Launched in the wake of 9/11, the US-led interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq became prolonged insurgencies that challenged the military and strategic competence of the US and its allies. The experience of these unpopular and unexpectedly challenging wars will continue to shape their approach to warfare and military intervention for some time.
What are the military lessons of these wars and what do they mean for the future character of conflict?
Harsh Lessons: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Changing Character of War is a new Adelphi book written by Ben Barry. It draws on field trips to Afghanistan and the author's analysis for the British Army of the lessons learned from the Iraq War. For instance, in future armed forces will have to work much more closely with aid and development organisations as well as maintain their rediscovered counter-insurgency skills in order to fight and win intra-state conflicts.
Brigadier Barry's book explains how military capabilities rapidly changed and evolved during the wars and identifies those that have utility for the future. It looks at the unforeseen challenges of 'learning under fire' that forced painful transformations in Western militaries, providing lessons for future military adaptation, not least the importance of leadership and military culture.
Brigadier (Retired) Ben Barry is the IISS Senior Fellow for Land Warfare and an expert on the higher management of defence, military strategy, operations and tactics, military innovation and adaptation, modern warfare and land warfare. He has operational service in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, the Middle East and Central Asia. Barry is the author of The Road from Sarajevo: British Military Operations in Bosnia, 1995-1996 and led the British Army’s analysis of the lessons of the post-conflict stabilisation of Iraq.
This book launch, chaired by IISS Director of Editorial Nicholas Redman, took place in the fifth-floor Lee Kuan Yew Conference Room, Arundel House, 13-15 Arundel Street, Temple Place, London WC2R 3DX*.
22 фев 2017
