MOD psychologists have discovered that pausing and taking time to think will increase our cognitive performance in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous (VUCA) operating environment. Taking time, making space and thinking appears to be a under-utilised skill in MOD (see Wavell Room 18 Feb 2020). Whilst we ponder on a new...

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Executive Summary Whilst much has been written on how climate change will affect global security, including how this will affect the military, there has been little consideration of how the Armed Forces themselves could be used to mitigate climate change, or induce ecological behaviour in others. With the Integrated Review...

The post Climate Strikes: Armed Forces and the Climate Emergency appeared first on Wavell Room.

Executive summary This article considers how UK Defence might influence the mind of an adversary, learning from and using techniques employed in the past. Examples include the targeting of ‘hearts and minds’, the use of mind-altering drugs and personal sabotage. This article deliberately ignores the moral argument, focusing instead on...

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At a recent conference I attended, with many defence industry key players, we spent a lot of time learning how we are transforming the way we deliver our education and training in the military through synthetics and simulation. We heard how parts of our wider organisation, such as Defence School...

The post The Need to Challenge Our Industry Partners appeared first on Wavell Room.

“We have been inclined to believe that our armed forces are excessively professional and regular. This war [WW2] has shown, as others have done before it, that the British make the best fighters in the world for irregular and independent enterprises….where daring, initiative and ingenuity are required in unusual conditions...

The post Why We Need A Modern Theory of Special Warfare to Thrive in the Human Domain appeared first on Wavell Room.

Friends of Wavell Room take to the chat channels to hash out this whole warrior ethos thing.

The post Wavell Chats: Warrior Ethos appeared first on Wavell Room.

Available here from McFarland & Co Ehud Eilam sets out in this book to explore the linkages between high and low intensity wars through the battlefield experience of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).  The book lends itself to a US and British military readership; the author devotes a chapter to...

The post Israel’s Way of War: A strategic and operational analysis 1948-2014. By Ehud Eilam appeared first on Wavell Room.

COVID-19 and the military’s contribution to the nation’s requirement for increased human security has been instructive.  Transport aircraft, logisticians, and counter-disinformation warriors are performing admirably, upholding Defence’s reputation as a go-to Department when the chips are down. This should make us think more roundly about what political decision makers will...

The post Warfare, Dinner Jackets, Hammers and Nails appeared first on Wavell Room.

When an individual adopts the warrior ethos, do they understand it? Looking 'ally' is one thing but understanding warriors takes far longer.

The post The ‘Warrior Culture’ is more than a Badge appeared first on Wavell Room.

Despite the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the post-Soviet Russian Federation has continued its inheritance of the mantle of second-biggest arms exporter country internationally (only behind the United States of America), with an estimated value of $USD6148 million in 2017 alone. As for any major arms-exporting countries, international...

The post Understanding Russia’s Foreign Policy Through International Arms Sales appeared first on Wavell Room.