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Professor Huw Bennett
Teams and roles for Huw Bennett
Professor of International Relations
Overview
Huw Bennett is Professor of International Relations at Cardiff University. He specialises in strategic studies, the history of war and intelligence studies.
Huw's writing on the history and politics of the British Army since 1945 tackles questions of civil-military relations, strategy making and the effects of conflict on society. His research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy.
Huw regularly engages with the armed forces, and has spoken to military audiences in Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. He has addressed public audiences at the Imperial War Museum, the National Army Museum, a Cardiff primary school, the Holywell Trust in Derry, the Oxford and Cambridge Club, the Royal Air Force Museum, Rosscarbery Historical Society, Amsterdam Public Library and the Senedd Cymru.
Huw has served as an expert witness in several court cases on behalf of victims of torture. His work has been covered in media outlets such as The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Irish Times, The Belfast Telegraph, BBC Radio 4 and TV Cultura.
At Cardiff, Huw teaches intelligence, strategy and international history. He previously taught at Aberystwyth University and for King's College London at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. Huw received his undergraduate and postgraduate education in International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2013 and made a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2014. He sits on the editorial boards of Critical Military Studies, the British Journal for Military History, the Studies in Contemporary Warfare book series published by Bloomsbury, the War and the British Empire book series published by McGill-Queen's University Press, and the Elements in Modern Wars book series published by Cambridge University Press.
Publication
2026
- West, H. et al., 2026. Encountering research in Northern Ireland. Critical Military Studies 12 (3), pp.498-515. (10.1080/23337486.2025.2542614)
2025
- Bennett, H. 2025. The British Army and NATO. In: Hoffenaar, J. and McAllister Linn, B. eds. National Armies and NATO, 1949-1991: The Burden of Alliance. Leiden: Leiden University Press. , pp.207-223.
- Bennett, H. 2025. New writings on grand strategy. Intelligence and National Security 40 (3), pp.576-582. (10.1080/02684527.2025.2488579)
2024
- Bennett, H. 2024. Military loyalty in Britain's withdrawal from Aden, 1960-1967. The International History Review 46 (5), pp.687-705. (10.1080/07075332.2023.2265361)
- Morgan-Owen, D. , Fox, A. and Bennett, H. 2024. A haunting past: British defence, historical narratives, and the politics of presentism. Cambridge Review of International Affairs 37 (4), pp.520-545. (10.1080/09557571.2023.2273375)
2023
- Bennett, H. 2023. Uncivil war: The British Army and the Troubles, 1966-1975. Cambridge Military Histories Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Bennett, H. and Burke, E. 2023. The Aden Protectorate levies, counter-insurgency and the loyalist bargain in South Arabia, 1951-57. In: Thomas, M. and Curless, G. eds. The Oxford Handbook of Colonial Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. , pp.418-436. (10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198866787.013.34)
2022
- Bennett, H. and Hillebrand, C. 2022. Equality, diversity and inclusion in intelligence studies. In: Dover, R. , Dylan, H. and Goodman, M. eds. A Research Agenda for Intelligence Studies and Government. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. , pp.35-48. (10.4337/9781800378803.00009)
- Bennett, H. and Romijn, P. 2022. Not an afterthought: accountability for colonial violence in the Dutch and British metropoles. In: Brocades Zaalberg, T. and Luttikhuis, B. eds. Empire's Violent End: Comparing Dutch, British, and French Wars of Decolonization, 1945-1962. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. , pp.25-48.
2020
- Bennett, H. and Romijn, P. 2020. ‘“Liever geen onderzoek”: hoe schandalen over koloniaal geweld in de Britse en Nederlandse politiek onschadelijk gemaakt konden worden (1945-1960) [“Preferably No Inquiry”: how scandals about colonial violence have been managed and politically defused in British and Dutch politics],’. BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review 135 (2), pp.52-71.
2019
- Bennett, H. 2019. 'Words are cheaper than bullets': Britain's psychological warfare in the Middle East, 1945-60. Intelligence and National Security 34 (7), pp.925-944. (10.1080/02684527.2019.1628454)
- Bennett, H. et al. 2019. Studying Mars and Clio: Or how not to write about the ethics of military conduct and military history [Debate]. History Workshop Journal 88 , pp.274-280. (10.1093/hwj/dbz034)
2018
- Bennett, H. 2018. Response to Article Review 87. H-Diplo ISSF
2017
- Bennett, H. 2017. Escaping the Empire's shadow: British military thinking about insurgency on the eve of the Northern Ireland Troubles. In: Thomas, M. and Curless, G. eds. Decolonization and Conflict: Colonial Comparisons and Legacies. London and New York: Bloomsbury. , pp.229-246.
