John Brobst

John Brobst specializes in the history of the British Empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, emphasizing geopolitics and grand strategy. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied imperial and strategic history under Roger Louis (and naval history under William Braisted). Professor Brobst is broadly interested in the application of history to contemporary issues of defense and foreign policy. He works on the British Empire both in its own right and as essential background to questions of world power in the twenty-first century. His research focuses on the interlocking histories of great power competition in Asia and the Middle East; naval power and maritime strategy; and the ‘special relationship’ between Britain, the Commonwealth nations, and the United States. His various articles, essays, and reviews also include a number of contributions on the history of secret intelligence and espionage. His book, The Future of the Great Game: Sir Olaf Caroe, India’s Independence, and the Defense of Asia (University of Akron Press, 2005), recently appeared in Japanese translation by Hiroshi Takahashi and Toshiyuki Hokari (Akashi Shoten, 2025). The Japanese edition features a new foreword by the author and a commentary by the translators, both retired diplomats with extensive service in Central and South Asia. Professor Brobst regularly teaches the basic survey of Western civilization as well as graduate seminars, honors tutorials, and upper-level courses in his areas of expertise, including ones on the life and times of Winston Churchill, the development of the British and American intelligence communities, and the long sweep of war and imperialism in Afghanistan. For more than twenty-five years, since his first year at Ohio University, he has offered a popular class on "Oil, the Persian Gulf, and World Power." He has directed over thirty graduate theses and dissertations, and served as a reader on as many committees. His former students hold tenured and tenure-track positions in academia, serve in government and the military, and work at think tanks. Professor Brobst is always glad to hear from students interested in imperial history, international relations, and strategic studies.

Publications

• The Future of the Great Game: Sir Olaf Caroe, India’s Independence, and the Defense of Asia, Japanese edition, translated by Hiroshi Takahashi and Toshiyuki Hokari, with a new foreword by the author (Akashi Shoten, 2025).
• "Mackinder’s Game, Mahan’s Rules: Classical Geopolitics and the U. S. Navy in the Cold War," in Geopolitics and War edited by Jeremy Black (Società Italiana di Storia Militare, 2025), pp. 459-483.
• “‘No Scope for Arms Control’: Strategy, Geography, and Naval Limitations in the Indian Ocean in the 1970s,” in Strategy and the Sea: Essays in Honour of John B. Hattendorf, edited by N. A. M. Rodger, J. Ross Dancy, Benjamin Darnell, and Evan Wilson (Boydell and Brewer, 2016), pp. 179-189.
• “Great Game Redux: The United States, Europe, and Gulf Security in the Late Cold War,” in European-American Relations in the Middle East: From Suez to Iraq edited by Daniel Möckli and Victor Mauer (Routledge, 2011), pp. 275-296.
• “‘By the Finger and the Thumb’: India’s Partition and the Great Game in Postwar Asia,” Orbis, vol. 52, n. 3, 2008, pp. 509-522.
• The Future of the Great Game: Sir Olaf Caroe, India’s Independence, and the Defense of Asia (University of Akron Press, 2005).
• “‘Icarian Geography’: Air Power, Closed Space, and British Decolonisation,” Geopolitics, vol. 9, n. 2, 2004, pp. 426-439.
• “Sir Frederic Goldsmid and the Containment of Persia, 1863-1873,” Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 33, n. 2, 1997, pp. 197-215.
• Numerous shorter articles, essays, and reviews, including contributions to Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Defense and Security Analysis, H-Diplo, and The Journal of Military History, among other journals and edited compilations.
• Current book project examines great power competition and maritime strategy in the Indian Ocean during the Cold War