Mike has more than 20 years’ experience working on strategic and applied research, in solo and team settings and in technical, managerial and executive capacities. He previously founded a boutique political risk and investigative research firm. There, he spent nearly ten years working on desk and field assignments, primarily for UK government beneficiaries and commercial consortium partners, including Fortune 500 companies and Big Four consultancies. 

His career has been animated by a commitment to service and is threaded with academic and practice laterals. His service experience includes time as a civilian official with NATO (2003-2009) in Belgium, Bosnia and Afghanistan, with the UN in Iraq (2021-2023), and early career military experience. As an academic, he held university teaching and research posts at University College London, King’s College London, the School of Oriental and African Studies, City University London and Zayed University.

He backs all of this up with a continuing commitment to scholarly research. Mike is trained as an historian and as a political scientist, and holds a PhD from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. He maintains affiliations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at King’s College London. He has published dozens of shorter items, and is the author, most recently, of Streets Without Joy: A Political History of Sanctuary and War, 1959-2009 (C. Hurst & Co Publishers, 2021).

Mike’s research interests cover issues of provenance, precedent and the nature of evidence, particularly as they relate to two areas: the intersection of historical and legal practice, and the documentation of war and core international crimes. More broadly, he studies regional challenges in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and real-world problems in the realms of international law, organization, relations, and security.

His previous research dealt with forensic history, the geopolitics of information, the uses of history in policy making, institutional memory and early warning, broadcast communications and information, communications and technology (ICT) infrastructure. His current research is focused on matters of evidence, precedent and international fact-finding, the social and political impacts of new technologies, and rule of law in Iraq and Ukraine.

Mike’s experience has always been closely linked to rule of law implementation, and much of his academic research has reflected his interest in the operation and impact of law. As a practitioner, he undertook specific legal research on international and non-international conflicts in international humanitarian law, and pre-discovery work converting large scale collections of analog evidence to digitally discoverable formats. 

To augment his ability to contribute in practical, meaningful ways, and ultimately to better serve clients, he recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Law at Birkbeck College and training certifications in electronic discovery and legal technology. He is now preparing to sit the solicitor qualifying exam. He works on purely legal briefs as a consultant with Proelium Law LLP, a UK law firm specialising in security, defence, international development, extractives, Ai and cyber, legal & insurance, and manufacturing industries.

This is a complete list of items published in popular and scholarly outlets, as well as books and edited volumes with reputable publishing houses.

Books (Authored Books and Edited Volumes)

• Streets Without Joy:  A Political History of Sanctuary and War, 1959-2009. London: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers / New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.

• Making Sense of Proxy Wars: States, Surrogates and the Use of Force (Ed.). Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books / University of Nebraska Press, 2012.

• The Clandestine Politics of Sanctuary. Guest Ed. Special Issue of Civil Wars 10:1 (Winter 2008).

• Denial of Sanctuary: Understanding Terrorist Safe Havens (Ed.). Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007.

• Bosnian Security After Dayton: New Perspectives (Ed.). London & New York: Routledge, 2006.

Shorter Items (Articles, Essays and Book Chapters)

• “Framing Militant Sanctuary Practices in Afghanistan and Iraq, 2001-2011.” Chapter in Sanctuary Practices in International Perspectives: Migration, Citizenship and Social Movements, edited by Randy Lippert and Sean Rehaag. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2012. pp. 245-257.

• “Deconstructing Political Orthodoxies on Insurgent and Terrorist Sanctuaries.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 31:3 (March 2008): 251-267. Adapted from “Cracks in the System: Sanctuary and Terrorism After 9/11,” Introduction to Denial of Sanctuary.

• “Protected Status, Sacred Sites, Black Holes, and Human Agents: System, Sanctuary, Terrain Complexity.” Civil Wars 31:1 (Winter 2008): 1-6.

• “Cracks in the System: Sanctuary and Terrorism After 9/11.” Introduction to Denial of Sanctuary: Understanding Terrorist Safe Havens. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. pp. 1-20.

• “Security in Between.” Introduction to Bosnian Security After Dayton. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. pp. 1-5.

• “Denial-of-Resource Operations and NPFL Radio Dominance in the Liberian Civil War.” Civil Wars 7:3 (Autumn 2005): 94-115.

• “Terrorist Sanctuaries and Bosnia-Herzegovina: Challenging Conventional Assumptions.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 28:4 (July-August 2005): 295-305.

• “Reading Guerrilla Radio In Wartime Liberia.” Small Wars and Insurgencies 16:2 (2005): 241-251.

• “Political Communication in Wartime Liberia: Themes and Concepts.” CEPES Occasional Paper Series. Montreal: Centre d’Études des Politiques Étrangères et de Sécurité, May 2004.