2016
- Bennett, H. 2016. 'Detainees are always one's Achilles heel': The struggle over the scrutiny of detention and interrogation in Aden, 1963-1967. War in History 23 (4), pp.457-488. (10.1177/0968344515592910)
2014
- Bennett, H. 2014. The Baha Mousa tragedy: British army detention and interrogation from Iraq to Afghanistan. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 16 (2), pp.211-229. (10.1111/j.1467-856X.2012.00539.x)
- Bennett, H. and Mumford, A. 2014. Policing in Kenya during the Mau Mau Emergency, 1952-60. In: Fair, C. C. and Ganguly, S. eds. Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents. Oxford International Relations in South Asia Oxford: Oxford University Press. , pp.83-106.
- Bennett, H. 2014. The Reluctant Counter-insurgents: Britain's Absent Surge in Southern Iraq. In: Gventer, C. , Jones, D. M. and Smith, M. L. R. eds. The New Counter-insurgency Era in Critical Perspective. Rethinking Political Violence Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. , pp.278-298. (10.1057/9781137336941_15)
- Bennett, H. 2014. Enmeshed in insurgency: Britain's protracted retreats from Iraq and Afghanistan. Small Wars & Insurgencies 25 (3), pp.501-521. (10.1080/09592318.2014.913541)
2013
- Bennett, H. and French, D. eds. 2013. The Kenya Papers of General Sir George Erskine, 1953 to 1955. Publications of the Army Records Society Vol. 33Stroud: The History Press for the Army Records Society.
- Bennett, H. 2013. Fighting the Mau Mau: the British Army and counter-insurgency in the Kenya emergency. Cambridge Military Histories Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Bennett, H. and Cormac, R. 2013. Low intensity operations in theory and practice: General Sir Frank Kitson as warrior-scholar. In: Mumford, A. and Reis, B. C. eds. The Theory and Practice of Irregular Warfare: Warrior-Scholarship in Counter-Insurgency. Studies in Insurgency, Counterinsurgency and National Security Abingdon: Routledge. , pp.105-124.
2012
- Bennett, H. 2012. Baha Mousa and the British Army in Iraq. In: Dixon, P. ed. The British Approach to Counterinsurgency: From Malaya and Northern Ireland to Iraq and Afghanistan. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. , pp.173-204. (10.1057/9781137284686_6)
- Bennett, H. 2012. 'Smoke without fire'? Allegations against the British Army in Northern Ireland, 1972-5. Twentieth Century British History 24 (2), pp.275-304. (10.1093/tcbh/hws006)
2011
- Bennett, H. 2011. Soldiers in the court room: the British Army's part in the Kenya Emergency under the legal spotlight. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 39 (5), pp.717-730. (10.1080/03086534.2011.629083)
2010
- Bennett, H. 2010. Detention and interrogation in Northern Ireland, 1969-75. In: Scheipers, S. ed. Prisoners in War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. , pp.187-204.
- Bennett, H. 2010. From Direct Rule to Motorman: adjusting British military strategy for Northern Ireland in 1972. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 33 (6), pp.511-532. (10.1080/10576101003752648)
- Bennett, H. 2010. Minimum force in British counterinsurgency. Small Wars & Insurgencies 21 (3), pp.459-475. (10.1080/09592318.2010.505475)
2009
- Bennett, H. 2009. 'A very salutary effect': The counter-terror strategy in the early Malayan emergency, June 1948 to December 1949. Journal of Strategic Studies 32 (3), pp.415-444. (10.1080/01402390902928248)
2008
- Bennett, H. 2008. Erskine, Sir George Watkin Eben James (1899-1965), army officer. In: Cannandine, D. ed. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press(10.1093/ref:odnb/97289)
2007
- Bennett, H. 2007. The Mau Mau emergency as part of the British Army's post-war counter-insurgency experience. Defense & Security Analysis 23 (2), pp.143-163. (10.1080/14751790701424705)
- Bennett, H. 2007. The other side of the COIN: minimum and exemplary force in British Army counterinsurgency in Kenya. Small Wars & Insurgencies 18 (4), pp.638-664. (10.1080/09592310701778514)
2006
- Anderson, D. , Bennett, H. and Branch, D. 2006. A very British massacre. History Today 56 (8), pp.20-22.
