Dr Meighen McCrae

As an historian of international history and the history of war, I am interested in three main areas: the way coalitions fight, notions of victory, and how individuals think about future war during periods of conflict or great international tension. I joined the SDSC in June 2018 as a lecturer in strategic studies. In this role I teach at both the Australian War College and the Acton campus. Prior to taking up this post I was a lecturer in military history, strategic studies, and intelligence studies as well as the Deputy-Director of the Centre for Intelligence and International Security Centre in the International Politics Department, Aberystwyth University. I have also taught for King's College London at the Joint Services Command and Staff College.    

My monograph, Coalition Strategy and the End of the First World War: The Supreme War Council and War Planning, 1917-1918 (Cambridge University Press, Military Histories Series, 2019) focuses on the efforts of Britain, France, Italy and the United States to forge a tightly coordinated coalition in the final year of the war. By considering the role of the various theatres of war and the material preparations (shipping and munitions) which underpinned the Allies' strategy, this study argues that the Supreme War Council acted as a successful forum for Allied coordination for a final war-winning campaign in 1919. 

• The First World War 
• History of War (19th & 20th Century)
• Notions of Victory 
• Coalition War
• Cultural/Military History 

My current monograph project, is entitled ‘Winning the First World War: How Allied Servicemen Defined Victory in 1917-18’. Crossing national boundaries it will compare the experiences of Allied combatants in Great Britain and the Empire, France and America in order to understand what these individuals thought a victory over the Central Powers would achieve, why it was important, and broadly how they interpreted victory. 

I am also working on an article that examines the relationship between journalism, ‘future war’ literature, strategic studies and government defence policy in Britain from 1905 to 1909. It analyses the discourse created by a small group of men (strategic publicists and fiction writers), concerned with British national efficiency caused by the challenges Germany posed to Britain’s political and economic position in the world.