• “The Policy Hole.” SAIS Review 23:1 (Winter/Spring 2003): 257-271.

• “Ordinary Bystanders.” SAIS Review 22:2 (Summer/Fall 2002): 361-366.

• “The New Banality, Modern Atrocities, and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention.” Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (2002). Original URL: http://.jha.ac/articles/a083.htm. Archived copy available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20020929144548/http://www.jha.ac:80/.

• “Accountability for Genocide: Des Forges’ Torch.” Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (October 2001). Original URL: http://.jha.ac/books/br024.htm. Archived copy available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20020929144548/http://www.jha.ac:80/.

Other Writing

• “After the Storm: Cote d’Ivoire in the Wake of the 2010-2011 Conflict.” Jane’s Intelligence Review (February 2012).

• “Budgeting NATO’s Future.” Foreign Policy/AfPak Channel (19 November 2010). URL: http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/11/19/budgeting-natos-future/

• “Afghanistan’s ‘Militia’ Problem: Can Local Defense Forces Replace Private Security Firms?” Terrorism Monitor 8:32 (12 August 2010).

• “Runaway General, Or Runaway Reporter?” CNN Opinion (22 June 2010). URL: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/22/innes.mchrystal.reporting/

• “Perceptions of Success and Failure in ISAF Operations in Marjah, Afghanistan.” Terrorism Monitor 8:24 (17 June 2010).

• “COIN Confusion.” Foreign Policy/AfPak Channel (6 May 2010). URL: http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/05/06/coin-confusion/

• “A New Command Structure in Afghanistan.” Foreign Policy/AfPak Channel (18 March 2010). URL:http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/03/18/a-new-command-structure-in-afghanistan/

• “The War of Leaks.” Foreign Policy/AfPak Channel (17 November 2009). URL: http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/11/17/the-war-of-leaks/

• “Nearly Anywhere Terrorists Operate.” Foreign Policy/AfPak Channel (9 November 2009). URL: http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/11/09/nearly-anywhere-terrorists-operate/

• “The Safe Haven Myth.” Foreign Policy / Argument (12 October 2009). URL: http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/12/the-safe-haven-myth/

• “The Sound of Silence.” Foreign Policy/AfPak Channel (12 October 2009). URL: http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/12/the-sound-of-silence/

• “Ground Truths.” Foreign Policy/AfPak Channel (2 October 2009). URL: http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/02/ground-truths/

• “How Tech Changes Our Thinking About War.” Wired.com  (13 January 2009). URL: http://www.wired.com/2009/01/how-tech-change/

• “Genocide, Ethnocide, or Hyperbole? Australia’s ‘Stolen Generation’ and Canada’s ‘Hidden Holocaust.’” Cultural Survival Quarterly 25:4 (Winter 2001): 54-56.

• “In the Countries of the Dead.” Transitions Online (17 February 2002).

Project names have been altered to preserve client confidentiality. Years indicated are the year of project completion.

Emerging Technologies

• 2018: Autonomous Last Mile Resupply Challenge

• 2018: Scoping Logistics Innovation in Industry

• 2018: Monitoring Developments in Autonomous Transport, Infrastructure, and on-Board Data and Connectivity

• 2015: Socialisation of Strategic and Operational Cyber Concepts

• 2014: State of the Art in Voice Replication Technologies

• 2012: Database Design – National Petroleum Information System of Afghanistan

Policy, Strategy and Geopolitics

• 2018: Analysis of Contested Urban Environment (CUE) exercise data.

• 2016: Challenges to UK Freedom of Strategic Manoeuvre // Anti-Access – Area Denial (A2AD)

• 2016: Current State of the US Pivot to Asia

• 2015: Social and Cultural Characteristics of Financial Networks (Global)

• 2014: Historical Case Analysis of Shifting Support for Hardline Political Movements

• 2014: Pathways Analysis of 2015 Nigerian Election Prospects

• 2014: Historical Case Analysis of Humanitarian Support Missions

Fragile and Conflict Affected States

• 2019: Mapping Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa Financial Activities (Northeast Nigeria / Lake Chad Basin Area)

• 2017: Mapping ISIS Finances (Syria and Iraq)

• 2015: Workshop - Sources of Insecurity in Africa

• 2015: Workshop - Emerging Threats in Africa

• 2015: Historical Cycles and Dynamics of Terrorism (Global)

• 2015: Mapping Sunni-Shia Divides (Global)

• 2015: Taliban Sources Project (Afghanistan)

• 2012: Mapping Oil Sector Networks in Post-Gaddafi Libya

• 2011: Rapid Field Assessment of Extractive Impacts on Tribal Communities (Indonesia)