Air Power and International Security

What can be done to punish Russia's illegal war against Ukraine? How extensive are the war crimes being committed by Russian forces? These are just some of the questions that Dr Frank Ledwidge (University of Portsmouth) answers in this episode. Frank is a former barrister and military intelligence officer, who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, and has also been involved in the prosecutio...

In today’s show we have Dr Jim Beach talking about the role aircraft played in intelligence gathering during the First World War. From as early as September 1914, aerial reconnaissance was playing a significant role in finding the German army on the Western Front, and by 1918 aerial photography was capturing around 20,000 images per month, which is a truly staggering figure. Dr Beach previously se...

In today's show, we have Dr Pablo Brauer talking about information operations and how they’ve been employed during the war in Ukraine. With the prevalence of disinformation and misinformation, information operations have never been more important than there are today. We'll be asking Pablo how information operations are employed, what types of info ops exist, and how Russia has been utilis...

In this episode, we're exploring the limitations of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in making or advising on command decisions in war. With many advocates of AI suggesting that it will transform war, it's worth going back Clausewitz and what he teaches us about the nature of war. War cannot be reduced to algorithms, says Clausewitz, and so AI will only ever have a limited role in war - unless...

Today we have Dr Harry Raffal on the show to tell us all about the role of air power during Operation Dynamo, more commonly known as the evacuation from Dunkirk, in 1940. Harry is the resident historian at the RAF museum, and did his PhD on this very subject. The role of the merchant navy rescuing the trapped soldiers has become the defining image of Dunkirk, for obvious reasons. But air power pla...

UN Peacekeeping missions have a long history. Although these operations play a vital role in international security, there have been various mistakes and failures associated with them. In today's show, we have Dr Margot Tudor (City University London) explaining the origins of Peacekeeping, what the UN's early objectives looked like in relation to these missions, and what often constrained...

In this show, we ask Aleix Nadal about what the UK is doing in the space domain. It's no secret that the UK isn't exactly a major player in terms of space power, so we'll be asking Aleix about the types of capabilities the UK has access to, the strategies and structures that govern UK space power, and what the future of UK space power looks like. Aleix is currently doing his PhD on the...

In today’s show, we'll be discussing why Russia has resorted to using an attritional approach against Ukrainian forces given the huge costs that attritional warfare often incurs. Such a strategy is completely unlike how a NATO army would choose to fight – they would preferably use what the British Army refers to as the manoeuvrist approach. Given that NATO hasn’t fought any major conflicts for...

Welcome to series three of the Air Power and International Security Podcast! Today we have a fantastic episode dedicated to General Giulio Douhet, one of the most important figures in the conceptual development of air power, and his ideas regarding the employment of strategic bombing. General Douhet is known for his advocacy of bombing civilians, so we're asking how these ideas were formed, an...

On this show we’ve talked a lot about strategy – whether that’s national strategy, military strategy, or how air, space, and cyber power contribute to strategy. But we’ve not really addressed the issue of strategy itself, which is as complex as it is important. Today we’ll be tackling some of this complexity with Paul O’Neill (RUSI), who talks us through the different types of strategy that exist,...

In today’s show, we’re going into more detail about why Argentina failed to defend the Falklands Islands in 1982, and how poor leadership and command ultimately hindered their military effort. Dr Ben Jones will be telling us all about the ill-preparedness of Argentine forces, the lack of jointery and integration between the three services, and the structural issues within Argentine command and con...

Today's episode features a discussion with Colonel Professor John Andreas Olsen about his latest book, Air Power Pioneers from Billy Mitchell to Dave Deptula . Colonel Olsen talks us through the reasons for writing a book about the individuals that have shaped the development of air power, why he chose those individuals in particular, and what we can learn from the study of air power pioneers....

