Rod Thornton

Contact

• workRoom C10 Law and Social Sciences
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work0115 8468134
• rod.thornton@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Rod Thornton is a lecturer. His research interests are in the fields of terrorism, counter-insurgency, modern warfare and Russian military and security issues. He was in the British Army for nine years and has lived and worked in both the former Yugoslavia and Russia. He has provided expert evidence to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, and has been contracted to produce work for the Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defense. He is the author of Asymmetric Warfare: Threat and Response in the 21^st Century (Polity Press, 2006) and co-edited the book, Dimensions of Counter-Insurgency (Routledge, 2008). He has had articles published in a range of journals, including Small Wars and Insurgencies, Journal of Strategic Studies, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Defence Studies and International Peacekeeping. He has also co-edited a special edition of Contemporary Security Policy.

Expertise Summary

M14001/M14051 Terrorism and Insurgencies

M13113 Afghanistan-Pakistan

Research Summary

Change in military organisations, Counter-Insurgency, British Army, US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, Modern Warfare, Asymmetric Warfare, Russian Military.

Linked to: International Relations, Security and International History

Current Research Projects

British Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, history of British counter-insurgency, Russian counter-terrorism.

Recent Publications

• THORNTON, R, 2009. The Conflict in Afghanistan and the Evolution of Counter-Insurgency Strategy. In: SISODIA, A and RAMAN, K, eds., Asian Security at the Dawn of the 21st Century
• THORNTON, R, 2009. "Minimum Force”: A Reply to Huw Bennett Small Wars and Insurgencies. 20(1),
• ROD THORNTON AND TIM BENBOW, ed., 2008. Dimensions of Counter-Insurgency: Applying Experience to Practice 1st. Routledge.
• THORNTON, R, 2008. Prescribing Proscription: The British Use of Air Power between the Wars. In: FERGUSSON, J and MARCH, W, eds., No Clear Flight Plan: Counterinsurgency and Aerospace Power University of Manitoba.

• View all publications

• THORNTON, R, 2009. The Conflict in Afghanistan and the Evolution of Counter-Insurgency Strategy. In: SISODIA, A and RAMAN, K, eds., Asian Security at the Dawn of the 21st Century
• THORNTON, R, 2009. "Minimum Force”: A Reply to Huw Bennett Small Wars and Insurgencies. 20(1),
• ROD THORNTON AND TIM BENBOW, ed., 2008. Dimensions of Counter-Insurgency: Applying Experience to Practice 1st. Routledge.
• THORNTON, R, 2008. Prescribing Proscription: The British Use of Air Power between the Wars. In: FERGUSSON, J and MARCH, W, eds., No Clear Flight Plan: Counterinsurgency and Aerospace Power University of Manitoba.
• THORNTON, R, 2008. A Bear with Teeth?: The Russian Military in 2008 Royal United Services Institute Journal.
• THORNTON, R., 2007. Asymmetric warfare: threat and response in the twenty-first century Cambridge: Polity Press.
• THORNTON, R., 2007. Getting it wrong: the crucial mistakes made in the early stages of the British Army's deployment to Northern Ireland (August 1969 to March 1972) Journal of Strategic Studies. 30(1), 73-107
• THORNTON, R., 2007. Countering Arab insurgencies: the British experience Contemporary Security Policy. 28(1), 7-27
• THORNTON, R., 2007. Russian military reform Forschungsstelle Osteuropa Bremen, Germany, Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Available at: <www.res.ethz.ch/analysis/rad>
• ROD THORNTON, 2007. Conclusion: The Way Forward Contemporary Security Policy. 28(1),
• THORNTON, R, 2007. The Lessons of Bosnia World Defence Systems. 58-62
• ROD THORNTON, 2007. Fourth Generation Warfare: A New Form of Warfare?. In: TERRY TERRIFF, AARON KARP, ed., Global Insurgency and the Future of Armed Conflict: Debating the Fourth Generation 1st. Routledge.
• ROD THORNTON, 2007. Russian Military: Toothless Bear? World Today. 63(6),
• ROD THORNTON, 2006. Current UK-Russia Security Relations. In: HANNA SMITH, ed., The Two-Level Game: Russia's Relations with Great Britain, Finland and the European Union 1st. Finnish Institute. 155-176
• THORNTON, R., GRIFFIN, S., CHIN, W., DORMAN, A. and CLARKE, M., 2006. The British approach to low-intensity operations Government Printing Office.
• ROD THORNTON, 2005. Fourth Generation Warfare: A New Form of Warfare? Contemporary Security Policy. 26(2), 270-78
• ROD THORNTON, 2005. Historical Origins of the British Army's Counter-Insurgency and Counter-Terrorist Techniques. In: THEDOR WINKLER, ANJA EBNOTHER, MATS HANSSON, ed., Combating Terrorism and its Implications for the Security Sector 1st. Elanders Gotab. 130-53
• THORNTON, R., 2004. The British Army and the origins of its minimum force philosophy Small Wars and Insurgencies. 14(2), 83-106
• ROD THORNTON, 2004. Brutality and Desperation The World Today. 60(10),
• ROD THORNTON, 2004. Military Organizations and Change: The Case of the Russian 76th Airborne Division Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 17(3), 449-74
• THORNTON, R, 2004. Considered Response Defence Management Journal. 35-42
• THORNTON, R, 2004. Asymmetric Lessons in Iraq World Defence Systems. 7(2), 30-31
• ROD THORNTON, 2003. A Welcome Revolution?: The British Army and the Changes of the Strategic Defence Review Defence Studies. 3(3), 38-62
• ROD THORNTON, 2000. Peace Support Operations and the Military Organization: The Role of Doctrine International Peacekeeping. 7(2), 41-62
• ROD THORNTON, 2000. Cultural Barriers to Organizational unlearning: The US Army, the Zero-Defects Culture and Operations in the Post-Cold War World Small Wars and Insurgencies. 11(3), 139-59
• ROD THORNTON, The Press and the Soldier in Bosnia South Slav Journal. 15(3-4), 10-17