The Forgotten Intervention: Operation Intrados, the Musandam Peninsula, and the End of the British Empire in the Gulf

Dr Geraint Hughes Fifty-two years ago the Arabian Gulf was experiencing its own End of Empire. Britain was withdrawing its garrisons from the region, and was preparing Bahrain, Qatar, and the Trucial States (now the United Arab Emirates) for independence by December 1971. Behind this backdrop Headquarters British Forces Gulf (BFG) planned and executed what… Read More The Forgotten Intervention: Operation Intrados, the Musandam Peninsula, and the End of the British Empire in the Gulf

February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 defenceresearchLeave a comment

THE BATTLE FOR THE HORN OF AFRICA: A RETROSPECTIVE

GERAINT HUGHES The 4th March 1978 was a pivotal day in one of the most obscure decisive battles in military history. The battle of Jijiga was the climax of an eight month war between Ethiopia and Somalia, provoked by the latter’s territorial claim on the province of Ogaden, and it was a crushing victory for the… Read More THE BATTLE FOR THE HORN OF AFRICA: A RETROSPECTIVE

February 19, 2019February 18, 2019 defenceresearch2 Comments

DSD Summer Reading #6

DR CHRIS TRIPODI Oddly, and in contrast to my colleagues, there’ll be relatively little reading happening for me this summer. Largely because the summer recess that I do get (i.e. August) will be spent writing. Consequently, most of my summer reading has already been done. And very illuminating it has been, I must say. Research… Read More DSD Summer Reading #6

August 6, 2018August 14, 2018 benkienzle2 Comments

A FORGOTTEN INTERVENTION: OPERATION HYPERION AND BRITISH PEACEKEEPERS IN LEBANON, 1982-1984.

DR GERAINT HUGHES In August the Round Table, the Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, will publish a special edition on ‘The Commonwealth and Peacekeeping’, produced to mark over sixty years of peacekeeping operations since the establishment of UNEF after the 1956 Suez Crisis. This edition will contain articles on Gender and Peacekeeping, on Oceania’s role… Read More A FORGOTTEN INTERVENTION: OPERATION HYPERION AND BRITISH PEACEKEEPERS IN LEBANON, 1982-1984.

September 4, 2017May 4, 2018 defenceresearchLeave a comment

All the Shah’s Men: The Imperial Iranian Brigade Group in the Dhofar War

The King’s College Research Centre for the History of Conflict will be hosting a symposium, ‘Armed Forces and the Cold War: Operations and Legacies’, at the JSCSC in the Tedder Lecture Theatre on 13th July 2016. All staff and students are warmly invited to attend. DR GERAINT HUGHES In the autumn of 1972 Shah Reza… Read More All the Shah’s Men: The Imperial Iranian Brigade Group in the Dhofar War

June 6, 2016May 4, 2018 defenceresearch17 Comments

Uncertain COINage

DR GERAINT HUGHES Military manuals do not often attract readers from outside of the profession of arms, and the publication of the US Army/US Marine Corps’ manual on counter-insurgency (FM3/24) by the University of Chicago Press ten years ago was one of those rare occasions where military doctrine gained an audience beyond the armed forces. FM3/24… Read More Uncertain COINage

March 7, 2016May 4, 2018 defenceresearch4 Comments

Palestine 1945-48: the Information Campaign and the Limits of Influence

DR KATE UTTING In the past information, influence or non-kinetic psychological aspects of conflict had a supporting function to the physical, kinetic aspects; today it is seen as central. Militaries have done ‘influence’ for years, but there is a dominant view that in the current information environment all actions, deeds and words are scrutinised in… Read More Palestine 1945-48: the Information Campaign and the Limits of Influence

February 19, 2016February 18, 2016 defenceresearch2 Comments

COUNTER-INSURGENCY: A QUESTION OF VICTORY

DR CHRISTINA GOULTER As Dr Huw Davies suggested in this post, how successfully the British armed forces incorporate their recent experience of counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq into doctrine and planning is likely to shape future perceptions of those campaigns. The fight against the Taliban has not ended, even for the West, because some advisory work by… Read More COUNTER-INSURGENCY: A QUESTION OF VICTORY

November 18, 2015May 4, 2018 defenceresearch2 Comments

‘COUP-PROOFING’, INSURGENCIES AND MILITIAS.

DR GERAINT HUGHES In a previous post I commented on the increasing importance of militias in internal conflicts, particular with both the Syrian civil war and the conflict in Iraq against so-called Islamic State. Scholars of Iraqi history can indeed draw parallels between the Kurdish peshmerga’s relevance to the US-led Coalition war effort and the… Read More ‘COUP-PROOFING’, INSURGENCIES AND MILITIAS.

August 24, 2015August 26, 2015 defenceresearch3 Comments

Reconsidering US Marine Corps Involvement in the Vietnam War

by Lt Col EDWARD T. NEVGLOSKI, USMC In the 50 years since US Marines first landed at Da Nang on the morning of 8 March 1965, the history of their involvement in the Vietnam War has been one of the most misunderstood and sometimes contentious topics in modern military history. In most cases historians assert… Read More Reconsidering US Marine Corps Involvement in the Vietnam War

August 17, 2015May 4, 2018 defenceresearch5 Comments

Defence-In-Depth

Research from the Defence Studies Department, King's College London

Tag: COIN