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Topic · Political Science and International Relations

Military History and Strategy

Military History and Strategy is a research topic within Political Science and International Relations. Science Explorer counts 10k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the British and international strategies and experiences in counterinsurgency, with a focus on the Malayan Emergency. It delves into the application of minimum force philosophy, military intelligence, colonial warfare, and the influence of Clausewitz in small wars. The keywords reflect the historical, strategic, and philosophical aspects of counterinsurgency.

  • Counterinsurgency
  • British Army
  • Malayan Emergency
  • Clausewitz
  • Colonial Warfare
  • Minimum Force Philosophy
  • Small Wars
  • Military Intelligence
  • Colonial Difference
  • Insurgency Paradigm
Research works
10k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+9%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
38% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Military History and Strategy

Which countries lead Military History and Strategy research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (421 and 208 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 421 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 208 works
  3. 3 Russia 73 works
  4. 4 Australia 68 works
  5. 5 Germany 66 works
  6. 6 India 61 works
  7. 7 Croatia 60 works
  8. 8 Canada 53 works
  9. 9 Slovenia 50 works
  10. 10 China 43 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 38.1%United Kingdom: 18.9%Russia: 6.6%Australia: 6.2%6 others listed: 30.2%38%largest
United States421 · 38.1%United Kingdom208 · 18.9%Russia73 · 6.6%Australia68 · 6.2%6 others listed334 · 30.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Military History and Strategy research?

By volume in 2022-now, United States Department of Defense publishes the most Military History and Strategy research, followed by King's College London and University of Ljubljana.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States Department of DefenseUnited States 41 works
  2. 2 King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 22 works
  3. 3 University of LjubljanaSlovenia 14 works
  4. 4 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 14 works
  5. 5 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 13 works
  6. 6 University of ZagrebCroatia 12 works
  7. 7 Nicolae Bălcescu Land Forces AcademyRomania 11 works
  8. 8 University of MariborSlovenia 10 works
  9. 9 UNSW SydneyAustralia 10 works
  10. 10 Australian National UniversityAustralia 10 works

Who are the leading researchers in Military History and Strategy?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Military History and Strategy include John Joseph McGrath and Noam Chomsky.

  1. 1 John Joseph McGrath Australia 214k citations
  2. 2 Noam Chomsky United States 141k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Military History and Strategy?

The most cited paper in Military History and Strategy is "Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-policy Decisions and Fiascoes" (Bruce Kuklick, Irving L. Janis, 1973), with 1,467 citations. Next come "Reconstructing the correlates of war dataset on material capabilities of states, 1816–1985" (986) and "Global instances of coups from 1950 to 2010: A new dataset" (841).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-policy Decisions and Fiascoes Bruce Kuklick, Irving L. Janis · Journal of American History Dec 1973 1,467
2 Reconstructing the correlates of war dataset on material capabilities of states, 1816–1985 J. David Singer · International Interactions May 1988 986
3 Global instances of coups from 1950 to 2010: A new dataset Jonathan M. Powell, Clayton L. Thyne · Journal of Peace Research Mar 2011 841
4 Foreign Policy as Social Construction: A Post-Positivist Analysis of U.S. Counterinsurgency Policy in the Philippines Roxanne Lynn Doty · International Studies Quarterly Sep 1993 773
5 The Passion of World Politics: Propositions on Emotion and Emotional Relationships Neta C. Crawford · International Security Apr 2000 681
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Military History and Strategy research done?

The largest centres of Military History and Strategy research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Moscow (Russia), Zagreb (Croatia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Zagreb, Ljubljana and Belgrade.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 57 works
  2. 2 MoscowRussia 37 works
  3. 3 ZagrebCroatia 36 works
  4. 4 LjubljanaSlovenia 33 works
  5. 5 Washington D.C.United States 32 works
  6. 6 BelgradeSerbia 21 works
  7. 7 New YorkUnited States 21 works
  8. 8 SydneyAustralia 19 works
  9. 9 BucharestRomania 17 works
  10. 10 CanberraAustralia 16 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ZagrebHR · 36.2 works20×
  2. LjubljanaSI · 32.7 works19×
  3. BelgradeRS · 21.2 works11×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Military History and Strategy than the world average.

See Military History and Strategy on the map

Where is the best place to study Military History and Strategy?

Among universities, judged by research, King's College London, University of Ljubljana and University of Oxford score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 6.69%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →King's College LondonUniversity of OxfordUniversity of Ljublj…University of Zagreb
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 88.823.5%16.6×22 -31.6%
2University of LjubljanaSlovenia 50.22.9%21.3×14 +179.0%
3University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 48.55.3%6.0×13 +65.7%
4University of ZagrebCroatia 36.42.1%11.3×12 +47.1%
5University of MariborSlovenia 36.03.8%31.9×10 +428.6%
6Australian National UniversityAustralia 35.84.9%12.3×10 -28.8%
7UNSW SydneyAustralia 35.05.3%7.0×10 +96.6%
8Carol I National Defence UniversityRomania 33.08.8%265.9×8 +72.9%
9University of ChicagoUnited States 27.45.9%6.2×8 +227.4%
10Nicolae Bălcescu Land Forces AcademyRomania 26.74.4%326.1×11 -27.9%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Military History and Strategy, country by country

Is Military History and Strategy research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 9% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Military History and Strategy.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Military History and Strategy as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0069% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%Military History and Strategy0.0087% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Military History and Strategy over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Military History and Strategy10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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