by Dr GERAINT HUGHES Please click on the thumbnails in this post for full-sized images. Forty years ago Oman’s Southern province of Dhofar was in a state of civil war. The Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF) was fighting to wrest control of the province from the guerrillas of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman… Read More Oman – On the Ground in Dhofar
This is the first in a series of posts from members of the Defence Studies Department’s Regional Security Research Centre, focusing on Russia and the implications of its increasingly assertive posture on the international stage. This post examines Russia’s revised military doctrine within the context of the country’s current foreign policy position. It will be… Read More Resurgent Russia? Continuities and Change in Russian Foreign Policy
by DR NICK LLOYD 2015 is the hundredth anniversary of one of the most important, yet little remembered, years in the history of Britain and her armed forces. Often overshadowed by the rush to war in 1914 and the momentous offensive on the Somme in 1916, the battles that the British Expeditionary Force fought on… Read More THE FORGOTTEN YEAR: 1915
by DR DAVID I. HALL On Monday 12 January 2015, the British Film Institute (BFI) hosted a special screening of the critically acclaimed Testament of Youth, by director James Kent and producer Rosie Alison, based on Vera Brittain’s poignant and powerful memoir of the same name, about the cataclysmic effect of the First World War… Read More Vera Brittain: Voice of a Depleted Generation
by DR KATHERINE E. BROWN Before Christmas, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told BBC radio four that he hoped to “open up combat roles to women” in 2016. Most of the commentary on women joining the Infantry and engaging in close quarter combat is framed in a negative manner. For example although Fall When Hit argues… Read More Because they’re worth it: Women in the Infantry
by Dr ELLEN HALLAMS, Dr TRACEY GERMAN, and Dr PAAL HILDE On October 24th 2014 the Defence Studies Department (DSD) marked the launch of its Regional Security Research Centre with a NATO roundtable held at the Defence Academy. The event also marked the start of a new partnership between DSD and the Norwegian Institute for… Read More NATO at Newport: Back to the Future II
by Dr ELLEN HALLAMS, Dr TRACEY GERMAN, and Dr PAAL HILDE On October 24th 2014 the Defence Studies Department (DSD) marked the launch of its Regional Security Research Centre with a NATO roundtable held at the Defence Academy. The event also marked the start of a new partnership between DSD and the Norwegian Institute for… Read More NATO at Newport: Back to the Future I
by DR ELLEN HALLAMS The recent wave of violence and protests across America following the deaths of two black men, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and the subsequent decisions of grand juries not to indict the white police officers has cast an ugly light onto the social ills that are afflicting an ageing hegemon. As… Read More ‘This is What Democracy Looks Like’: Obama’s America in 2015
by MR ANDREW GAWTHORPE While the debate over American strategy in the Vietnam War has been long and bitter, it has also been strangely constricted. This stems in part from the fact it has largely been an anguished dialogue among Americans searching for the reasons which underlay their nation’s defeat. This means that a lot… Read More Nation-Building: A Forgotten Aspect of the Vietnam War
by Dr DAVID P. HOUGHTON There have been numerous defence reviews in the United Kingdom since 1952, but all have failed to meet their objectives. No review has managed to match our commitments to our capabilities. In an ideal world, an altered set of challenges like that which accompanied the end of the Cold War… Read More Why British Defence Reviews Fail
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