The RUSI JournalPub Date : 2023-04-16DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2023.2215291
Matteo Pugliese
{"title":"The International Legion of Ukraine","authors":"Matteo Pugliese","doi":"10.1080/03071847.2023.2215291","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2023.2215291","url":null,"abstract":"In the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky established an International Legion and thousands of foreign volunteers came to defend the country. Matteo Pugliese examines the structure of the Legion, its recruitment process, the volunteers’ origin and their reasons to enlist. Relying on conversations and interviews carried out in July 2022 at the Legion’s premises and in other locations across Ukraine, he argues that the Legion represents only a small portion of Ukraine’s foreign volunteers, who came mainly from the West and Latin America with a diverse set of backgrounds and motivations.◼","PeriodicalId":221517,"journal":{"name":"The RUSI Journal","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126231909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The RUSI JournalPub Date : 2023-04-16DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2023.2220756
Runar Spansvoll
{"title":"Studying Moscow’s Coercive Campaign Against Norway","authors":"Runar Spansvoll","doi":"10.1080/03071847.2023.2220756","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2023.2220756","url":null,"abstract":"Norway’s geopolitical position as both a neighbour of Russia and a member of NATO places it at the forefront of Moscow’s self-assertive and aggressive foreign and security policy. However, Norway’s NATO membership reduces Russia’s room for manoeuvre to actions below the threshold of armed conflict. In this article, Runar Spansvoll examines how Russia has made use of such aggressive and coercive sub-threshold activities in the political, information and military domains between 2014–23 in a campaign to compel Oslo to comply with its foreign and security policy objectives.◼","PeriodicalId":221517,"journal":{"name":"The RUSI Journal","volume":"50 10","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113938659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The RUSI JournalPub Date : 2023-04-16DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2023.2230029
Trevor Bedeman
{"title":"How to Fight a War","authors":"Trevor Bedeman","doi":"10.1080/03071847.2023.2230029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2023.2230029","url":null,"abstract":"Unfortunately, the book contains several errors in word usage which detract from its professional presentation. Some – such as the use of the Soviet term ‘operational art’ rather than the Western term ‘operational strategy’ – reduce the accuracy and clarity of the text. The book is interesting for its analyses of the differing approaches to warfare of commanders and their reasons for differing. It certainly contributes to the education of all readers, especially prospective military commanders. n","PeriodicalId":221517,"journal":{"name":"The RUSI Journal","volume":"168 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130354622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The RUSI JournalPub Date : 2023-04-16DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2023.2219701
David H. Ucko
{"title":"The Role and Limits of Special Operations in Strategic Competition","authors":"David H. Ucko","doi":"10.1080/03071847.2023.2219701","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2023.2219701","url":null,"abstract":"As the US shifts from counterterrorism to strategic competition against state rivals, the role of its special operations forces is also changing. David H Ucko explores the promise and limitations of special operations in this new era, identifying their contribution but also the need for a broader response. Indeed, because strategic competition is primarily non-violent, with instruments of state weaponised to offset military inferiority, an effective response will similarly require a diversification of statecraft away from the military. This requirement poses challenges to an American strategic culture still reliant on armed superiority and, for two decades, direct action by elite forces.◼","PeriodicalId":221517,"journal":{"name":"The RUSI Journal","volume":"84 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132845428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The RUSI JournalPub Date : 2023-04-16DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2023.2218892
Shirzad Azad
{"title":"South Korea’s Expanding Arms Trade with the Middle East","authors":"Shirzad Azad","doi":"10.1080/03071847.2023.2218892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2023.2218892","url":null,"abstract":"The Republic of Korea (South Korea) has emerged surprisingly to secure some lucrative defence export deals with several countries across the Middle East in recent years. In this article, Shirzad Azad tries to shed some light on how the Korean defence industry is extensively courting the bustling arms markets in the Middle East to advance its ongoing ambitious military programmes at home, and achieve greater financial gains from its enhanced industrial capabilities and scientific knowhow in this critical field. ◼","PeriodicalId":221517,"journal":{"name":"The RUSI Journal","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115721284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The RUSI JournalPub Date : 2023-04-16DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2023.2221143
