Yusuf Ali Ozkan is a first year PhD researcher in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Yusuf has completed MA Intelligence and Security Studies program at Brunel University London. His general research interests focus on British intelligence and military history in the late 19^th and the first half of the 20^th century. His PhD research specifically explores British intelligence in the Dardanelles (Gallipoli) Campaign in 1915-16. He worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for MA distance-learning program at Brunel University London. He is currently working as a volunteer at the National Army Museum and as a Senior Open Access Assistant at Imperial College London.

Research Interests 

Intelligence and military history; First World War; British intelligence; intelligence studies; British Near East policy in the late 19^th and early 20^th century; Dardanelles; Gallipoli; Decision-making

Thesis Title

British Intelligence in the Dardanelles (Gallipoli) Campaign, 1915-16      

Abstract

Yusuf’s research aims to explore British military, naval, and diplomatic intelligence in the Dardanelles (Gallipoli) Campaign in 1915-16. The research will not only cover the period during which the campaign had been fought in 1915-16 but also will include British intelligence activities on the Dardanelles prior to the First World War, specifically from 1880 until the outbreak of war. The research will tentatively seek answers for the following main questions: What intelligence was available to the British decision-makers in early 1915? To what extent available intelligence shaped the decisions of the War Council members and commanders on the field before and during the Campaign? To achieve the objective of the proposed research, Yusuf will be exploiting governmental and personal files kept in various UK archives, such as the National Archives, King’s College Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, Churchill Archives Centre, and the British Library. This research is expected to contribute to the literature of the Gallipoli Campaign and the broad intelligence literature of the First World War which are both considered as incomplete dimensions by some scholars.

Supervisors

Professor William Philpott