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Geoff Till

Professor Geoff Till

Professor

Research interests

  • Conflict and security
  • Policy and society

Biography

Previously Dean of Academic Studies at the UK Command and Staff College and Head of the Defence Studies Department of King's College London, Geoffrey Till is now the Emeritus Professor of Maritime Studies of King’s College London and Chairman of the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies. Since 2009, he has been Visiting Professor in the Maritime Security Programme at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Before that he taught at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, the Royal Naval College Greenwich, the City University London and in the War Studies Department of King's College London. Additionally he has been Visiting Scholar at the US Naval Postgraduate School Monterey California. He held the Foundation Chair at the US Marine Corps University, Quantico, Virginia and was Visiting Professor at the Armed Forces University, Taiwan. In 2007 he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore, and in 2008 the inaugural Sir Howard Kippenberger Visiting Chair in Strategic Studies at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.  In 2012 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the National Institute for the Study of the South China Sea, Hainan, China.  He is a fellow of King's College London and of the Seapower Centre in Canberra, Australia. In 2014 he was elected as a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Swedish Society for Naval Sciences.  

A former Honorary Captain in the Royal Naval Reserve, he has taught at well over 40 national staff colleges (including those of Kuwait and Oman) and at a large number of other such defence establishments and academic institutions around the world.

Geoffrey Till's main interests are in maritime security and naval development. At the moment he is leading a project that looks at the way countries today 'grow' their maritime power and at the problems and challenges they face in seeking to do so.

In addition to being series editor of Cass Naval Policy and History series (the world's biggest such list), he has written several hundred journal articles and book chapters on various aspects of maritime strategy and policy defence, and has produced 29 books.  His most recent are: The Development of British Naval Thinking published by Routledge in 2006, a volume edited with Emrys Chew and Joshua Ho, Globalization and the Defence in Asia (Routledge, 2008), Korean Maritime Strategy: Issues and Challenges (Seoul: KIMS, 2011) (with Captain Yoon Sukjoon) and Sea Power and the Asia-Pacific: The Triumph of Neptune(Routledge, 2012) (with Patrick S Bratton), Asia’s Naval Expansion: An Arms Race in the Making? (London: Routledge for IISS Adelphi Books, 2012),Seapower: A Guide for the 21st Century, 3rd Edition (London: Routledge, 2013),Naval Modernisation in Southeast Asia; Causes, Nature, Consequences, (Contributing Editor with Jane Chan) (London: Routledge, 2013), The Real ‘Long War’: The Illicit Drugs Trade and the Role of the Military, (Carlisle, PA: SSI Letorte Papers, 2013). Another book on maritime developments in the Asia-Pacific Region, is currently with Macmillan, Palgrave. His books have been translated into 14 languages.  

He has contributed to a number of maritime research projects for the UK Royal Navy, the US Department of Defence and the US Navy Department and for the Navy of the Republic of Singapore.

Married to Cherry, he has three grown up children, and lives in an old cottage in England's county of Wiltshire.

Research Interests

  • Modern Maritime History
  • Contemporary Maritime Strategy and Policy
  • Security in the Asia-Pacific Region

Publications 

  • The Real ‘Long War’: The Illicit Drugs Trade and the Role of the Military, (Carlisle, PA: SSI Letorte Papers, 2013)
  • Naval Modernisation in Southeast Asia; Causes, Nature, Consequences, (Contributing Editor with Jane Chan) (London: Routledge, 2013)
  • Seapower: A Guide for the 21st Century, 3rd Edition (London: Routledge, 2013)
  • Asia’s Naval Expansion: An Arms Race in the Making? (London: Routledge for IISS Adelphi Books, 2012)
  • Sea Power and the Asia-Pacific: The Triumph of Neptune (Routledge, 2012) (with Patrick S Bratton)
  • Korean Maritime Strategy: Issues and Challenges (Seoul: KIMS, 2011) (with Captain Yoon Sukjoon)
  • G Till, E Chew and J Ho, ed., Globalization and Defence in Asia (London: Routledge, 2008)
  • Naval Transformation, Ground Forces and the Expeditionary Impulse: The Sea-basing Debate (Carlisle, PA: SSI, 2006)
  • The Development of British Naval Thinking (London: Routledge, 2006)
  • Seapower: a Guide for the 21st Century (London: Frank Cass, 2004)
  • G Till and G D Sheffield, ed., Challenges of High Command in the Twentieth Century (London: Macmillan/Palgrave, 2003)
  • Ed., Seapower at the Millennium (Gloucester: Sutton Publishing, 2001)
  • Amphibious Warfare (Leicester: SCSI, 1997)
  • Seapower: Theory and Practice (London: Frank Cass, 1994)
  • Co-editor, Navy Records Society Centenary Volume (1993)
  • The Sea in Soviet Strategy (London: Macmillan, 2nd Edition, 1989)
  • Modern Sea Power (London: Brassey's, 1987)
  • Maritime Strategy and the Nuclear Age (London: Macmillan, 2nd Edition, 1984)
  • Airpower and the Royal Navy 1914-1945 (London: Jane's, 1979)
  • Series Editor of the ten-strong series on Navies and Technology (London: Brassey's)
  • Series Editor of the 42-strong series Naval History and Policy (London: Routledge)

Research

art-navy-ship-the-carrier-class-invincible-english-unbeaten-indomitable-will-invincible-royal-british-military-maritime-fleet-navy-great-britain
Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies

The Corbett Centre develops and promotes the understanding and analysis of maritime policy and strategy

News

New Year Honours for King's community

King's academics, teaching staff and alumni have been recognised in the 2023 New Year Honours List.

New Year Honours 2023

Geoff Till

MA War Studies 1968, PhD War Studies 1976 | Chair in Naval History and Strategy at the US Naval War College

Professor Geoff Till

Naval War College selects DSD's Geoff Till for prestigious 2018 Hattendorf Prize

Dr Geoffrey Till of the Defence Studies Department, one of the world's leading experts on maritime strategy and naval history, has been named the 2018...

Professor Geoffrey Till

Events

22NovBrazil Navy

Chief of Naval Staff of the Brazilian Navy Lecture: Brazilian Navy Challenges and Perspectives

Chief of Naval Staff of the Brazilian Navy Lecture: Brazilian Navy Challenges and Perspectives

Please note: this event has passed.

Research

art-navy-ship-the-carrier-class-invincible-english-unbeaten-indomitable-will-invincible-royal-british-military-maritime-fleet-navy-great-britain
Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies

The Corbett Centre develops and promotes the understanding and analysis of maritime policy and strategy

News

New Year Honours for King's community

King's academics, teaching staff and alumni have been recognised in the 2023 New Year Honours List.

New Year Honours 2023

Geoff Till

MA War Studies 1968, PhD War Studies 1976 | Chair in Naval History and Strategy at the US Naval War College

Professor Geoff Till

Naval War College selects DSD's Geoff Till for prestigious 2018 Hattendorf Prize

Dr Geoffrey Till of the Defence Studies Department, one of the world's leading experts on maritime strategy and naval history, has been named the 2018...

Professor Geoffrey Till

Events

22NovBrazil Navy

Chief of Naval Staff of the Brazilian Navy Lecture: Brazilian Navy Challenges and Perspectives

Chief of Naval Staff of the Brazilian Navy Lecture: Brazilian Navy Challenges and Perspectives

Please note: this event has passed.