- Bennett, H. 2006. The British Army and controlling barbarisation during the Kenya Emergency. In: The Warrior’s Dishonour: Barbarity, Morality and Torture in Modern Warfare. Aldershot: Ashgate. , pp.59-80.
Articles
- West, H. et al., 2026. Encountering research in Northern Ireland. Critical Military Studies 12 (3), pp.498-515. (10.1080/23337486.2025.2542614)
- Bennett, H. 2025. New writings on grand strategy. Intelligence and National Security 40 (3), pp.576-582. (10.1080/02684527.2025.2488579)
- Bennett, H. 2024. Military loyalty in Britain's withdrawal from Aden, 1960-1967. The International History Review 46 (5), pp.687-705. (10.1080/07075332.2023.2265361)
- Morgan-Owen, D. , Fox, A. and Bennett, H. 2024. A haunting past: British defence, historical narratives, and the politics of presentism. Cambridge Review of International Affairs 37 (4), pp.520-545. (10.1080/09557571.2023.2273375)
- Bennett, H. and Romijn, P. 2020. ‘“Liever geen onderzoek”: hoe schandalen over koloniaal geweld in de Britse en Nederlandse politiek onschadelijk gemaakt konden worden (1945-1960) [“Preferably No Inquiry”: how scandals about colonial violence have been managed and politically defused in British and Dutch politics],’. BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review 135 (2), pp.52-71.
- Bennett, H. 2019. 'Words are cheaper than bullets': Britain's psychological warfare in the Middle East, 1945-60. Intelligence and National Security 34 (7), pp.925-944. (10.1080/02684527.2019.1628454)
- Bennett, H. et al. 2019. Studying Mars and Clio: Or how not to write about the ethics of military conduct and military history [Debate]. History Workshop Journal 88 , pp.274-280. (10.1093/hwj/dbz034)
- Bennett, H. 2018. Response to Article Review 87. H-Diplo ISSF
- Bennett, H. 2016. 'Detainees are always one's Achilles heel': The struggle over the scrutiny of detention and interrogation in Aden, 1963-1967. War in History 23 (4), pp.457-488. (10.1177/0968344515592910)
- Bennett, H. 2014. The Baha Mousa tragedy: British army detention and interrogation from Iraq to Afghanistan. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 16 (2), pp.211-229. (10.1111/j.1467-856X.2012.00539.x)
- Bennett, H. 2014. Enmeshed in insurgency: Britain's protracted retreats from Iraq and Afghanistan. Small Wars & Insurgencies 25 (3), pp.501-521. (10.1080/09592318.2014.913541)
- Bennett, H. 2012. 'Smoke without fire'? Allegations against the British Army in Northern Ireland, 1972-5. Twentieth Century British History 24 (2), pp.275-304. (10.1093/tcbh/hws006)
- Bennett, H. 2011. Soldiers in the court room: the British Army's part in the Kenya Emergency under the legal spotlight. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 39 (5), pp.717-730. (10.1080/03086534.2011.629083)
- Bennett, H. 2010. From Direct Rule to Motorman: adjusting British military strategy for Northern Ireland in 1972. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 33 (6), pp.511-532. (10.1080/10576101003752648)
- Bennett, H. 2010. Minimum force in British counterinsurgency. Small Wars & Insurgencies 21 (3), pp.459-475. (10.1080/09592318.2010.505475)
- Bennett, H. 2009. 'A very salutary effect': The counter-terror strategy in the early Malayan emergency, June 1948 to December 1949. Journal of Strategic Studies 32 (3), pp.415-444. (10.1080/01402390902928248)
- Bennett, H. 2007. The Mau Mau emergency as part of the British Army's post-war counter-insurgency experience. Defense & Security Analysis 23 (2), pp.143-163. (10.1080/14751790701424705)
- Bennett, H. 2007. The other side of the COIN: minimum and exemplary force in British Army counterinsurgency in Kenya. Small Wars & Insurgencies 18 (4), pp.638-664. (10.1080/09592310701778514)
- Anderson, D. , Bennett, H. and Branch, D. 2006. A very British massacre. History Today 56 (8), pp.20-22.
