- Brings together academic and practitioner expertise to provide a nuanced analysis of contemporary conflict.
- In association with the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
- Foreword by General Sir Rupert Smith KCB DSO OBE QGM.
Recent conflicts have required the armed forces to engage in what has been termed ‘war amongst the people’. Such conflicts increasingly require a type of soldier deployed to function as an ‘armed social worker’, as was seen most recently in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. If this increased focus on societal relations has – and should – become the area of prime concern for contemporary armed forces, this poses a series of conceptual and practical questions regarding the ‘people’ concerned and the nature of the society amongst which war is conducted.
Scholars and practitioners come together in this volume to explore how armed forces can make sense of such complexity in conceptual terms and how military actors have practically interacted with local power structures and relations, with both positive and negative effects. It examines armed forces’ engagement at the local level in a contemporary context, and contextualises this within the broader political, strategic, tactical and legal implications this engagement has had at home and overseas.
RMA Sandhurst has long played a key role in the intellectual development of British Army and international officers. In this book, members of our Academic Faculty bring together a distinguished team of scholars and military practitioners to tackle a key concept which challenges those, military and civilian, who seek to better understand the evolving nature of contemporary conflict and how - or indeed whether - external interventions can improve matters.
Maj Gen PAE Nanson CBE
General Officer Commanding and Commandant Sandhurst
290 Pages I Size: 234 x 156mm I Publication: 13th May 2019
Paperback ISBN: 978 1 912440 02 3
