Dr John Mackinlay is a Teaching Fellow in the War Studies Department, King’s College London. He began his career as a British Army officer and was Defence Fellow at Churchill College Cambridge in 1985 before completing his PhD at King’s College, London in 1990.

As a leading member of the Insurgency Research Group at the War Studies Department of King’s College, London, he has unique access to key actors in an international cross-disciplinary community concerned with insurgency and counter-insurgency. He is a regular consultant to UK Army. His chief research interests are the evolution of international forces and insurgency and counter-insurgency.

Since 2002, he has completed three related research projects which focus on post-Maoist insurgencies in, or involving post-modern societies: Globalisation and Insurgency - funded and published by IISS (as Adelphi Paper 352) with a grant from the British Academy in 2002; Defeating Complex Insurgency - funded and published by RUSI in 2005 (as RUSI Whitehall Paper 64); and Re-thinking Counter Insurgency published and funded by RAND (as RAND Counter insurgency Study Volume 5, 2008). He is currently working on 'Virtual Insurgent', a project funded by British Academy and to be published as a book by Hurst London.