Event: Harsh Lessons: Iraq, Afghanistan and The Changing Character of War

Event recording from 11/10/2017 Brigadier (Retired) Ben Barry examines the military evolution of the US-led interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and their implications for the future character of war. Speaker biography: Brigadier (Retired) Ben Barry, OBE is the IISS (International Institue for Strategic Studies) expert on the higher management of defence, military strategy, operations and tactics, military innovation and adaptation, modern warfare and land warfare in particular. Chair: Professor David Betz, Departmentof War Studies, KCL Launched in the wake of 9/11, the US-led interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq forced painful transformations in Western militaries. As successful regime-change operations gave way to prolonged insurgencies, these forces confronted wars whose character rapidly developed in unanticipated directions. The US and its allies repeatedly failed to align national ends, ways and means to achieve stabilisation, reconstruction and political progress in Afghanistan and Iraq, before rediscovering counter-insurgency principles established in previous conflicts. The lessons of the wars are likely to continue shaping Western states’ approach to intervention and warfare for years to come.