BLEDDYN BOWEN The politics of war and peace in space is an overlooked field. Space is a quiet and lonely place in war studies – despite space systems performing critical infrastructure roles in war, peace, politics, economics, and nuclear stability. In the mid-1990s John Sheldon and Colin Gray bemoaned the fact that there is no… Read More Clausewitz in Orbit: Spacepower Theory and Strategic Education
by DR ROBERT T. FOLEY Many organisations like to describe themselves as ‘learning organisations;’ however, very few are actually good at organisational learning. One of the key challenges facing any organisation is how to take the knowledge and experience of individuals and spread this throughout a group so that everyone learns. This problems is particularly… Read More Clausewitz and Learning Through Communities of Practice
by DR HUW J. DAVIES As Christmas approaches, I’ve been casting around for a suitable topic to help draw to a close Defence-in-Depth’s first four months – something light-hearted and suitably tongue-in-cheek. By the looks of the title of this post, I’ve found one. Last week, a young Lieutenant (that’s Loo-tenant, rather than Lef-tenant) posted a… Read More Was Clausewitz the first military blogger?
by DR HUW J. DAVIES A few weeks ago, I visited Stratfield Saye, the Berkshire country estate of the Duke of Wellington. Acquired in 1817 as a reward for the decisive victory he gained at Waterloo two years earlier, grand plans were drawn up to knock down the old house and erect an enormous palace… Read More What did officers read before Clausewitz?
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’
Dr Christian Tripodi, Senior Lecturer, Defence Studies Department I don’t do irony. It’s far too knowing and indeed far too clever. Which is rather ironic as the title of my new book The Unknown Enemy: Counterinsurgency and the Illusion of Control suggests a thoroughly intentional nod to irony. Why so? Because in a book about… Read More The Unknown Enemy
To see in the New Year, Defence-in-Depth is re-publishing its three most-viewed posts of 2019. At No. 2, a post from the MRes programme on the evolving concept of the operational level, and its utility in operational planning processes today. JONATHAN L This post is the second of two articles on the operational planning process… Read More The unfortunate operational level: Five good reasons to review our operational level structures.
BJ ARMSTRONG Commander Benjamin “BJ” Armstrong is former search and rescue and special warfare helicopter pilot currently serving as Assistant Professor of War Studies and Naval History at the U.S. Naval Academy. His books include 21st Century Mahan: Sound Military Conclusions for the Modern Era, 21st Century Sims: Innovation, Education, and Leadership for the Modern… Read More Cheer Up! – PME is More Than a Classroom
JONATHAN L Jonathan is a French officer on the Advanced Command and Staff Course and a KCL MRes student. The Statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy, but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Let us learn our lessons. Winston Churchill… Read More The unfortunate operational level: Five good reasons to review our operational level processes.
KEITH SLACK Keith Slack is a serving officer in the Royal Air Force and is currently studying at the Defence Academy and with King’s College London. He is completing a Masters in Research on “Information Power” and has extensive experience in the projection of information power in current and past operations. As exclaimed by infowars.com,… Read More Information Power!
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