BRITISH GENERALS IN BLAIRS WARS
Generals may talk, but rarely write self-critically: this collection of essays is a remarkable exception. Jonathan Bailey himself an exceptional soldier-scholar along with Hew Strachan and Richard Iron have assembled an extraordinary array of senior officers (and one or two civilians) who reflect on Britains last decade of war. The resulting essays are often excoriating of politicians, but also of the military institutions from which these soldiers have sprung. A British audience will find the generals self-examination sobering, even disturbing; Americans will take away insights into our most important ally; students of military affairs more generally will wish to ponder carefully these reflections on generalship in the twenty-first century.
Eliot A. Cohen, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, USA
This excellent book contains a revealing collection of papers, written by senior officers and officials charged with the command and direction of British forces in the last decade. They record the efforts and decisions made within circumstances of: controversial and ambivalent political direction, uncertain popular support, scarce resource, unsatisfied planning assumptions and unrealisable expectations; complicated by the nature of coalition operations. This book is recommended to all who wish to understand the atrophy of Britains strategic faculties.
General Sir Rupert Smith, KCB DSO OBE QGM
This collection must be almost unique in military history. Seldom if ever have senior military commanders discussed so frankly the difficulties they have faced in translating the strategic demands made by their political masters into operational realities. The problems posed by their enemies were minor compared with those presented by corrupt local auxiliaries, remote bureaucratic masters, and civilian colleagues pursuing their own agendas. Our political leaders should study it very carefully before they ever make such demands on our armed forces again.
Sir Michael Howard, formerly Regius Professor of ModernHistory,
University of Oxford, UK
How military forces adapt to changes in the international environment and the tasks it sets for them is a significant factor in whether wars are won or lost. In this long-overdue book, a number of prominent British practitioners and thinkers on war take a hard-eyed look at how well Britain has adapted to the wars of the past decade. The answers are not always pleasant, but capturing and learning them now is a blood debt owed to those who have fought so fiercely in Iraq and Afghanistan.
John Nagl, Center for a New American Security, USA
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 civil-military 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
Managing Civil-Military Cooperation
Edited by Sebastiaan J.H. Rietjens and Myriame T.I.B. Bollen
ISBN 978 0 7546 7281 4
Securing the State
Reforming the National Security Decisionmaking Process at the Civil-Military Nexus
Christopher P. Gibson
ISBN 978 0 7546 7290 6
First published 2013 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright Jonathan Bailey, Richard Iron and Hew Strachan 2013
Jonathan Bailey, Richard Iron and Hew Strachan have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Bailey, J. B. A. (Jonathan B. A.)
British generals in Blairs wars / by Jonathan Bailey, Richard Iron, and Hew Strachan.
p. cm. -- (Military strategy and operational art)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4094-3735-2 (hbk)
ISBN 978-1-4094-3736-9 (pbk)
1. Iraq War, 2003Participation, British. 2. Afghan War, 2001Participation, British. 3. Great Britain-Military policy. 4. Generals--Great Britain. 5.
Operational art (Military science)--Case studies. 6. Great Britain--History, Military--21st century. I. Iron, Richard. II. Strachan, Hew. III. Title.
DS79.765.G7L44 2011
355.0092241--dc23
2011031892
ISBN 9781409437352 (hbk)
ISBN 9781409437369 (pbk)
