Defence Academy Podcasts

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British Army Doctrine in Normandy 1944: Work in Progress?

Prof John Buckley discusses the image of the British army in the Normandy campaign, its operational doctrine, and goes on to suggest how to translate doctrine onto the battlefield. He starts by looking at the official view of how the Normandy campaign progressed, and some of the criticisms of this view.

The Royal Navy Without Carriers? The carrier procurement programme, 1957-1970

Mr Ben Jones presents the arguments that were made for and against retention of carriers between the years 1957 to 1970, and discusses their relevance today.

Russia’s move towards professional armed forces

Mr. Keir Giles discussed how Russia is attempting to improve the professionalism of its armed forces, and the problems it is facing in trying to achieve this. He also answered twelve questions from the audience.

The Reawakening of British National Strategy

Dr Julian Lindley-French suggests that we should reawaken a British National Strategy, justified by existing international relationships. He considers how American strategy affects how we use our military resources, and proposes that we develop our own identity, and establish an autonomous strategic role. (Duration 41 minutes)

America's Global Role after Bush

Prof Bruce Jentleson addresses the question “How can America use its power and position to promote its own and global interests”. He discusses: • The Bush Legacy - the power-influence gap and the power-authority gap. • Global Strategic Challenges – America’s status alongside other global powers, and global versus regional actors including non-state actors. • US Role – adapting security doctrines to cope with hybrid or asymmetric warfare and the effects of globalisation. (Duration 53 minutes)

Future Air Capabilities - Fully Comprehensive Cover or Third-Party Fire and Theft?

Sir Brian Burridge examines the future relevance of the six core roles of air power. He seeks to identify whether future expectations over capabilities can be met by the technology that is likely to be available, addressing the cost/capability trade-off. Is it only superpowers who can afford a fully comprehensive policy and what are the implications for other nations whose cover extends to only 'third-party, fire and theft? (Duration 58 minutes)

US Foreign Policy in Bush's Second Term

Professor Cox focuses on the problems America faces both internally and externally, and how their views on exporting Liberal Democracy may have changed in recent years. He suggests that their three main challenges for the future are: • The emergence of China as a world economic power • The revival of Russia as a key player • The decay of the Non Proliferation Treaty system (Duration 77 minutes)

Naturalising Knowledge Management

David Snowden covered how the human brain relies on patterns and associations rather than conventional logic. He also sugests that events affecting an organisation are largely unpredictable and used the Kinevin framework to show that most business decissions should be based on organisational evolution rather than a strict logical plan. He suggests that organisations should not only consider the four domains of the Kinevin framework, but also learn how to manage the transitions as an event passes from one domain to another.

Agile Software Development in Practice

Helen Sharp presents a brief overview of Extreme Programming (XP) with examples from several observational studies conducted during the last five years, using distributed cognition, a framework for analysing collaborative work that focuses on information flow and transformation. She talks about the ‘rhythm of XP iteration’, ‘pairing’ and the interaction that’s takes place within the team, and highlights some of the disadvantages and advantages of such an approach. (Duration 66 minutes)

The Joint Service Warrant Officer Course

The presentation highlights the merits and value of JSWOC to perspective Warrant Officers, their associated chain of command, and Career Managers responsible for Warrant Officers.

The Politics Of International Intervention: When, where, how and why do states and IOs intervene in ethnic conflicts; what is their track record?

The need for intervention and what variables are involved: when, how, where and when.

Managing, Settling and Preventing Ethnic Conflicts

This lecture deals with: - conflict prevention by attitudinal change - conflict management when prevention is not possible - conflict settlement

The Defence Electronics History Society Spring Lecture "Normandy 1944"

The lecture focusses on D-Day and how it depended on, and was influenced by many other operations and phases of World War 2.

Russian Views On Military Activity

Mr Keir Giles (BBC Monitoring) introduces the role of BBC Monitoring and gives an insight to media reporting in Russia, and the Russian people's general perception of the British armed forces.

Construction by Configuration: The future of software engineering

This lecture is based on the findings of a case study on a hospital management system in Scotland. It establishes that software re-use will become increasingly important over the next decade, but highlights some of the issues that need to be addressed

The Politics of International Intervention: When, where, how and why?

The current myths, realities and theories on ethnic conflicts.

The Intellectual Basis of British Strategic Foreign Policy 1900-1941

This lecture looks at the intellectual foundations of British defence policy in the interwar period 1919 to 1939

Japan in British Foreign Policy 1900-1941

This lecture deals with the Japanese factor in Imperial defence, 1894 to 1941. It shows how Japan was originally seen as a helper in the British effort to fend off Russian encroachments in East Asia, but ater the defeat of Russia in the Russian-Japanese War, Japan became a threat, itself, to the British Empire in the Far East.

Russia in British Strategic Foreign Policy 1860-1941

Professor Neilson argues that throughout this period, British defence policy focussed on the defence of the Empire, and the expansion of Russia posed increasing threats to Britain’s interests in India and China. Hence, it was Russia (not Germany) that was the greatest threat to the Empire, and had the greatest influence on British foreign policy.

Continental Commitment? The nature of British Imperial defence, 1900-1941

This lecture contrasts the difference in defence requirements for the defence of the Empire as opposed to meeting continental responsibilities. It challenges the orthodox view that Britain’s defence policy, during this period, focussed exclusively on Germany. He argues that it remained firmly imperial in nature, even post World War two.