Book sections
- Bennett, H. 2025. The British Army and NATO. In: Hoffenaar, J. and McAllister Linn, B. eds. National Armies and NATO, 1949-1991: The Burden of Alliance. Leiden: Leiden University Press. , pp.207-223.
- Bennett, H. and Burke, E. 2023. The Aden Protectorate levies, counter-insurgency and the loyalist bargain in South Arabia, 1951-57. In: Thomas, M. and Curless, G. eds. The Oxford Handbook of Colonial Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. , pp.418-436. (10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198866787.013.34)
- Bennett, H. and Hillebrand, C. 2022. Equality, diversity and inclusion in intelligence studies. In: Dover, R. , Dylan, H. and Goodman, M. eds. A Research Agenda for Intelligence Studies and Government. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. , pp.35-48. (10.4337/9781800378803.00009)
- Bennett, H. and Romijn, P. 2022. Not an afterthought: accountability for colonial violence in the Dutch and British metropoles. In: Brocades Zaalberg, T. and Luttikhuis, B. eds. Empire's Violent End: Comparing Dutch, British, and French Wars of Decolonization, 1945-1962. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. , pp.25-48.
- Bennett, H. 2017. Escaping the Empire's shadow: British military thinking about insurgency on the eve of the Northern Ireland Troubles. In: Thomas, M. and Curless, G. eds. Decolonization and Conflict: Colonial Comparisons and Legacies. London and New York: Bloomsbury. , pp.229-246.
- Bennett, H. and Mumford, A. 2014. Policing in Kenya during the Mau Mau Emergency, 1952-60. In: Fair, C. C. and Ganguly, S. eds. Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents. Oxford International Relations in South Asia Oxford: Oxford University Press. , pp.83-106.
- Bennett, H. 2014. The Reluctant Counter-insurgents: Britain's Absent Surge in Southern Iraq. In: Gventer, C. , Jones, D. M. and Smith, M. L. R. eds. The New Counter-insurgency Era in Critical Perspective. Rethinking Political Violence Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. , pp.278-298. (10.1057/9781137336941_15)
- Bennett, H. and Cormac, R. 2013. Low intensity operations in theory and practice: General Sir Frank Kitson as warrior-scholar. In: Mumford, A. and Reis, B. C. eds. The Theory and Practice of Irregular Warfare: Warrior-Scholarship in Counter-Insurgency. Studies in Insurgency, Counterinsurgency and National Security Abingdon: Routledge. , pp.105-124.
- Bennett, H. 2012. Baha Mousa and the British Army in Iraq. In: Dixon, P. ed. The British Approach to Counterinsurgency: From Malaya and Northern Ireland to Iraq and Afghanistan. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. , pp.173-204. (10.1057/9781137284686_6)
- Bennett, H. 2010. Detention and interrogation in Northern Ireland, 1969-75. In: Scheipers, S. ed. Prisoners in War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. , pp.187-204.
- Bennett, H. 2008. Erskine, Sir George Watkin Eben James (1899-1965), army officer. In: Cannandine, D. ed. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press(10.1093/ref:odnb/97289)
- Bennett, H. 2006. The British Army and controlling barbarisation during the Kenya Emergency. In: The Warrior’s Dishonour: Barbarity, Morality and Torture in Modern Warfare. Aldershot: Ashgate. , pp.59-80.
Books
- Bennett, H. 2023. Uncivil war: The British Army and the Troubles, 1966-1975. Cambridge Military Histories Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Bennett, H. and French, D. eds. 2013. The Kenya Papers of General Sir George Erskine, 1953 to 1955. Publications of the Army Records Society Vol. 33Stroud: The History Press for the Army Records Society.
- Bennett, H. 2013. Fighting the Mau Mau: the British Army and counter-insurgency in the Kenya emergency. Cambridge Military Histories Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Supervisions
My doctoral supervision expertise is in the fields of strategic studies, civil-military relations, military history and intelligence studies.
I have examined doctoral theses for Cambridge University, King's College London, the University of Glasgow, the Open University, the University of Leicester, the University of Salford, Queen's University Belfast and the University of Oxford.
