Wavell Room Audio Reads
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Wavell Room Audio Reads
An improved audio format version of our written content. Get your defence and security perspectives now through this podcast.
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85 ຕອນ
The Thinking Soldier: Why Intellectual Curiosity Belongs In Your Belt Kit
"The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done...
Lessons from the Greco-Turkish War
The Greco-Turkish War was one of the largest and most consequential conflicts of the interwar period, spanning the period between World War I and Worl...
"After me, the flood"
Editor note: this article was first published on angrystaffofficer.com here.
Much has been written elsewhere regarding the unforgivable s...
Defence's New Industrial Strategy
Britain's long awaited Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 (DIS 25) has been released. It commits the Government to the largest sustained uplift in defen...
On (Military) Pride and Prejudice and Why We Can't Engineer War
Pride goeth before the fall
War starts with a bluster. Whether it is with sacrifices in the temples, parades or press conferences, young...
UK National Resilience
The United Kingdom's national resilience is a critical pillar of its security in an increasingly volatile global environment. As geopolitical tensions...
The Most Dangerous Invention: Gwynne Dyer and the History of War
Why Short Histories Matter
War has long been the domain of soldiers and scholars: studied by the few, practised by the fewer, but suffere...
The Challenges Of Littoral Warfare For The UK: A Critical Perpective
The views expressed in this Paper are the authors', and do not represent those of MOD, the Royal Navy, RNSSC, or any other institution.
T...
What Makes a Good Military Coalition Partner?
The United States Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, recently commented that the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which ex...
Principle-Based Close-Combat Training
Europe's NATO members can gain an operational advantage by reframing close-combat training. However, with the current Combatives models, this change w...
Bullshit & Botshit: Digital Sycophancy & Analogue Deference in Defence
The recently published Strategic Defence Review (SDR)1 and National Security Strategy (NSS)2 both place accelerating development and adoption of autom...
What a British-Led Military Contingent in Ukraine Could Look Like
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, in its full-scale war for the third year with level overall years of conflict, is reaching a critical moment where bo...
Vegan Uniform: Why wouldn't we?
The recently reported move by the RAF to manage supply of vegan alternative uniforms on request, whilst not necessarily quite as new as it may seem, m...
Identification/Mission First in the Digital Age
This brief presents a strategic imperative. The development of the IMF is consistently bound by a very complex set of messaging - not just within the...
I Like The Word Lethal
"I like the word lethal. It is reminiscent [. . .] of pretty women and muscular men in classy hotels. Of secret negotiations and ice cubes in 25-year-...
Euclid's Army by William F. Owen
Modern military debate often gets lost in technology, jargon, and expensive promises about the "next war." In Euclid's Army: Preparing Land Forces for...
The Gradual Erosion of the Nuclear Taboo
Introduction
This year marked the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since then, the non-use of nuclear we...
#Wavell Reviews A Risk Too Far: A Psychological Autopsy of the Planning for Arnhem by Gary Buck
You may have thought that another book on Arnhem was not necessary or that it could not possibly tell you anything you did not already know about this...
Ancient Arts, Modern Ethics, and the New Battlefield
The recent Defence Committee report, Defence in the Grey Zone, brings renewed focus to the challenge of hostile activity below the threshold of conven...
Integrated strategy and Human Security outcomes: The British Army's engineering surveys in Albania
Aligned to His Majesty's Government (HMG) priorities of curtailing irregular migration and associated connections to human trafficking from Albania, e...
NATO's Early Cold War Lessons Show What US, Japan, and South Korea Must Do Now
In the not-so-distant future, a U.S. military commander in the Indo-Pacific could be forced to fight two major wars at once - one against a Chinese as...
Integrated Recce: Enhancing Cavalry Operations through technology on the CV90 Platform
The rapid advancement of military technology continues to transform the operational landscape of modern warfare. Cavalry operations (CavOps), traditio...
Goodbye Digital - Hello AI
Introduction
Like many of us, I love listening to our veterans' tales, exploits and adventures. They regale stories from their long caree...
Restructuring the British Army: A Two-Division Model
The British Army faces a pivotal moment as it navigates the evolving demands of modern warfare within the framework of the Strategic Defence Review (S...
How India-Pakistan conflict Inform China's Operational Playbook
The four-day India-Pakistan military crisis showcased a real-world glimpse of how near-peer militaries will face each other on the future battlefield....
#WavellReviews Lawrence of Arabia by Ranulph Fiennes
I first discussed Lawrence of Arabia by Ranulph Fiennes over an evening mezze in Jordan with a senior civil servant. With myself stationed in Jordan -...
Lessons from the 1866 Battle of Lissa
The U.S. Navy faced multiple threats in an emerging technology environment. The past two years have offered many lessons about the efficacy of anti-sh...
The Defence of a Baltic Bridge
It was our own fault, and our very grave fault, and now we must turn it to use, We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse!" R...
Drones Take Centre Stage: The New Face of Modern Warfare
On June 1st 2025, Ukraine carried out well-coordinated drone attacks on four airbases deep inside Russia. In the operation codenamed 'Spider's Web', 1...
Who wants to be a millionaire? Life in occupied Ukraine
President Putin has only been able to sustain his war by bribing the poor, desperate and marginalised. The deal has been straightforward: sign up and...
Russian World
At around the same time the video headlining this article was recorded, President Putin was hosting Russian Language, or Pushkin Day. This precedes Ru...
Creating internal dilemmas: The Gendering of Grey-Zone Warfare
"Russia's hybrid attacks against NATO look like war", writes Deborah Haynes for Sky News. She is referring to grey-zone warfare, attacks that sit unde...
The UK's F-35 Procurement Strategy: A Balancing Act
The United Kingdom's procurement of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, encompassing both the F-35B and F-35A variants, reflects a complex interpla...
#WavellReviews War in the Smartphone Age by Matthew Ford
War in the Smartphone Age explores how modern technologies, particularly smartphones, are transforming the character of conflict. Dr Matthew Ford, an...
Making NATO More Agile and Lethal: A Digital Insurgency is Underway
"Nothing After Two O'clock" or "No Action, Talk Only" are well-worn jabs at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that once resonated with a c...
S-400 Debut in South Asia: Limits of Tech Supremacy
Amongst contemporary systems, the Russian S-400 has been perceived as one of the most advanced air defence system. With a layered defence of 4km, 120...
The false promise of new technology: the British Army and the (new) calibre debate
It is the lot of the infantry to hold ground and get shot at. This is the mundane history of the infantry, not the story you hear during training at C...
Is Autonomy the End of the Naval Warfare Officer
The end of the Warfare Officer?
You're not unskilled, they're the wrong skills.
In a rain-beaten marina on a rugged coastlin...
On Warrior Culture
Editor's note: This piece is slightly different to our normal ones. It's more akin to a blog and written in the first person. However, we deemed it in...
Cheap is good enough
With the imminent publication of the new government's first Strategic Defence Review this article throws out a challenge. Can we make the first cheap...