Deon Fourie
{"title":"General Jan Smuts and His First World War in Africa 1914–1917","authors":"Deon Fourie","doi":"10.1080/03071847.2023.2221143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2023.2221143","url":null,"abstract":"Although Field Marshal Jan Smuts died in 1950, recent years in South Africa have seen a revived interest in his life and achievements. After South Africans have kept from writing military history for decades, the past 20 years have seen various military publications become surprisingly popular. The publication of books on the two World Wars, the Anglo-Boer and Anglo-Zulu Wars and the more recent ‘Border War’ in Namibia and Angola has flourished. The publication of works about Smuts, by, among others, Kobus du Pisani and Richard Steyn, seems to suggest a re-evaluation and a different view of his achievements – even among Afrikaners who grew up in an anti-Smuts atmosphere. David Brock Katz is a prolific and popular writer in this field. A chartered accountant by profession, his interest in warfare was aroused by his being an officer in a Reserve Force regiment, the South African Irish. He was accepted by the Military Academy, a faculty of Stellenbosch University, as an undergraduate student in military history. After some years devoted to part-time academic work, he produced this book as his doctoral dissertation. Thus, unlike most military writers in the field, he is a trained historian. He is a dynamic writer whose intimacy with his subject holds one’s attention throughout the work. Apparently answering a challenge by Bill Nasson, the book begins with a rather substantial load of biographical information before dealing with the subject expressed by its title. This does not detract from Katz’s theme, however. The book fills a gap left in most works about Smuts which say little or nothing about his approach to military command. For that reason alone, it is a welcome contribution to military literature. One should not be discouraged by the book’s bulk – of the 382 pages the text is 260 pages long, the rest containing endnotes and a bibliography that are evidence of wide-ranging and profound research. It is enhanced by 24 maps, several tables and a selection of photographs and illustrations. Katz points out that Smuts’s experiences in the South-West and East African campaigns were radically different from those of the Anglo-Boer War in which he earned his spurs as a formation commander. He does not merely describe Smuts’s battles against the German Protectorate forces – Schutztruppen – in the German territories; he provides interesting and thoughtMilitary History","PeriodicalId":221517,"journal":{"name":"The RUSI Journal","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133027831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The RUSI JournalPub Date : 2023-04-16DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2023.2220752
James White
{"title":"The Future Commando Force","authors":"James White","doi":"10.1080/03071847.2023.2220752","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2023.2220752","url":null,"abstract":"Planners of the new Future Commando Force concept envisage small, highly versatile teams, attacking key enemy targets. This concept of disaggregated infiltration tactics means it is essential every Royal Marine is trained to an excellent level. James White provides a study of warfighting operations from a close-combat perspective and argues that whilst the Royal Marines has an exceptionally strong moral component, its conceptual component – specifically at this lower tactical level – is often poor. There is a direct correlation between the way in which the Royal Marines are organised and shallow tactical understanding. ◼","PeriodicalId":221517,"journal":{"name":"The RUSI Journal","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134435399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The RUSI JournalPub Date : 2023-02-23DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2023.2205254
Ivar Hellberg
{"title":"Too Thin for a Shroud: The Last Untold Story of the Falklands War","authors":"Ivar Hellberg","doi":"10.1080/03071847.2023.2205254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2023.2205254","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":221517,"journal":{"name":"The RUSI Journal","volume":"168 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129349702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The RUSI JournalPub Date : 2023-02-23DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2023.2190358
R. Fisher
{"title":"Historical Defence Capability Analysis","authors":"R. Fisher","doi":"10.1080/03071847.2023.2190358","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2023.2190358","url":null,"abstract":"The Defence Lines of Development (DLOD) used by the Ministry of Defence encompass all elements of military capability. Historical study of military capabilities does not use a similar or equivalent model. Richard Fisher describes how the current DLOD model can be used to analyse historical capabilities. He provides an objective approach to any comparison by capturing the training, equipment, personnel, information, doctrine and concepts, organisation, infrastructure and logistics requirements of machine gunnery in the British Army from the First World War to the 1960s, as a case study to demonstrate the method.◼","PeriodicalId":221517,"journal":{"name":"The RUSI Journal","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121048846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}