The UK’s International Defence Engagement Strategy: Lessons from Bassingbourn

LT COL JAMES CHANDLER In 2015 Lieutenant Colonel James Chandler was the Chief of the General Staff’s inaugural Army Visiting Fellow to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House. The following post is a short summary of his research paper published by Chatham House in April 2016 (available here). The author argues that if… Read More The UK’s International Defence Engagement Strategy: Lessons from Bassingbourn

June 23, 2017June 22, 2017 defenceresearchLeave a comment

Disunity in the Gulf

DR DAVID ROBERTS Dr David B Roberts is a lecturer at King’s College London. His book Qatar: Securing the Global Ambitions of a City State was published in 2017. The Gulf Arab monarchies are currently in the depths of a deep and painful spat. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain have joined forces to compel… Read More Disunity in the Gulf

June 19, 2017June 18, 2017 benkienzleLeave a comment

The New National Army Museum: A Review

HANNA SMYTH Hanna Smyth is a DPhil student at the University of Oxford with the Globalising and Localising the Great War research network. Her research examines how Imperial War Graves Commission sites represented, reinforced, and performed different aspects of identity for South Africa, India, Canada, & Australia in France and Belgium between 1917-1938. She earned her MA in… Read More The New National Army Museum: A Review

June 16, 2017June 15, 2017 defenceresearchLeave a comment

Combat Cohesion to Social Cohesion

DR JONATHAN FENNELL In the first of a series posts on my new article, ‘Soldiers and Social Change: The Forces Vote in the Second World War and New Zealand’s Great Experiment in Social Citizenship’, in The English Historical Review, I outlined how the soldiers’ vote won Labour the 1943 New Zealand general election. In a… Read More Combat Cohesion to Social Cohesion

June 12, 2017June 12, 2017 defenceresearchLeave a comment

‘Imagined Strategy’

DR CHRIS TUCK In previous blogs, I have talked about some of the problems inherent in strategy-making and also the internal process by which states unwittingly can create for themselves the perfect enemy. Both of these themes come together in a recent article that I have written on British operations in Borneo, 1963-66. Strategy can… Read More ‘Imagined Strategy’

June 9, 2017May 19, 2017 benkienzleLeave a comment

Trump v. Kim: A Test of Wills Over the Korean Peninsula

DR PAUL D. MILLER Paul D. Miller is the associate director of the Clements Center for National Security at The University of Texas at Austin. He served on the NSC staff as Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2007 to 2009. North Korea is a perennial candidate for America’s next war and a regular contender… Read More Trump v. Kim: A Test of Wills Over the Korean Peninsula

June 7, 2017June 6, 2017 defenceresearchLeave a comment

The Marshall Plan: Seventy Years On

DR GERAINT HUGHES James Bond aficionados will no doubt remember the scene in Ian Fleming’s first novel Casino Royale (1953) in which 007 is cleaned out at the baccarat table by the trade unionist and clandestine SMERSH agent, Le Chiffre. Facing the prospect of defeat in not just a card game, but an intelligence operation… Read More The Marshall Plan: Seventy Years On

June 5, 2017June 4, 2017 defenceresearchLeave a comment

A Social Class Survey of the New Zealand Army in the Second World War

DR JONATHAN FENNELL In the first of a series of blogs on my new article, ‘Soldiers and Social Change: The Forces Vote in the Second World War and New Zealand’s Great Experiment in Social Citizenship’, in The English Historical Review, I outlined how the soldiers’ vote won Labour the 1943 New Zealand general election. In… Read More A Social Class Survey of the New Zealand Army in the Second World War

June 2, 2017June 1, 2017 defenceresearchLeave a comment

The Iran nuclear deal under Rouhani 2.0

An earlier version of the article was published by Aspenia Online. DR ANISEH BASSIRI TABRIZI On May 19, about 45 million Iranians participated in the twelfth presidential election, in which incumbent President Hassan Rouhani gained a determined majority of votes. The election was widely perceived as a referendum on the achievements of the Rouhani’s administration,… Read More The Iran nuclear deal under Rouhani 2.0

May 29, 2017May 26, 2017 benkienzleLeave a comment

Nuclear terrorism: There is no spoon

Dr Robert J. Downes and Dr Christopher Hobbs In a nuclear world, there exists the possibility that nuclear weapons and their constituent materials could drift out of the control of states and into the hands of terrorists. This statement is uncontroversial and has a distinguished lineage. In 1946, during closed congressional testimony, Robert Oppenheimer opined… Read More Nuclear terrorism: There is no spoon

May 26, 2017May 19, 2017 benkienzleLeave a comment

Defence-In-Depth

Research from the Defence Studies Department, King's College London