How to read...

You should all go to David Betz's blog and read his post with the same title. I could not have put it better myself, so I will not try. The address is

Afghanistan, the RAF and IT on the battlefield

I am not sure if those of you in the UK have had the same impression, but I found that the story that broke the other day with the leaked email from a British Army major criticising the RAF performance in Afghanistan has had a snowball effect in terms of a media spotlight on the mission. Suddenly, I found myself watching soldiers parents criticising the politicians and generals for the way the mission was planned and is conducted, and in particular for the logistical inadequacies of the UK military. Although with the mounting casualties in recent weeks, together with the UK leadership of the NATO mission there, the media in the UK has been following developments much more than 6 months ago for example, in the past few days broadcasters have been reporting the story as if it had just broken. Item after item has led the MoD and the Army leadership on a PR counteroffensive. On the other hand, the RAF seems not to be know how to counter the bad publicity it is getting.

Another thing I find myself wondering about is impact of technology on modern warfare. Rather than the big toys and kinetic effects through RMA etc. I am more interested in smaller things like mobile phones or the internet. In the past days, the Afghan story has exploded in the UK through this kind of technology. It increases the ability of oversight, while providing the media with the much wanted negative stories and more importantly pictures! Note the mobile phone footage shot by a soldier during a gun battle in Helmand province.

This creates a whole problem of perception v. reality on the ground and the question of whether it is really possible to get the full picture of the situation though a short media story. At the same time it creates (although not in this situation) a real difficulty in winning the battle of perception, and gaining a dominance of the media battlefield in the 'long war.'

What can the military do about this? Nothing. At the end of the day, bad stories like these will get out sooner or later, so it is more often than not a question of countering bad news.

I'll end this confused post here... but would like to hear what some of you make of these muddled thoughts.

SKYPE

To my students:

I would like to draw your attention to another good way of getting in touch with me. Some of you might have heard of a service called Skype. You can find it on http://www.skype.com/

Skype allows free computer to computer communication. All you need is to download the programme and install it on your computer (not an option for those using office pcs) and get yourself a headset with a mic. If you have a webcam you can even use that to see the other person (although not me as I use a Mac and Skype has not developed that possibility yet). This is a free alternative to using phones.

I have posted my Skype id in the discussion board on the VLE.

For those of you using Windows there is also something called VOIPStunt (google it to get the url). This allows you to make free phone calls to landlines in many countries around the world.

Time to Talk to the Taliban?

Greg Mills has published "Talk to the Taliban" as an op-ed in the NYT and the IHT. Would love to hear what all of you think of it.

WELCOME!

Welcome! I guess that most of you reading this will be part of my tutorial group for History of Contemporary Warfare, 1945-1991. Before we get going with the course I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit more about myself. I also hope that you will be posting similar information on your blogs which you will have created during the first week of induction.

My name is Ivan Zverzhanovski and I am a lecturer at the Department of War Studies King's College London, where I am also completing my PhD. The title of my thesis is "Security, Democracy and the War Crimes Legacy: Transforming Civil-Military Relations in Serbia and Montenegro". As the title indicates the topic deals with the attempt to create a system of democratic civilian control of the armed forces in post-Milosevic Yugoslavia/Serbia & Montenegro. But I am sure that you will hear a lot about it in the following months.

Apart from the obvious interest in civil-military relations, I am also interested in issues relating to International Humanitarian Law and the prosecution of war crimes. In addition, I am interested in aspects of contemporary conflicts and in particular the role of the media. I am finishing a year as a Research Associate on an ESRC funded project which looks at the way media portray security salient issues (see the links section).

On a personal level, I am from Serbia, but have been in London for just over 8 years now. I just got married and my wife is Italian. No kids at the moment :-)

While I have had a couple of unsuccessful attempts at blogging in the past, I will endeavor to use this blog for our extra-curricular discussions and any things of interest that I might find and believe that some of you might want to read.

I am looking forward to working with all of you...