Wavell Room Audio Reads

Nov 12 2024 37 ep. 10 mins 51

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An improved audio format version of our written content. Get your defence and security perspectives now through this podcast.

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Pride and Fall

Nov 12 2024 5 mins

Pride and Fall tells the story of the British Army and Royal Marines (and more broadly Defence) campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan 2001-2014. It mixes high-level discussions with strategy with tactical vignettes. It offers a highly readable, highly credible history of the period. This book is bloody brilliant. We highly recommend it. From people who served in Afghanistan t

The Citizen Tri-Service Reserve Force

Nov 07 2024 23 mins

BLUF: This paper proposes the creation of the structures and conditions required to train, lead and deploy a cost-effective Citizen Tri-service Reserve Force at scale during periods of stretch, tension, crisis or war. The Citizen Tri-Service Reserve Force would be available for use. (1) as a third echelon front line fighting force, (2) providing rear area and lines of communication

Will Traditions Hold us Back?

Nov 05 2024 19 mins

Tradition can be defined as an inherited, established and customary pattern of thought or action that can be transmitted from generation to generation due to their commonly accepted authority. In a military sense, Army traditions encompass customs and beliefs that unite different sets of soldiers. These traditions take form to us as behaviours, doctrine and actions. The British Arm

The Utility of Reserve: The Royal Navy and the Maritime Reserve.

Oct 31 2024 26 mins

"The Reservist is twice the citizen" - Winston Churchill Genesis The Royal Navy (RN) has the Maritime Reserve (MR), a 1* led Fighting Arm1 (FA), however, it could be argued that it is not taken seriously as a capability and is therefore not value for money. If the RN were to take the Maritime Reserve seriously, the MR would require a directed operational output, a 'head mark', a th

Iran's Strategic Impasse

Oct 15 2024 6 mins

Introduction Since the Gaza war began nearly a year ago, Israel has conducted dozens of airstrikes against Iranian-linked targets across the Middle East. There is a widespread concern that the ongoing low-level conflict may escalate into an all-out war between the two nations. Nevertheless, Tehran, for its part, does not seem inclined to escalate into a full-scale war. There are si

The Houthis and Hybrid Maritime Warfare

Oct 11 2024 7 mins

Introduction On 23 August, the Houthis, a Yemen-based rebel group, attacked a Greek-flagged vessel in the Red Sea, causing an oil leak and threatening an environmental catastrophe in one of the world's most frequently used waterways. On 2 September, the group attacked a Saudi and a Panama-flagged oil tanker in the same sea area- using a combination of missiles and one-way attack dr

Incorporating Criminal Actors Into Army Training

Terminology versus motivation Reluctance, risk aversion, and the wrong centre of gravity Useful scenarios The Army does not have the luxury of being able to ignore criminal actors Feature image credit: MOD

"Red Light, Green Light" Faraway from the Beach

Sep 26 2024 16 mins

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting" ~ Sun Tzu Why didn't Russia deploy amphibious forces to the shores of Odesa in the spring of 2022? At that point, Russians confronted the failure of the drive to Kyiv and challenges along a long front. A potential landing might have turned a flank or presented hard choices to Ukrainian leaders. Unarmed with first-hand

Israel's New Wars by Ehud Eilam

Sep 24 2024 5 mins

Israel's New Wars is the latest book by Dr. Ehud Eilam. For nearly three decades, Eilam has studied Israel's national security and written widely, including for the Wavell Room, about how the state should protect itself. In Israel's New Wars, Eilam explores how recent conflict with Iran and its partners has differed from Israel's fighting between 1948 and 1982. It contrasts fightin

Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War

Sep 18 2024 7 mins

If the war against Ukraine has highlighted any truth, it is that the defense industrial bases of the United States and Europe are woefully underequipped for the demands of high-intensity conventional warfare. The United States was and remains the only country that retained the kinds of stockpiles necessary to support Ukraine's defense and future offense, and it faces competing dema