Warren Chin - Britain and the War on Terror: Policy, Strategy and Operations

BRITAIN AND THE WAR ON TERROR

Military Strategy and Operational Art

Edited by Professor Howard M. Hensel, Air War College, USA

The Ashgate Series on Military Strategy and Operational Art analyzes and assesses the synergistic interrelationship between joint and combined military operations, national military strategy, grand strategy, and national political objectives in peacetime, as well as during periods of armed conflict. In doing so, the series highlights how various patterns of civilmilitary relations, as well as styles of political and military leadership influence the outcome of armed conflicts. In addition, the series highlights both the advantages and challenges associated with the joint and combined use of military forces involved in humanitarian relief, nation building, and peacekeeping operations, as well as across the spectrum of conflict extending from limited conflicts fought for limited political objectives to total war fought for unlimited objectives. Finally, the series highlights the complexity and challenges associated with insurgency and counter-insurgency operations, as well as conventional operations and operations involving the possible use of weapons of mass destruction.

Also in this series:

Confrontation, Strategy and War Termination
Britains Conflict with Indonesia
Christopher Tuck
ISBN 978 1 4094 4630 9

Joining the Fray
Outside Military Intervention in Civil Wars
Zachary C. Shirkey
ISBN 978 1 4094 2892 3

Blairs Successful War
British Military Intervention in Sierra Leone
Andrew M. Dorman
ISBN 978 0 7546 7299 9

Russian Civil-Military Relations
Robert Brannon
ISBN 978 0 7546 7591 4

Policy, Strategy and Operations

WARREN CHIN
Kings College London, UK

ASHGATE

Warren Chin 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Warren Chin has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Chin, Warren.

Britain and the war on terror : policy, strategy and

operations. (Military strategy and operational art)

1. War on Terrorism, 20012009. 2. Terrorism Prevention

Government policy Great Britain. 3. Great Britain

Foreign relations 21st century. 4. Great Britain

History, Military 21st century. 5. Great Britain

Politics and government 19972007. 6. Great Britain

Politics and government 2007

I. Title II. Series

363.3251560941dc23

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Chin, Warren.

Britain and the War on Terror : policy, strategy and operations / by Warren Chin.

pages cm.(Military strategy and operational art)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7546-7780-2 (hardback)ISBN 978-0-7546-9528-8

(ebook) 1. War on Terrorism, 20012009. 2. TerrorismGreat

BritainPrevention. 3. Qaida (Organization) 4. Great BritainMilitary

policy. 5. Great BritainForeign relations1997 I. Title.

HV6433.G7C45 2013

363.3251560941dc23

2012048052

ISBN 9781409473893 (hbk)
ISBN 9780754695288 (ebk-PDF)
ISBN 9781409473893 (ebk-ePUB)

To my parents, with love and gratitude.

I would like to thank the International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding for their hospitality and the material support they provided which allowed this book to be completed so much sooner than it otherwise would. Id also like to extend my gratitude to the people who work in this organisation for their hospitality and the help they gave, which made my time as a research fellow so much easier than I thought possible. I also found their researchers and students willing and eager to share their insights and this helped to broaden my own horizons, which I hope served to improve the observations and commentary of this book. Id also like to thank my colleagues in the Defence Studies Department for their input into this project. In particular the many occasions during lunch at work, or on long journeys to and from conferences and on battlefield staff rides where we discussed and explored the strengths and weaknesses of Britains campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and the reasons why the military and the government seemed unable to articulate an effective strategy. That debate began on 9/11 and has only started to wane now as the UK begins contemplating its withdrawal from Afghanistan. There are also a number of people in the British military that formally and informally provided invaluable assistance that allowed me to gain a better understanding of some of the problems which confronted the British in this war. Id also like to offer thanks to my friend of many years, Salman Sayyid, who possesses an inexhaustible intellectual energy and curiosity which he fed in to our many debates about the world past, present and future. Through these discussions I came to see certain problems and issues addressed in this book in a different light and I hope in a more balanced way. Finally, I would like to thank Marie and my three children for putting up with a distracted and sometimes absent partner and parent. Hopefully, they wont hold it against me, but without their support this book would not have been possible. Obviously, any errors made in this work were unintended and should be attributed solely to me.