21st Century Combat: A Fusion of Military and Political Activity

Emile Simpson, author of "War From the Ground Up: Twenty-First Century Combat as Politics", will speak on "The fusion of military and political activity in 21st Century combat" at the Australian National University in Canberra, 5:30pm 18 September 2013.

About the lecture:
In the Afghan conflict, and in contemporary conflicts more generally, liberal powers and their armed forces have blurred the line between military and political activity. The clear-cut conception that the use of force in war serves to defeat an enemy has been challenged by practices developed to deal with complex multi-player political eco-systems, in which the persuasive value of an action is as important as its military effect against an enemy. The consequent politicisation of tactical action is not new, but is nonetheless catalysed by the information revolution, and hence appears to point to the future of conflict.

This lecture will describe this evolution, using first hand experience from Afghanistan, and suggest that while a fusion of military and political activity is often necessary to be operationally effective in modern warfare, so too does this carry risks in terms on the broader delimitation between war and peace.

About the Speaker:
Emile Simpson served in the British Army from 2006-12 as an infantry officer in the Royal Gurkha Rifles. He completed three tours in Southern Afghanistan. He also served in Brunei, Nepal, and the Falkland Islands. He previously read history at Oxford University, and was a Visiting Defence Fellow there in 2011 on the Changing Character of War Programme.

He is the author of War From The Ground Up: Twenty-First Century Combat as Politics which has been described as 'A work of such importance that it should be compulsory reading at every level in the military' by Sir Michael Howard and as 'the most intelligent book on war I have read for a very long time' according to Sir Hew Strachan. ...