Strategic Studies Slapstick: A Review of Patrick Porter’s Looking Back: WWIII Remembered

Dr. Jeffrey H. Michaels Dr. Michaels is Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London In the original script of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove, the film concludes with a custard pie fight in the War Room. Thankfully, Kubrick had the good sense to avoid the full slapstick approach and chose to… Read More Strategic Studies Slapstick: A Review of Patrick Porter’s Looking Back: WWIII Remembered

December 18, 2019December 17, 2019 defenceresearchLeave a comment

Analyzing Weapons Acquisition through the Prism of Future War

Warren Chin James Kurth posed the question of ‘why we buy the weapons we do’ in an article in the magazine, Foreign Policy in 1973. Surprisingly, forty-seven years later, we are still trying to provide a satisfactory answer regarding why we spend so much money on technologically complex weaponry; weapons acquisition typically accounts for over… Read More Analyzing Weapons Acquisition through the Prism of Future War

December 13, 2019December 11, 2019 defenceresearchLeave a comment

Technology, Uncertainty, and Future War

CHRIS TUCK In a paper published recently, I explore some of the challenges of thinking about technology and the future of war. We’ve seen in the world in the last fifty years or so what many consider to be an unprecedented rate of technological change, a process that seems to be speeding up. For example,… Read More Technology, Uncertainty, and Future War

March 11, 2019March 8, 2019 defenceresearchLeave a comment

The Impact of the Organisational Mind-set on the Perception of the Future in the Armed Forces

Dr Bence Nemeth, DR Nicholas Dew, Dr Mie Augier Armed forces have always been attempting to foresee threats and security challenges to figure out what kind of tasks they will likely encounter in the future. Thus, anticipating the future and having an idea about what might come helps to provide assumptions and starting points for… Read More The Impact of the Organisational Mind-set on the Perception of the Future in the Armed Forces

July 23, 2018July 12, 2018 benkienzleLeave a comment

Predicting future trends in warfare

DR GERAINT HUGHES At the end of last month The Economist published a special report on ‘The Future of War’ by Matthew Symonds. Symonds’ report is well-researched and addresses a wide array of contemporary issues and conceptual challenges, ranging from the renewed relevance of Article 5 for NATO to the likely implications of introducing AI… Read More Predicting future trends in warfare

February 21, 2018May 4, 2018 benkienzle2 Comments

General Sir John Hackett’s The Third World War: Or, How to Think about a Future War with Russia Today

DR JEFF MICHAELS In the vast majority of cases, scenarios of future war have rarely come to pass as originally envisioned. At least two inter-related reasons can account for this. First, due to the incredibly large number of variables to consider – geopolitical, technical, human, etc. – it is simply impossible to calculate how they… Read More General Sir John Hackett’s The Third World War: Or, How to Think about a Future War with Russia Today

August 1, 2016May 4, 2018 defenceresearch2 Comments

Future War: Thinking the Thinkable

DR SIMON MOODY Thinking about future war is important. Very important. History is replete with examples of military organisations that became the unwitting authors of their own demise because they failed to adapt to the changing military environment in which they operated. The French were out-fought and out-thought in 1940 because of a stagnant military… Read More Future War: Thinking the Thinkable

November 11, 2015May 4, 2018 defenceresearch2 Comments

Defence-In-Depth

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

Tag: Future War