Ever wondered how air campaigns are commanded? In today's episode, Air Marshal (retd) Greg Bagwell talks us through his deployment as the UK Air Component Commander during Operation ELLAMY. In 2011, the UK and a coalition of the willing intervened in the Libyan Civil War to protect civilian lives against the aggressive actions of Libyan Security Forces. ELLAMY saw the UK deploy various surface...

In February 2022, Russia inexplicably invaded Ukraine and attempted to decapitate the Ukrainian political leadership. Alongside its military advances towards Kiev and into the Donbas, the Russian invasion also involved a major cyber offensive against Ukrainian infrastructure. So in today's episode, we have Dr James Lewis on the show to tell us more about the ways in which Russia utilised cyber...

ISIS - otherwise known as ISIL or Daesh - rose to prominence in 2013-14 after they became a significant force in the Syrian civil war, and began launching several successful offensives against Iraqi security forces. By the end of 2015, ISIS controlled territory stretching from western Iraq to eastern Syria. They gained notoriety for imposing an incredibly brutal interpretation of Sharia Law on the...

With the Integrated Review 'Refresh' published last month, we thought now would be a good opportunity to reconsider some of the impacts that the Integrated Review, and by extension, the Defence Command Paper, has had on the UK's air mobility force. Given that air mobility is an often neglected role of air power, we'll be asking Andy Netherwood why air mobility is important and it s...

In this episode, Dr Cassandra Steer gives us an incredible overview of how International Humanitarian Law (IHL) or the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) affects operations in space. Dr Steer is a global authority on this subject. She is the deputy director of the Australian National University’s Institute for Space, and has published widely on the application of LOAC and the use of force in space. This...

Today is all about the US Army Air Force's approach to strategic bombing in the run up to, and during the Second World War. Unlike the RAF, which very much focused on indiscriminate area bombing, the Americans - led by a group of air minded thinkers based at Maxwell airfield in Alabama, sometimes nicknamed the 'Bomber Mafia' - developed ideas and approaches focused on precision bombing. Intended t...

In today's episode, Dr Patricia Shamai (University of Portsmouth) discusses the mechanisms and regulations that the international community have in place to stop the development and spread of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. While Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) works to stop states from using nuclear weapons against other nuclear armed states, this doesn't apply in the same way against...

The Chinese Air Force, or to use it's proper name, the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), was officially founded in July 1949. Since then, it has largely relied on Soviet or Russian made aircraft and has only been involved in two major conflicts: the Korean War in the 1950s, and the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979. Over the past 20 years, however, China has been quickly expanding and enhancin...

Today we have an episode dedicated to unpacking the distinctions between disinformation, misinformation, and fake news. More specifically, we’ll be considering how these things influence security, and what can be done – if anything – to stop the spread and influence of fake news. In the wake of Brexit, Donald Trump’s presidency, and the plethora of lies shrouding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ther...

Today we have Dr Roger Launius on the show talking about the space race that took place between the USA and the USSR during the Cold War. In particular, we focus on the race to the moon that famously ended with US astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landing on the moon in 1969. Roger will be explaining why the space race was so important to US national security, how NASA managed to pull of...

Here is our long awaited episode on the use of Air Power in the War in Ukraine… In this show, Dr Frank Ledwidge (University of Portsmouth) talks about why the Russians failed to establish air superiority, how they are conducting their strategic air campaign, and what measures the Ukrainians have adopted to mitigate the numerical strength of the Russian Air Force.

In this show, Harry discusses the revival and rebuilding of Russia's armed forces with Professor Bettina Renz (University of Nottingham). After the end of the Cold War, during which the Soviet Union had exhausted itself trying to keep pace with American military and technological advancements, the Russian military were left to decay. In the 21st century, however, President Putin set Russia on a co...

What better way to end the first series of Air Power and International Security than to have Justin Bronk on the show discussing the future of air power? This is a fantastic episode in which we take a closer look at the future capabilities of the RAF, its operational readiness to meet the challenges of the future, and how air power might feature in future operating environments. Justin is a renown...