Volume 10, Issue 1
A Tribute to Professor Philip M. Taylor BA (Leeds), PhD (Leeds)
1954 – 2010
Phil Taylor is probably the closest thing that the Information Warfare (IW) community has to a founding father. His works on the “softer” side of IW involved Psychological Operations, Strategic Communications and Perception Management which in the mid 1990’s were disciplines that were being ignored in the rush to glorify Cyber Warfare. Yet Phil understood that it wasn’t technology that was the target of IW operations but instead it was the human mind, and he demonstrated this in his numerous books on the subject that included almost 100 articles and 14 books, including Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy (2008), Shooting the Messenger (2008), Munitions of the Mind (2003), British Propaganda in the >20th Century: Selling Democracy (1999), and Global Communications, International Affairs and the Media since 1945 (1997).
In addition, Phil had a sharp wit and contributed enormously to the early discourse on the path that IW would take in those early years. A prolific author, his works did much to shape and develop the IW community into the robust warfare area that it is today, with a wide variety of options available, to include both “soft” and “hard” capabilities. A well-respected lecturer, Phil addressed audiences all over the world including the European Commission in Brussels, the Prime Minister's Office in Malaysia, the Defence Intelligence and Security School (DISS) at Chicksands, Cranfield University, the Royal College of Defence Studies, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, Sandhurst, the Joint Services Command Staff College (JSCSC) at Shrivenham, the UK Permanent Joint Force Headquarters at Northwood, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium, the NATO School at Oberammergau, the HQ of the Allied Land Component Command in Heidelberg, the Norwegian Defence and Security School (NORDISS), the Norwegian Staff Defence College in Oslo, the Swedish Defence College in Stockholm, the Royal Danish Defence College in Copenhagen, the Finnish National Defence College in Helsinki, the Italian Air Force Academy in Naples, and the Mubarak Al-Abdullah College for Joint Command and Staff in Kuwait City.
A giant in the IW community, Phil will be sorely missed.
Dr Leigh Armistead, CISSP
Co-Editor, JIW
Series Chair, ICIW
Journal of Information Warfare
The definitive publication for the best and latest research and analysis on information warfare, information operations, and cyber crime. Available in traditional hard copy or online.
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