![Huw Bennett](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/2251?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Professor Huw Bennett
Professor of International Relations
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I joined Cardiff University in February 2016 as Reader in International Relations. I specialise in strategic studies, the history of war, and intelligence studies, and work on both historical and contemporary issues concerning the use of military power. My research focuses on the experiences of the British Army since 1945, in the contexts of British politics, the Cold War, the end of empire, and the War on Terror.
Publication
2024
- 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. Military loyalty in Britain's withdrawal from Aden, 1960-1967. The International History Review (10.1080/07075332.2023.2265361)
- Bennett, H. 2023. Uncivil war: The British Army and the Troubles, 1966-1975. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2022
- 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. 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.
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., Finch, M., Mamolea, A. and Morgan-Owen, D. 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 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. 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 French, D. eds. 2013. The Kenya Papers of General Sir George Erskine, 1953 to 1955. Publications of the Army Records Society Vol. 33. Stroud: The History Press for the Army Records Society.
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
- 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. 2023. Military loyalty in Britain's withdrawal from Aden, 1960-1967. The International History Review (10.1080/07075332.2023.2265361)
- 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., Finch, M., Mamolea, A. and Morgan-Owen, D. 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. 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. 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.
- 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: Cambridge University Press.
- 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 French, D. eds. 2013. The Kenya Papers of General Sir George Erskine, 1953 to 1955. Publications of the Army Records Society Vol. 33. Stroud: The History Press for the Army Records Society.
Research
My research focuses on British military strategy since 1945, and I have published on the conflicts in Malaya, Kenya, Aden, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan. My research examines how strategy is formed and evolves, and its impact upon society. My most recent book, Uncivil War: The British Army and the Troubles, 1966-1975, was published by Cambridge University Press in October 2023.
I am currently writing on contemporary defence policy, the British Army of the Rhine in the Cold War, and the army's adaptation to the post-Cold War world.
My earlier research informed my role as an expert historical witness in the Mau Mau case at the High Court in London, which resulted in 5,228 Kenyan victims of torture receiving a formal apology from the Foreign Secretary and just under £20 million in compensation.
My research and impact work has been funded by the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Scouloudi Foundation, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, GW4, Cardiff University, Aberystwyth University, and King's College London.
Teaching
I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate modules in international history, intelligence studies, strategy, defence policy and international relations. I supervise doctoral students in the areas of strategy, intelligence history, counter-insurgency, defence policy, and civil-military relations. I have been Director of Teaching and Learning at Cardiff, served as an external examiner at Warwick and Brunel, and been a teaching programme reviewer for Southampton and St Andrews.
Biography
Career overview
- 2016 - present: School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University.
- 2012 - 2016: Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University.
- 2007 - 2012: Defence Studies Department, King's College London, at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.
Education and qualifications
- 2010: Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, King's College London.
- 2007: PhD in International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
- 2002: MScEcon (Distinction) in Strategic Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
- 2001: BScEcon (Hons) in International Politics and Strategic Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Honours and awards
- Fellow, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, Amsterdam, April-June 2019.
- Research Fellow, Crime and Security Research Institute, Cardiff University, since November 2016.
- Visiting Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice, Queen's University Belfast, September 2015 - September 2016.
- Visiting Research Fellow, War Studies Department and Defence Studies Department, King's College London, September 2014 - September 2015.
- Visiting Fellow, Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, September - December 2011.
- ESRC Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary, Canada, April - June 2005.
- ESRC Studentship for PhD study, September 2002 - December 2005.
- ESRC Studentship for Master’s study, September 2001 - September 2002.
- Department of International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Lilian Friedlander Prize for Academic Achievement, 2002.
Professional memberships
- Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
- Member of the Army Records Society (Councillor, 2010-2014; 2018-).
- Member of the Society for Military History.
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, and the University of Leicester.
