DR ROD THORNTON Nuclear weapons are, it seems, becoming more and more of a factor in the thinking about how future major wars will be conducted. The recently released United States Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) points to the fact that Washington now wants to increase the size of its nuclear arsenal. Specifically, it seeks to… Read More Is the use of nuclear weapons more likely now? Well, yes…
DR ROD THORNTON When it comes to the winning of wars, it might be thought that military organisations today, just as they have always done, would be concentrating their efforts on how best to use kinetic force. Military violence is, after all, what militaries do. But not, it seems, any more – or at least… Read More Current Russian and Chinese ways of warfare: the end (?) of military violence in peer-state conflict
DR TRACEY GERMAN November 7th 2017 marks 100 years since the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd (St Petersburg), ushering in nearly 75 years of communist rule, the establishment of the world’s first communist state and ultimately, the creation of the USSR in 1922. The October Revolution was the second revolution the country had experienced in… Read More Remembering 1917? The centenary of the Russian Revolution
DR ROD THORNTON On the day that the UK’s new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, put to sea for the first time in June, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon compared it to what he called the ‘old and dilapidated’ Russian carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov – seen recently operating off Syria. A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman… Read More Today’s Russian Navy taking the asymmetric route – with caveats
KEVIN ROWLANDS Commander Kevin Rowlands is a naval officer who was awarded a PhD in 2015 through the Defence Studies Department. He is the editor of 21st Century Gorshkov, recently published by the US Naval Institute Press. In the following post he argues the origins of Russia’s current maritime strategy can be traced to the… Read More THE RETURN OF GORSHKOV AND THE NEW COLD WAR AT SEA
DR BLEDDYN BOWEN The US Department of Defense and the House of Representatives have been abuzz of late regarding the question of setting up an independent space corps within the US Air Force (USAF). The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee unveiled their intention to legislate this space corps loosely along the lines of the… Read More Space Warfare in the Pentagon: In Support of an Independent Space Corps
DR CHRIS TUCK Why does hybrid war cast such a long shadow over Western conceptions of future threats? The ubiquity of the idea of hybrid war is interesting given the many serious problems with the concept. Hybrid war has, for example, little intellectual coherence, since different commentators define hybrid war in different ways. For Frank… Read More Hybrid War: The Perfect Enemy
Dr. Tracey German 2017 marks fifty years since the publication of NATO’s seminal Harmel Report, which reasserted the basic principles of the alliance and introduced the concept of cooperative security based on deterrence and dialogue. The Report committed the alliance to a twin-track policy, advocating the need to seek a relaxation of tensions between East… Read More The Harmel Report Anniversary
By Dr. Rod Thornton Russian military thinking seems to have reached the point now where the idea of using force intentionally in conflicts with peer-state adversaries has been almost completely ruled out. This seems a radical move. But there has been a clear recognition within this military that better strategic outcomes for Russia will result… Read More The Russian military’s view on the utility of force: the adoption of a strategy of non-violent asymmetric warfare
Professor Andrew Dorman Donald Trump’s election as the 45th President of the United States has been shrouded in controversy. His apparent close links with Russia and questioning about the ongoing relevance of NATO has caused concern on both sides of the Atlantic. Trump’s questioning of the European dependence on the US for its security and… Read More Trump and the future of NATO
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