DR CHRIS TRIPODI In an era of supposedly unparalleled challenge and complexity (ignoring for one moment the fact that it isn’t in any way unparalleled), ‘Understanding’ appears to be the current doctrinal plat du jour for Britain’s armed forces. Particularly so for the Army, that service which by and large interacts most closely and personally… Read More The Doctrine of ‘Understanding’ and the Illusion of Control
by DR HUW J. DAVIES Over the last few months, I have written on a number of occasions about how the British Army learned from its experiences – successful and unsuccessful – during the wars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This is important because accepted historiographical analysis has it that the British Army was… Read More Mechanisms of Knowledge Exchange in the Eighteenth Century British Army
by Dr ANDREW STEWART Although it is now showing signs of finally being brought under control, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak is the largest in recorded history. With the anniversary approaching of its start, the most recent figures from mid-April 2015 confirm there have been 10,730 deaths and nearly 26,000 reported cases. Although it… Read More Malaria: Sierra Leone’s Other War
by DR HUW J. DAVIES In 1799, the British Government assembled an expeditionary force for use in a joint operation with the Russians against French held Dutch ports. The campaign, commanded by the Duke of York, was a dismal failure, blighted by poor intelligence, inter-service friction and competing agendas on the part of the allied… Read More Forgotten Battles: The Anglo-Ottoman Campaign in Egypt, March-September 1801
by DR HUW J. DAVIES On Friday afternoon, I was asked if I would participate in a discussion on the BBC News Channel on ‘how history will view the recent campaign in Afghanistan’. I’m usually asked to participate in interviews that are way outside my comfort zone. This, whilst not entirely fitting within it, was… Read More Was it worth it? How History will view the British Campaign in Afghanistan
by DR HUW J. DAVIES John Campbell, Fourth Earl of Loudoun, has a bad reputation. Seen by historians as incompetent and ineffective in command, he also raised regiments of Highlanders to help suppress the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745/6. He participated in some of the more brutal suppression methods employed by the British Commander-in-Chief, the Duke… Read More From the Archives: The Loudoun Papers at The Huntington Library, California.
by DR ROBERT T. FOLEY The seemingly incongruous title of this post comes from a tweet I sent at the weekend forwarding the Guardian’s report on the establishment of 77 Brigade, a unit designed to ‘control the narrative’ of current and future British operations through, amongst other things, the intelligent use of social media. My… Read More Are there any in the British army who know what Facebook is?
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 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 HUW J. DAVIES This month marks the conclusion of my first decade teaching at Staff College. In that time, I can think of two years that stand-out as containing fundamentally unexpected events, that have caused quite drastic adjustments to what I talk about when I teach. Those years were 2011 – the year… Read More Hot Potatoes for 2015
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