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 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
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 Hidden away in a tiny archive in Connecticut, I found, to my surprise, a diary of a Grand Tour of Europe conducted in the 1770s. I might not have looked at it, had the catalogue not specified its author as a cavalry Captain in the British Army. With nothing left… Read More Learning and Innovation in the Eighteenth Century British Army
by DR ROBERT T. FOLEY Over the past year or so, I have been involved with the British army’s Operation REFLECT. This operation has been designed to mark the centenary of the First World War and the British army’s participation in this conflict. Much of this operation has focused around the traditional methods of remembrance… Read More Op REFLECT: What Can We Learn From the First World War?
by DR ROBERT T. FOLEY Having returned to the Joint Services Command and Staff College in 2012 after a seven-year absence, changes to the teaching of strategy struck me strongly. While I was happy to see a renewed enthusiasm for the study of this important subject, I have been somewhat worried by a tendency to… Read More Can Strategy Be Reduced to a Formula of S = E + W + M?
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?
by DR CHRIS TUCK ‘The airstrikes at the moment are a holding operation… Nobody has pretended the battle against Isil can be won from the air alone.’ These comments, made last week by Philip Hammond, the British Defence Secretary, speak to two essential truths in war: first, land power, ‘the ability to exert influence on… Read More Land Power and the Islamic State Crisis
by Dr ROBERT T. FOLEY One of the most prevalent and enduring beliefs about the First World War is that those who led the war’s armies were unable to adjust to the new conditions of fighting, particularly on the Western Front. This myth is epitomized by the idea that the heroic common soldier – a… Read More Lions Led by Donkeys? Learning in the First World War
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