Michael Rainsborough

Michael Rainsborough is Professor of Strategic Theory and served as Head of Department until August 2019. He completed my PhD at King’s under the supervision of Sir Lawrence Freedman in 1991. He gained an MA in War Studies from KCL in 1987, and a BScEcon in International Politics and Strategic Studies from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1985. Before joining the Department of War Studies in 1997 he was a civil servant at the Ministry of Defence serving as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and International Affairs at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.

Michael was also one of the first academics to serve with the newly created Defence Studies Department, Joint Services Command and Staff College. In 1986 he was a Robert Schuman Scholar with the Directorate-General of Research at the European Parliament, Luxembourg. He has also held posts as Lecturer in the Department of History, National University of Singapore (1992-1995) and Consultant and Principal Lecturer at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University (1997-2001). In 1998 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. In addition to his duties at King’s he is also a Visiting Professor at the Norwegian Defence College where he lectured on the Professional Advanced Intelligence Course.

He has taught in a wide range of settings at undergraduate and postgraduate levels both at King’s and elsewhere. In 2003 he founded the Masters in Intelligence and International Security. This was the first free standing masters level degree programme that was separate from the traditional MA in War Studies, which up until that point had been the only post-graduate degree offered by the department. The MA in Intelligence and International Security pioneered the way for the expansion of the Department’s wide-ranging suite of MA programmes. The MA is now established as one of the most popular masters programmes in the Department. Michael was the Programme Director of the MA in Intelligence and International Security between 2003 and 2009.

In 2006 he won the College Teaching Excellence Award for teaching in the School of Social Science and Public Policy.

He is also Academic Director of The Marjan Centre for the Study Conflict & Conservation hosted by the Department of War Studies.

Research Interests

• Strategic Theory: how ideas and values shape the definition and understanding of means and ends in war.
• The nature of war, and the influence and impact of the thinking of the writings of Carl von Clausewitz.
• The hidden aspects of warfare, with a special focus on dissidence and resistance both in theory and practice.
• The history of strategic thought.
• The impact of war on wildlife, animals and the non-human sphere.