Col. Timothy C. Dowling

Col. Timothy C. Dowling

Professor

Office: 328 Scott Shipp Hall

Phone: 540-464-7472

Email: dowlingtc@vmi.edu

Fields: Soviet-Russian Military History; German Military History; World War I

Honors and Awards
  • SSRC Dissertation Fellowship, 1996
  • Fulbright Award to Budapest, Hungary, 2017
  • VMI Distinguished Teaching Award, 2025

Professor Timothy C. Dowling holds the Burgwyn Chair in Military History at VMI, where he has taught since 2001. Dowling earned his Ph.D. from Tulane University, where his doctoral dissertation examined the beginnings of socialist urban planning in the German Democratic Republic, focusing on the city of Eisenhüttenstadt. A specialist in the history of Germany and Russia in the twentieth century, he published The Brusilov Offensive (2008) and served as editor of the encyclopedia Russia at War (2014). In both his teaching and research, Dowling is known for his attention to the Eastern Front of World War I, Soviet–Russian and German military history, and the connections between military history, politics, and social processes. Dowling is also editor-in-chief of the The Journal of Military History.

At VMI, he has led multiple study abroad trips, regularly supervises cadet honors theses, and serves on numerous other honors thesis committees.

Courses Taught

  • Europe in Renaissance & Reformation
  • European Warfare 1650-1871
  • Germany and Eastern Europe: From Bismarck to Brandt
  • History Capstone
  • History of the Cold War
  • History of the Holocaust
  • Modern Russian History
  • World History I and II
Publications

Books

  • The Brusilov Offensive. Decisive Battles of the Twentieth-Century Series. Indiana University Press, 2008.
  • Editor, Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond, 2 vols. ABC-CLIO, 2014.
  • Editor, Personal Perspectives, World War I. ABC-CLIO, 2005.
  • Editor, Personal Perspectives, World War II. ABC-CLIO, 2005.

Articles:

  • “The Russian Army and the Brusilov Offensive of 1916,” in Handbook on Soviet and Russian Military History, ed. Alexander Hill, Toronto University Press, 2025.
  • “The Eastern Front,” 1914-1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War. Sponsored by the Free University of Berlin, the Bavarian State Library, and the German Research Fund, 2013.
  • “The Brusilov Offensive.” In Essays on World War I edited by Peter Pastor and Graydon Tunstall, 89-110. The Center for Hungarian Studies and Publications Series, Eastern European Monographs. Columbia University Press, 2012.