Professor Mark Phythian

Professor

BA (CNAA) MA, PhD (Liverpool)

Contact Details

• Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2704
• Fax: +44 (0)116 252 5082
• Email: mp249@leicester.ac.uk 

Research Interests

My research has primarily been concerned with issues of international security. I have written on both the illicit and legal arms trades. Arming Iraq is a case study of the way in which Western states covertly armed Iraq (and, to a lesser extent Iran) during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, focusing primarily on the British role. The Politics of British Arms Sales Since 1964 analyses the evolution of British arms export policy and the rationales underpinning it. I am also interested in issues of accountability relating to arms exports. This work formed the basis of an interest in the study of intelligence and I have written widely on intelligence issues. In particular, I have focused on issues of accountability, intelligence failure, and the relationship between intelligence and decision-making in relation to the US and UK decisions to go to war with Iraq. At the same time, I have been interested in the British Labour Party's historic approach to the question of war, the subject of The Labour Party, War and International Relations 1945-2006.

Current Research

My current research interests are in the areas of intelligence failure and ethics and intelligence. I am currently finalising an academic Dictionary of Intelligence and Espionage for Polity Press, working on a monograph on the relationship between ethics and intelligence, and working with Peter Gill on a 2nd edition of Intelligence in an Insecure World for Polity.

Recent Research Activities

In May I gave a paper entitled ‘Ethics and Intelligence: The Implications of the Rise of the Drone’ at the 7th Global Conference on War and Peace: Probing the Boundaries, in Prague. In May I presented a paper on the Iraqi WMD intelligence failure at the Cabinet Office as part of a series of talks on Lessons Learnt: What the history of British intelligence can tell us about the future. In September I gave a paper on ‘Intelligence, Ethics and Just War: The Case of the Predator’ at the SGIR 7th Pan-European International Relations Conference in Stockholm and also chaired a panel on ‘Social Democratic Responses to the Humanitarian Military Intervention Dilemma: A Comparative Analysis'. In late September I gave a paper on ‘Developing Effective Oversight of Security Intelligence: Lessons From the UK Experience’ at the Turkish National Police Academy's Intelligence Studies Research Center in Istanbul. In October I organised a panel on the Comparative Study of Intelligence and Security Commissions of Inquiry (the subject of a forthcoming co-edited book) at the Canadian Association of Security Intelligence Studies (CASIS) annual conference in Ottawa.

 PhD Supervision

I am interested in supervising projects relating to post-9/11 security issues, issues in intelligence, war and British politics, and the origins of the 2003- war in Iraq. 

Teaching

• PL3119 The Politics of Intelligence
• PL7082 Intelligence and Security

Most Recent Publications

Books

War, Ethics and Justice: New Perspectives on a Post-9/11 World, London, Routledge, 2011, Annika Bergman-Rosamond & Mark Phythian (eds.), (ISBN: 978-0-415-55234-9 [hbk]/978-0-203-86852-2 [ebk]), pp.190.

Commissions of Inquiry and National Security: Comparative Approaches, Stuart Farson & Mark Phythian (eds.), Westport, CT, Praeger Security International, 2011.

PSI Handbook of Global Security and Intelligence: National Approaches: Volume 1 - The Americas and Asia (edited with S. Farson, P. Gill & S. Shpiro), Westport, CT, Praeger Security International, 2008 (Hardback: ISBN: 978-0-275-99207-1).

PSI Handbook of Global Security and Intelligence: National Approaches: Volume 2 - Europe, the Middle East and South Africa (edited with S. Farson, P. Gill & S. Shpiro), Westport, CT, Praeger Security International, 2008 (Hardback: ISBN: 978-0-275-99208-8). pp. x + 677.

Intelligence Theory: Key Questions and Debates (edited with P. Gill & S. Marrin), London, Routledge, 2008 (Hardback & Softback: ISBN: 978-0-415-42947-1/978-0415553377). pp. xiii + 235.

Intelligence and National Security Policymaking on Iraq: British and American Perspectives (edited with J. P. Pfiffner), Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2008 (Hardback & Softback: ISBN: 978-0-7190-7746-3/978-0-7190-7747-0); College Station, Texas A & M University Press, 2008 (Hardback & Softback: ISBN: 978-1-60344-067-7/978-1-60344-093-6). pp. xiii + 296.

Intelligence, Security and Policing Post-9/11: The UK's Response to the War on Terror (edited with J. Moran), Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 (Hardback: ISBN: 978-0-230-55191-6). pp. xii + 260.

The Labour Party, War and International Relations 1945-2006 (London, Routledge, 2007)

Intelligence in an Insecure World (Cambridge, Polity, 2006, with Peter Gill)

The Politics of British Arms Sales Since 1964 (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2000)

Under the Counter and Over the Border: Aspects of the Contemporary Trade in Illicit Arms (Netherlands, Kluwer Academic, 2000, editor).

Arming Iraq (Boston, Northeastern University Press, 1996)

Recent Journal Articles

• 'State Surveillance of the CPGB Leadership, 1920s - 1950s' (with J. Callaghan), Labour History Review, Vol.69 No.1 April 2004, pp.19-33.

• 'The Origins of the Hutton Inquiry', Parliamentary Affairs, Vol.58 No.1 Jan. 2005, pp.104-108. (with A. Doig)
• 'Hutton and Scott: A Tale of Two Inquiries', Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 58 No.1 Jan. 2005, pp.124-137.
• 'The National Interest and Politics of Threat Exaggeration: The Blair Government's Case for War Against Iraq', The Political Quarterly, Vol.76 No.3 July-Sept. 2005, pp.368-76. (with A. Doig)
• 'Still a Matter of Trust: Post-9/11 British Intelligence and Political Culture', International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, Vol.18 No.4 Winter 2005-06, pp.653-81.
• 'Intelligence, Policy-Making and the 7 July 2005 London Bombings', Crime, Law and Social Change, Vol.44 Nos. 4-5, 2005, pp.361-85.
• 'The Perfect Intelligence Failure? US Pre-War Intelligence on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction', Politics & Policy, Vol.34 No.2 June 2006, pp.400-24.
• 'The British Experience with Intelligence Accountability', Intelligence and National Security, Vol.22 No.1 February 2007, pp.75-98.
• 'Marching in Time: Alliance Politics, Synchrony and the Case for War in Iraq, 2002-2003', Australian Journal of International Affairs, Vol.61 No.1 March 2007, pp.23-40 (with A. Doig, J. P. Pfiffner, & R. Tiffen).
• Intelligence Analysis Today and Tomorrow’, Security Challenges, Vol.5 No.1, Summer 2009, pp.69-85.