Christopher M. Bell
Professor

Related information
Email: bellcm@dal.ca
Phone: 902-494-3586
Fax: 902-494-3349
Mailing Address:
Room 3172, Marion McCain Building, 6135 University Ave
PO Box 15000, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2
Research Topics:PO Box 15000, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2
- Modern British and European history
- International relations
- Military and naval history
Education
- BA (Calgary)
- MA (King's College, London)
- PhD (Calgary)
Note: Dr. Christopher Bell is on sabbatical 2023/2024
Selected publications
Books
- Churchill and the Dardanelles, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. Finalist for the 2017 Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History.
- Churchill and Sea Power, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Winner: Canadian Nautical Research Society’s Keith Matthews Award.
- The Royal Navy, Seapower and Strategy between the Wars, Stanford: Stanford University Press/London: Macmillan (in association with King's College London), 2000.
- Decision in the Atlantic, ed. Marcus Faulkner and Christopher M. Beil, University Press of Kentucky, 2019.
- At the Crossroads between Peace and War: The London Conference of 1930, co-edited with John H. Maurer (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2014).
- Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An International Perspective, co-edited with Bruce A. Elleman (London: Frank Cass, 2003).
Articles and Book Chapters
- 'The View from The Top: Winston Churchill, British Grand Strategy, and the Battle of the Atlantic', in Decision in the Atlantic, ed. Marcus Faulkner, and Christopher M. Bell, University Press of Kentucky, 2019.
- ‘Churchill’s Downfall in 1915: The British Press and the Dardanelles Campaign’ in Winston Churchill: At War and Thinking of War before 1939, ed. B.J.C. McKercher and Antoine Capet, London: Routledge, 2019,pp. 102-18.
- ‘“A legitimate war gamble”: Winston Churchill and the Dardanelles Campaign’, Military History Monthly, 87 (December 2017), 18-22.
- ‘Dardanelles, le pari pas si stupide de Churchill’, Guerres & Histoire, 40 (December 2017), 72-6 (translated by Pierre Grumberg).
- ‘The Washington Treaty Era: Neutralising the Pacific’ in The Sea in History - The Modern World, ed. N.A.M. Rodger (London: Boydell Press, 2017), pp. 502-11.
- ‘Contested Waters: The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era’, War in History, 23, no. 1 (January 2016), 115–126.
- ‘La batalla del Atlántico desde un comité: guerra económica y estrategia británica’ [Waging the Battle of the Atlantic by Committee: Economic Warfare and British Strategy], Desperta Ferro Contemporánea, no. 12 (December 2015), 14-20.
- ‘The Myth of a Naval Revolution by Proxy: Lord Fisher’s Influence on Churchill’s Naval Policy, 1911-14', Journal of Strategic Studies, 38, no. 7 (December 2015), 1024–44.
- ‘Air Power and the Battle of the Atlantic: Very Long Range Aircraft and the Delay in Closing the Atlantic “Air Gap”’, Journal of Military History, 79, no. 3 (July 2015), 691-719. [Awarded the 2014 Sir Julian Corbett Prize in Modern Naval History]
- ‘Sentiment vs Strategy: British Naval Policy, Imperial Defence, and the Development of Dominion Navies, 1911-1914’, International History Review, 37, no. 2 (April 2015), 262–81.
- ‘Britain and the London Naval Conference, 1929-30’, in At the Crossroads between Peace and War: The London Conference of 1930, ed. John H. Maurer and Christopher M. Bell (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2014).
- On Standards and Scholarship: A Response to Nicholas Lambert, War in History, vol. 20, 3 (July 2013), 381–409.
- ‘Sir John Fishers Naval Revolution Reconsidered: Winston Churchill at the Admiralty, 1911‑14’, War in History, vol. 18, 3 (July 2011), 333‑56.
- ‘Winston Churchill and the Ten Year Rule’, Journal of Military History, vol. 74, 4 (October 2010), 523‑56.
- ‘The Kings English and the Security of the Empire: Class, Social Mobility, and Democratization in the British Naval Officer Corps, 1918-1939’, Journal of British Studies, vol. 48, 3 (July 2009), 695-716.
- ‘Mutiny and the Royal Canadian Navy’, The Unwilling and the Reluctant: Perspectives on Military Disobedience in the Canadian Forces, ed. Craig Mantle, Kingston, Ontario: Canadian Defence Academy Press, 2006, pp. 87-112.
- ‘The Royal Navy, War Planning and Intelligence Assessments of Japan between the Wars’ in Intelligence and Statecraft: The Use and Limits of Intelligence in International Society, ed. Peter Jackson and Jennifer Siegel, Westport, CN: Praeger, 2005, pp. 139-55.
- ‘The Royal Navy and the Lessons of the Invergordon Mutiny’, War in History, vol. 12, 1 (January 2005), 75-92.
- ‘Winston Churchill, Pacific Security, and the Limits of British Power, 1921-41’, Churchill and Strategic Dilemmas before the World Wars, ed. John H. Maurer, London: Frank Cass, 2003, pp. 51-87.
- ‘The Invergordon Mutiny, 1931’, Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An International Perspective, ed. Christopher M. Bell and Bruce Elleman, London: Frank Cass, 2003, pp. 170-92.
- ‘Naval Mutinies in the Twentieth Century and Beyond’ (with Bruce Elleman), Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An International Perspective, ed. Christopher M. Bell and Bruce Elleman, London: Frank Cass, 2003, pp. 264-76.
- ‘The Singapore Strategy' and the Deterrence of Japan: Winston Churchill, the Admiralty, and the Dispatch of Force Z’, English Historical Review, vol. 116, 467 (June 2001), 604-34.
Reprinted in The Second World War, vol. VII, Alliance Politics and Grand Strategy, ed. Jeremy Black, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007, 107-37. - ‘Thinking the Unthinkable: British and American Naval Strategies for an Anglo-American War, 1918-31’, International History Review, vol. XIX, 4 (November 1997), 789-808. [Honorable Mention, 1997 Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller Prize in Naval History]
- "How are we going to make war?": Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond and British Far Eastern War Plans', Journal of Strategic Studies, vol. 20, 3 (September 1997) 123-41.
Reprinted in Naval History, 1850—Present, ed. Andrew Lambert, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007, vol. II, 27-45. - "Our Most Exposed Outpost': Hong Kong and British Far Eastern Strategy", Journal of Military History, vol. 60, 1 (January 1996) 61-88.
Teaching Awards
- 2009 Dalhousie University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Award for Excellence in Teaching
- 2007 Dalhousie University Student Union Award for Teaching Excellence in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Teaching Fall and Winter Terms 2021 -2022
- HIST 2055W - War and Society since 1945
- HIST 3050W - Europe and World War Two
- HIST 4117F - Winston Churchill
- HIST 4983F - The Varieties of History I
- HIST 4984W- The Varieties of History II
Winter 2023 Office Hours
- Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:00-4:00
- By appointment