New podcast releases | Amiens100 | The Future of Air Power

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We are delighted to announce the release of a series of podcasts, commissioned by UCL Institute of Education’s First World War Centenary Education Programme, to mark the centenary this month of the Battle of Amiens, 8-11 August 1918. 

In the first two podcasts, Professor Sir Hew Strachan considers the Battle of Amiens – in the context of the First World War, the battle itself, and how it triggered a series of interlocking victories for the Allies that brought to an end Germany’s war in the West. 

From Amiens to Armistice – A General Reflects is a docudrama performed by Nicholas Rowe, based on the diaries of General Lord Rawlinson, commander of the Fourth Army at the Battle of Amiens, in the Churchill Archives Centre, University of Cambridge.

In 2018, as the Royal Air Force marked its 100th birthday, the Institute for the Study of War and Strategy, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, convened a conference of leading scholars, practitioners, and representatives of business from across the world to reflect upon the operation of air power over the past few decades and what the future holds.  In this series, we hear from a number of contributors to that conference – below are details of when the podcasts will be available.  We hope you enjoy them. 

For more air power listening, do try our series on The Story of Air Power, produced in partnership with the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS), Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama. 

The Future of Air Power

23 July 2018

• Introduction: Professor Phillips O’Brien, Chair of Strategic Studies, University of St Andrews, on on why we need to talk more about air power, the determinative force in warfare today.
• Evolution of the Revolution: retired US Air Force Lt General David Deptula, principal air campaign planner for Operation Desert Storm (Gulf War, 1991) and now Dean, Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, on the evolution of the air power revolution, the impact of stealth and precision-targeting technology, and whether space will become the new theatre of conflict.
• Reflections on the Use of Modern Air Power: Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King’s College London, on the use of air power from the First Gulf War to the present day, the importance of integrating air power into the broader political and strategic objective, and why our attempts at predicting the future are necessarily flawed.

30 July 2018

• War Gaming: Philip Sabin, Professor of Strategic Studies, War Studies Department, King’s College London, on the importance of war gaming in modelling conflict – past, present, and future – and why its use is on the rise today.
• Back to the Future – Drones & Science Fiction: Ulrike Franke, Policy Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), on the increasing use of drones in military operations, and the importance of science fiction.

5 August 2018

• Lawfare – Weaponising the Law: retired US Air Force Major-General Charles Dunlap, Professor at Duke University School of Law, on ‘lawfare‘, the ways in which the law is being used by both sides to a conflict to accomplish military missions, and the challenges in prospect as autonomous weapons acquire the ability to ‘learn’.
• Law in the Cyber Age: retired US Air Force Colonel Gary Brown, first senior legal counsel at US Cyber Command, on legal challenges arising from the use of modern air power, including drones, why the development of an international protocol governing the use of offensive cyber activity is a priority, and whether giant robots are the future.

12 August 2018

• Air Power, War & Politics: Professor Michael Clarke, defence analyst & former Director of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), on the political limitations of air power, the impact of Brexit, and how quantum computing will radically change the character of war.
• France’s Air Power Capability: retired French Air Lt-Général Bruno Clermont, Senior Adviser to the Chairman of Dassault Aviation, on French air power capability and European collaboration.

20 August 2018

• Air Power in the 2011 Libyan Campaign: Dr Christina Goulter, Senior Lecturer & Head of the Air Power Studies Research Group, King’s College London and Co-Director, Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War, on why the use of air power in the 2011 Libyan Campaign can be considered a success, and the reasons for its not being adopted as a template for intervention in Syria.
• Russia Rising – Tackling the New Normal: Air Commodore Dr Frans Osinga, Chair in War Studies and Head of the Military Operational Art and Science Section, Faculty of Military Sciences, Netherlands Defence Academy, on the crucial importance of European air power capability in an era where Russian behaviour has, once again, made the risk of inter-state warfare acute.