Associate ProfessorMichael Finch

Mike's research spans multiple aspects of the history of war and strategy, including military and strategic thought, the theory and practice of imperial
warfare, and the intellectual history of military history.

His most recent solo-authored book Making Makers: the past, the present, and the study of war (Oxford University Press, 2024) presents a comprehensive history of a seminal work of scholarship on war and strategy, Makers of Modern Strategy, exploring the manner in which it was made and re-made across the course of the wentieth century. It focuses on the various attempts to devise versions of the work from the 1940s to the 1980s, the intellectual biographies of the scholars who were most central to those efforts, and the legacy of the work they undertook, building a nuanced appraisal of the development of scholarship on war, with a particular emphasis on military history and the central role of historians in relation to the adjacent disciplines of strategic and security studies.

The book has been variously described by reviewers as ‘a valuable contribution to the historiography of strategic thought in the twentieth century'; ‘undoubtedly a significant contribution to military historiography'; and ‘an intellectual biography not of a single book but of an anthology across several editions - an approach that distinguishes it from most historiography on military history.’

You can listen to Mike discussing the book here.

He is also the co-editor, with Aimée Fox and David Morgan-Owen, of a new volume Framing the First World War: How Divergent Views Shaped a Global Conflict (University Press of Kansas, 2025). This innovative collection of essays looks at ways in which a variety of actors, particularly in the military and political spheres, saw and perceived the First World War, and how their interpretations exerted a significant influence over the decisions they made and the actions they took. It has been described as ‘a brilliant intervention that makes compelling claims about new First World War military history’; and an ‘exquisite collection of essays, from three of the most talented military historians in the field.’

You can listen to Mike, Aimée and Dave discussing the book here, and here.

His earlier book, A Progressive Occupation? The Gallieni-Lyautey Method and Colonial Pacification in Tonkin and Madagascar, 1885-1900 (Oxford University Press, 2013) examined the emergence of a method for the consolidation of imperial conquests against the record of the pacification processes which took place in Tonkin and Madagascar at the end of the nineteenth century. In so doing, it shed new light on the theory and practice - and the gap between the two - of a strand of imperial military thought often considered a key precursor to modern counterinsurgency doctrine.

In addition to these projects, Mike has published widely in journals such as War in History, The Journal of Military History, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, The British Journal of Military History, and 20 & 21. Revue d'Histoire.

He is currently researching a project on the later life, legacy and influence of Sir Basil Liddell Hart.