Studies in Contemporary Warfare – serie

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has yet to be directly analysed as a military security complex with significant political influence. This book explores Iran’s IRGC and Qods Force, focussing on its development following the Iranian Revolution, and how they have skilfully transformed Iran’s defense doctrine to fight an irregular war that challenges the US and the West.Chapters detail the birth of the IRGC, its political development and influence within Iran, its relationship to militias and terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, and involvement in Yemen and Iraq. Keshavarz brings first-hand knowledge of what government institutions are looking for with respect to the IRGC, outlining Iran’s hybrid war capabilities that the US and West often misunderstand or miss altogether, in order to provide a foreign policy analysis that identifies the challenges of Iran’s irregular capabilities and what measures are needed to combat it.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has yet to be directly analysed as a military security complex with significant political influence. This book explores Iran’s IRGC and Qods Force, focussing on its development following the Iranian Revolution, and how they have skilfully transformed Iran’s defense doctrine to fight a hybrid war that challenges the US and the West.Chapters detail the birth of the IRGC, its political development and influence within Iran, its relationship to militias and terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, and involvement in Yemen and Iraq. Keshavarz brings first-hand knowledge of what government institutions are looking for with respect to the IRGC, outlining Iran’s hybrid war capabilities that the US and West often misunderstand or miss altogether, in order to provide a foreign policy analysis that identifies the challenges of Iran’s irregular capabilities and what measures are needed to combat it.

Shortlisted for The Society for Army Historical Research's 2024 Templer Medal for best first book.After twenty years of almost unbroken wars of choice, the ethical deficiencies in the operational conduct of war by Western armed forces have largely been ignored by scholarly critique. This volume addresses these deficiencies, featuring analysis by some of the UK’s leading academics and military veterans working in the fields of military ethics and contemporary conflict.Compiled in honour of Colonel David Benest OBE, a soldier-scholar who believed that ethics should be central to an effective military education, the book focuses on problems ranging from the practicalities of how to conduct a counterinsurgency campaign in one of the most challenging combat zones in the world to the failure to account properly for defeat during military conflicts. This important volume explores critical questions perennially raised about the role of the military in a democratic society and the extent to which its ideals are compromised in fighting wars of choice.

Shortlisted for The Society for Army Historical Research's 2024 Templer Medal for best first book.After twenty years of almost unbroken wars of choice, the ethical deficiencies in the operational conduct of war by Western armed forces have largely been ignored by scholarly critique. This volume addresses these deficiencies, featuring analysis by some of the UK’s leading academics and military veterans working in the fields of military ethics and contemporary conflict.Compiled in honour of Colonel David Benest OBE, a soldier-scholar who believed that ethics should be central to an effective military education, the book focuses on problems ranging from the practicalities of how to conduct a counterinsurgency campaign in one of the most challenging combat zones in the world to the failure to account properly for defeat during military conflicts. This important volume explores critical questions perennially raised about the role of the military in a democratic society and the extent to which its ideals are compromised in fighting wars of choice.

In this landmark work, Jonathan Schroden captures the complete history of US counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan. Beginning with the United States’ overthrow of the Taliban government in 2001 and ending with the Taliban’s overthrow of the US-backed government twenty years later, Schroden describes the creation, evolution, operations, and results of US and Afghan special operations task forces designed to counter al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Islamic State in Afghanistan.Building on existing scholarly research into US counter-terror operations, this book also features analysis of memoirs, news and investigative reporting, official US government accounts and documents, as well as interviews with key leaders of US counter-terrorism units and operations in Afghanistan. The result is a complete, detailed, nuanced, and objective understanding of the goals, approaches, and results of US counter-terrorism operations during its war in Afghanistan.

In this landmark work, Jonathan Schroden captures the complete history of US counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan. Beginning with the United States’ overthrow of the Taliban government in 2001 and ending with the Taliban’s overthrow of the US-backed government twenty years later, Schroden describes the creation, evolution, operations, and results of US and Afghan special operations task forces designed to counter al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Islamic State in Afghanistan.Building on existing scholarly research into US counter-terror operations, this book also features analysis of memoirs, news and investigative reporting, official US government accounts and documents, as well as interviews with key leaders of US counter-terrorism units and operations in Afghanistan. The result is a complete, detailed, nuanced, and objective understanding of the goals, approaches, and results of US counter-terrorism operations during its war in Afghanistan.

What do rising temperatures and increasing extreme weather events mean for military readiness? How will climate hazards affect the conflicts of today and tomorrow? What new missions are militaries undertaking in response? Climate Change on the Battlefield examines how climate change is reshaping modern military operations, and the role of international militaries in responding to the effects of the climate crisis. The book’s international case study approach will provide concrete answers to these questions, looking at specific geographies such as Afghanistan and the Arctic, as well as types of military operations, including firefighting, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions. The book also explores in detail how different countries from across every continent, and international institutions, are responding to these threats while also critically assessing their own emissions and contributions to the climate crisis. Differing country responses are assessed, from those that are integrating climate change impacts into a more traditional understanding of military roles, to those countries that are redefining the role of the military in the face of climate change. Finally, it examines whether or not current military responses are commensurate with the risks ahead and what form the future relationship between the military and climate breakdown is likely to take.

What do rising temperatures and increasing extreme weather events mean for military readiness? How will climate hazards affect the conflicts of today and tomorrow? What new missions are militaries undertaking in response? Climate Change on the Battlefield examines how climate change is reshaping modern military operations, and the role of international militaries in responding to the effects of the climate crisis. The book’s international case study approach will provide concrete answers to these questions, looking at specific geographies such as Afghanistan and the Arctic, as well as types of military operations, including firefighting, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions. The book also explores in detail how different countries from across every continent, and international institutions, are responding to these threats while also critically assessing their own emissions and contributions to the climate crisis. Differing country responses are assessed, from those that are integrating climate change impacts into a more traditional understanding of military roles, to those countries that are redefining the role of the military in the face of climate change. Finally, it examines whether or not current military responses are commensurate with the risks ahead and what form the future relationship between the military and climate breakdown is likely to take.

An in-depth examination of the United States’ indirect intervention into the Syrian war on two fronts: the covert CIA-led campaign against the Bashar al-Assad regime and the overt, Pentagon-led military operation against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq & Syria (ISIS). Matthew Ayton offers new insights into a dimension of US policy in Syria that has so far been given little analytical attention; the employment of what American strategists called the ‘by, with & through approach’ to ground warfare. This saw the US provide weaponry and training to non-state militias in an attempt to achieve strategic objectives without deploying large numbers of troops, in order to reduce blood-and-treasure costs, following the costly post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Drawing on a wealth of original interviews with American national security officials and the Syrians who worked with them on the ground, this book shows that despite being presented as a cost-saving panacea to intervention, this strategy came with significant - costly - and even deadly - consequences.