by DR HUW J DAVIES History is a dangerous thing. Parallels between contemporary events and history are all too easy to arrive at. In unskilled hands, historical events can be manhandled to seemingly deliver lessons and solutions to apparently intractable contemporary problems. This is ‘instrumentalising’ history. In reality, history can be misleading, its so-called ‘lessons’… Read More The Instrumentalisation of History
by DR AMIR M. KAMEL The Islamic State’s (IS) rise to being at the forefront of global security concerns has prompted an increasingly united international response. The current cocktail coalition, which includes the US, France, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, among others, have agreed on the need to respond militarily to the terrorist threat. Additionally, Russia… Read More (Non)Western responses to Islamic Terrorism
by DR ROBERT T. FOLEY On a recent staff ride to the battlefields of northern France and Belgium, I had occasion to discuss the 1st battle of Ypres, or the 1st and 2nd battles of Flanders as the German army named the events from 19 October to 22 November 1914. One striking aspect of my… Read More The First Battle of Ypres and Problem of Counting Casualties
by DR HUW J. DAVIES and DR ROBERT T. FOLEY In recent years, particularly since difficulties have been encountered in Afghanistan and Iraq, military thinkers and practitioners have begun questioning the existence of the operational level of war. Some argue that the articulation of the concept was a distraction from adequate attention to the tactical… Read More The Operational Level of War and the Operational Art
by DR HUW J. DAVIES Two hundred years ago, a small British force attacked the east coast of the United States, first burning Washington on 24 August, and then moving on to Baltimore, commencing a bombardment of Fort McHenry guarding the entrance to Baltimore Harbour on 13 September. The vision of the American flag lit… Read More The Star Spangled Banner & the End of America’s First Cold War?
by BILL PARK The 10th June fall of Mosul to the irregular forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), now calling itself the ‘Islamic State’, accompanied as it was by the total collapse of the lavishly equipped and US-trained Iraqi army, presented both threat and opportunity to the Kurdistan Regional Government… Read More The war against the Islamic State and the plight of Iraqi Kurdistan
by PROF. ANDREW DORMAN With the vote on independence a little over a week away the most recent two polls indicate that the double digit lead held by the No campaign has fallen significantly to roughly 6%. The Yes campaign has the inertia and it looks as though the vote on 18 September will be… Read More Scottish Independence and Four Unanswered Defence Issues
by DR GERAINT HUGHES On 19 August the militants of the Islamic State (IS) released a video showing the beheading of an American journalist, James Foley, who had been captured in Syria two years previously. Since their offensive into Northern Iraq in June 2014 IS has committed shocking atrocities against captured Iraqi soldiers and civilians.… Read More FROM ‘CALLAN’ TO ‘JIHADI JOHN’
Defence-In-Depth 