Andrew Mumford
Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences
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Biography
Dr Andrew Mumford is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations. His primary area of research is state responses to sub-state violence. His recent book The Counter-Insurgency Myth: The British Experience of Irregular War (Routledge, 2011) offers a macro-level history of the evolution of British responses to asymmetric insurgent threats. Andrew has published journal articles on a range of issues that explore how the British state in particular has attempted to deal with insurgencies, including torture, negotiations and reliance on air power. He just finished writing a book deconstructing the phenomena of proxy wars (to be published by Polity in spring 2013).
Andrew gained his PhD from the University of Warwick in International Relations. He has been a Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Terrorism at Pennsylvania State University, and has previously taught at the Universities of Sheffield and Hull. He is the founding convenor of British International Studies Association's (BISA) Insurgencies and Small Wars working group, and is an Associate Editor of Political Studies. He will be a Visiting Fellow at the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library in London during the 2012-13 academic year.
Expertise Summary
Dr Andrew Mumford's primary area of research is state responses to sub-state violence. His recent book The Counter-Insurgency Myth: The British Experience of Irregular War (Routledge, 2011) offers a macro-level history of the evolution of British responses to asymmetric insurgent threats. He is also co-editor of International Law, Security and Ethics: Policy Challenges in the Post-9/11 World (Routledge, 2011). Andrew has published journal articles on a range of issues that explore how the British state in particular has attempted to deal with insurgencies, including torture, negotiations and reliance on air power. He has just finished writing a book deconstructing the phenomena of proxy wars (to be published by Polity in spring 2013).
Teaching Summary
Andrew teaches modules across the International Relations and Security Studies spectrum.
Level 3: The War in Iraq (M13193)
Postgraduate: Contemporary Warfare (M14140/1) and Terrorism and Insurgencies (M14001/51)
Research Summary
Andrew Mumford's primary area of research is state responses to sub-state violence. His recent book The Counter-Insurgency Myth: The British Experience of Irregular War (Routledge, 2011) offers a… read more
Selected Publications
ANDREW MUMFORD, 2011. The Counter-Insurgency Myth: British Irregular Warfare in the Post-War Era Routledge.
ANDREW MUMFORD, AIDAN HEHIR & NATASHA KUHRT, ed., 2011. International Law, Security and Ethics: Policy Challenges in the Post-9/11 World Routledge.
ANDREW MUMFORD, 2011. ‘Puncturing the Counterinsurgency Myth: Britain and Irregular Warfare in the Past, Present and Future’
PhD supervision
Andrew is keen to hear from potential PhD students with research proposals in the area of counter-insurgency warfare, sub-state violence, and Anglo-American security/foreign policy more widely.
Current Research
Andrew Mumford's primary area of research is state responses to sub-state violence. His recent book The Counter-Insurgency Myth: The British Experience of Irregular War (Routledge, 2011) offers a macro-level history of the evolution of British responses to asymmetric insurgent threats. He is also co-editor of International Law, Security and Ethics: Policy Challenges in the Post-9/11 World (Routledge, 2011). Andrew has published journal articles on a range of issues that explore how the British state in particular has attempted to deal with insurgencies, including torture, negotiations and reliance on air power.
Andrew is currently in the process of writing a book on the phenomena of of proxy wars in the international system. Under contract with Polity, this book aims to offer the first significant deconstruction of war conducted through third parties. This research project will set the international political and strategic background of proxy warfare in the modern world, tracing its development throughout the last century and posit it as a highly pertinent factor in contemporary conflict. It will also address the way in which proxy interference often prolongs conflicts given the perpetuity of arms, money and sometimes proxy fighters sponsored by third party donors, and to this extent can be held accountable for a significant amount of conflict casualties, both amongst the warring combatants but also amongst the civilian population. Furthermore, it will emphasis why, given the direction of the 'War on Terror' and the prominence now achieved by non-state actors in conflict analysis, this is an important time to be studying the phenomena of proxy warfare.