2016)
•The Afghan Way of War (London and New York: Hurst-OUP, 2011)
•The Iran-Iraq War (New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010)
•Pulverfass Im Hindukusch: Dschihad, Erdol und die Grossmachte in Zentralasien (Theiss, 2008)
•Oil, Islam and Conflict in Central Asia since 1945 (London: Reaktion, 2007)
•Spying for Empire: The Great Game in Central and South Asia 1757-1947 (London: Greenhill, 2006)
•A Region in Turmoil: South Asian Conflicts Since 1947 (London: Reaktion, 2005).
•British Imperialism (New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002)
•True to Their Salt: Indigenous and Auxiliary Forces in Foreign Service (London and New York: Hurst-OUP, 2017)
Edited Volumes
•Military Strategy in the 21st Century, Rob Johnson and Janne Haaland Matlary (eds) (Hurst, 2020)
•The Conduct of War, Rob Johnson, Tim Sweys and Martijn Kitzen (eds) (Routledge, 2021)
•The World Information War, Rob Johnson and Timothy Clack (eds) (Routledge, 2021)
•Before Military Intervention, Rob Johnson and Timothy Clack, (eds.) (Palgrave, 20)
•The Great War in the Middle East: A Clash of Empires, Rob Johnson and James Kitchen, (eds.) (Routledge, 2019)
•At the End of Military Intervention: Historical, Theoretical and Applied Solutions to Stabilization and Drawdown, Rob Johnson and Timothy Clack, (eds), (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)
•The British Indian Army: Virtue and Necessity, Rob Johnson, (ed), (Cambridge: CSP, 2014)
•The Gallipoli Campaign: The Turkish Perspective, Rob Johnson and Metin Gurcan, (eds), (Routledge, 2016)
Dr Rob Johnson
Dr Johnson’s specialisms are in War; Statecraft; Strategy and Strategic Thinking; Military Operations; and Decision-Making
I work on the History of War and Strategy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular interest in the World Wars. My research is concerned with Statecraft, Armed Conflict and Strategy in the West, the Middle East, and Asia. Thematically, I work on strategic leadership, conventional and unconventional operations, tactical developments, intelligence, and cyber.
At Pembroke, I direct a research team and assist visiting fellows, but I also conduct policy engagement with UK, US and other governments and their armed forces as professional education.
I am the Director of the Oxford Changing Character of War Centre which is an interdisciplinary study of strategy and war. In 2021, the research priorities of the CCW Centre are the changing relationship between war and the state, war in a connected world, and the impact of new and emerging technologies.
The CCW Centre hosts Visiting Research Fellows and works with non-resident Research Fellows across the world. CCW has been particularly successful in developing the dialogue between scholars, armed forces, governments and multinational organisations, and engaging in joint research projects, conferences, and seminars. There are two weekly seminar series in termtime, open to all.
My own research has focused on strategic questions, centred on how governments develop strategic thinking, integrate new technologies (such as cyber) as instruments of offence and defence, and counter coercion in international relations. I published an edited volume with scholars in the United States and Europe entitled Military Strategy in the 21st Century: The Challenge for NATO (Hurst and OUP, 2020), with Janne Haaland Matlary. I also published The Conduct of War: Synthetic, Connected, and Kinetic (Routledge, 2021), with two Dutch colleagues Tim Sweys and Martijn Kitzen. The other recent edited work with Tim Clack was World Information War (Routledge, 2021). In addition to these very contemporary fields, I published a monograph Lawrence of Arabia On War (Bloomsbury, 2020) which examined T.E. Lawrence's ideas on war and its consequences.
In 2021, I was awarded the Research Leaders Award by the Department of Politics and International Relations for my contributions to research impact. This was the result of several years of engagement with various governments, where I could bring the benefits of deep and rigorous research to policy issues.
Currently I am examining cyber operations and strategy, the military applications of AI and robotics, and strategic coercion.
•Lawrence of Arabia on War (Bloomsbury, 2020)
•The Great War and the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2016)
•The Afghan Way of War (London and New York: Hurst-OUP, 2011)
•The Iran-Iraq War (New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010)
•Pulverfass Im Hindukusch: Dschihad, Erdol und die Grossmachte in Zentralasien (Theiss, 2008)
•Oil, Islam and Conflict in Central Asia since 1945 (London: Reaktion, 2007)
•Spying for Empire: The Great Game in Central and South Asia 1757-1947 (London: Greenhill, 2006)
•A Region in Turmoil: South Asian Conflicts Since 1947 (London: Reaktion, 2005).
•British Imperialism (New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002)
•True to Their Salt: Indigenous and Auxiliary Forces in Foreign Service (London and New York: Hurst-OUP, 2017)
Edited Volumes
•Military Strategy in the 21st Century, Rob Johnson and Janne Haaland Matlary (eds) (Hurst, 2020)
•The Conduct of War, Rob Johnson, Tim Sweys and Martijn Kitzen (eds) (Routledge, 2021)
•The World Information War, Rob Johnson and Timothy Clack (eds) (Routledge, 2021)
•Before Military Intervention, Rob Johnson and Timothy Clack, (eds.) (Palgrave, 20)
•The Great War in the Middle East: A Clash of Empires, Rob Johnson and James Kitchen, (eds.) (Routledge, 2019)
•At the End of Military Intervention: Historical, Theoretical and Applied Solutions to Stabilization and Drawdown, Rob Johnson and Timothy Clack, (eds), (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)
•The British Indian Army: Virtue and Necessity, Rob Johnson, (ed), (Cambridge: CSP, 2014)
•The Gallipoli Campaign: The Turkish Perspective, Rob Johnson and Metin Gurcan, (eds), (Routledge, 2016)