Rod Thornton and Marina Miron, Defence Studies Department, King’s College London Late last month, a Pentagon report accused the UAE of providing financial support to Wagner, the Russian private military company (PMC) operating in Libya. For such a public denunciation to be made by the United States of an ally – the UAE – speaks… Read More What is Russia’s interest in Libya? From regional influence to hunting NATO submarines

Dr Jasper Humphreys, Director of Programmes, Marjan Centre for the Study of Conflict and the Environment, Department of War Studies, King’s College London It’s taken for granted that politicians stretch, twist and bowdlerise the connection between the word ’war’ with their ‘hot button’ topic, and climate-change is no exception. War-like rhetoric pulsed through a recent… Read More Climate-change and War (part one): Tilting at ‘Straw Men’

Marina Miron and Rod Thornton, both of Defence Studies Department, King’s College London The Russian military has been very active in Syria over the last few weeks. It has been conducting air and ballistic-missile strikes against Turkish-backed militant groups around Idlib. This activity can be seen as more fall-out from the recent conflict between Azerbaijan… Read More Russia’s ‘revenge’ after Nagorno-Karabakh: Reprisals in Syria for Turkey’s support of Azerbaijan

Ken Payne, Defence Studies Department, King’s College London Military leadership has some distinctive and enduring features, some of which look set to be challenged by the increasing adoption of autonomous systems, including AI weapons. When the British Chief of the Defence Staff speculates about an army of 30,000 robots, it’s probably a good time to… Read More Leadership in an age of Artificial Intelligence