Royal United Services Institution Research Articles

Peacemaking and peacebuilding in South Africa: the National Peace Accord, 1991–1994

Journal Article Peacemaking and peacebuilding in South Africa: the National Peace Accord, 1991–1994 Get access Peacemaking and peacebuilding in South Africa: the National Peace Accord, 1991–1994. By Liz Carmichael. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. 2022. 520pp. £25.00. Isbn978 1 84701 256 2. Available as e-book. Tim Willasey-Wilsey Tim Willasey-Wilsey King's College London and The Royal United Services Institute, UK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 99, Issue 3, May 2023, Pages 1347–1348, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiad099 Published: 02 May 2023

Supreme emergency: how Britain lives with the bomb

Journal Article Supreme emergency: how Britain lives with the bomb Get access Supreme emergency: how Britain lives with the bomb. By Andrew Corbett. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2022. 272pp. £80.00. Isbn978 1 52614 736 3. Available as e-book. Ana Alecsandru Ana Alecsandru The Royal United Services Institute, UK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 99, Issue 3, May 2023, Pages 1345–1346, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiad101 Published: 02 May 2023

Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi/Jack Watling/Oleksandr V. Danylyuk/Nick Reynolds: Preliminary Lessons in Conventional Warfighting from Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, February–July 2022. London: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), November 2022

<b>Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi/Jack Watling/Oleksandr V. Danylyuk/Nick Reynolds:</b> Preliminary Lessons in Conventional Warfighting from Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, February–July 2022. London: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), November 2022

Justin Bronk with Nick Reynolds and Jack Watling: The Russian Air War and Ukrainian Requirements for Air Defence. London: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), November 2022

<b>Justin Bronk</b> with <b>Nick Reynolds</b> and <b>Jack Watling</b>: The Russian Air War and Ukrainian Requirements for Air Defence. London: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), November 2022

James Byrne/Gary Somerville/Joseph Byrne/Jack Watling/Nick Reynolds/Jane Baker: Silicon Lifeline: Western Electronics at the Heart of Russia’s War Machine. London: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), August 2022

Article James Byrne/Gary Somerville/Joseph Byrne/Jack Watling/Nick Reynolds/Jane Baker: Silicon Lifeline: Western Electronics at the Heart of Russia’s War Machine. London: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), August 2022 was published on December 1, 2022 in the journal SIRIUS – Zeitschrift für Strategische Analysen (volume 6, issue 4).

Jack Watling/Nick Reynolds: Ukraine at War. Paving the Road from Survival to Victory. London: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Juli 2022

Article Jack Watling/Nick Reynolds: Ukraine at War. Paving the Road from Survival to Victory. London: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Juli 2022 was published on December 1, 2022 in the journal SIRIUS – Zeitschrift für Strategische Analysen (volume 6, issue 4).

Understanding Systems - Extremism Nexus in Global South

The solution to every severe problem lies in diagnosing and addressing its root causes. The issue of extremism has a strong linkage with systems. When structures of systems get corrupt, people get affected because human mindsets are greatly subject to the performance of systems. There lies a hierarchy of methods. At the top, the international system has an overwhelming influence on world politics, creating an environment that globally affects people's individual and collective life. Below the international system, a country's economic, political, judicial, and educational systems are mainly responsible for making the mindset of people. The dilemma of the Global South (developing world) is that its systems have largely failed to properly deliver that are having consequences of extremism and frustration in the society in general and young people in particular. This paper explores the linkage between extremism and systems through a top-down approach. It attempts to answer critical questions like how methods collectively result in extremism in societies and how socioeconomic and political reasons lead to extremism. The paper finds that major powers influence world order and the international system in their competition for supremacy. This unhealthy competition at the top drives extremism among the population in the developing world. References Allan, Harriet Andrew Glazzard Sasha Jesperson Sneha Reddy-Tumu Emily Winterbotham, "Drivers of Violent Extremism: Hypotheses and Literature Review," October 2015, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), p.6-7. State failure is a system failure. Austin, Beatrix and Hans J. Giessmann (eds)., "Transformative Approaches to Violent Extremism," Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series No. 13, p.iii. Bajoria, Ayshree, "Shoot the Traitors: Discrimination against Muslims under India's New Citizenship Policy," Report by Asia Division Human Rights Watch, April 2020. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/04/09/shoot-traitors/discrimination-against-muslims-under-indias-new-citizenship-policy Bezhan, Freud, "Ethnic Minorities are Fuelling the Taliban Expansion in Afghanistan," June 15, 2016. Available at: https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/15/ethnic-minorities-are-fueling-the-talibans-expansion-in-afghanistan/ haudhary, Muhammad Umair , et al. (2021). "Islamophobia In Western Media: A Study Of American Movies After 9/11" Journal of Peace, Development and Communication, vol. 5, Issue 1, 2021, pp. 143-150, https://doi.org/10.36968/JPDC-V05-I01-13 Graff, Corinne, "Poverty, Development and Violent Extremism in the Weak States," 2010, Brooking Institute, Washington, p.44-46. "Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) through development," SIDA, December 2017, p.2. Available at: https://www.sida.se/globalassets/sida/eng/where-we-work/for-partners/s209461_thematicoverview_preventing_violent_extremism_webb-003_final.pdf Retting, Tim, "Belief Systems: What they are and how they affect you," December 7, 2017. Available at: https://medium.com/intercultural-mindset/belief-systems-what-they-are-and-how-they-affect-you-1cd87aa775ff Robinson, Nicholas and Catherine Lena Kelly, "Rule of Law Approaches to Countering Violent Extremism," ABA ROLI Rule of Law Issue Paper, May 2017, p.5 "The United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy," December 24, 2015. Available at: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/norway/undp-ogc/documents/SG%20PVE%20plan%20of%20action.pdf "Towards Inclusive Peace: Tackling different forms of violent Extremism," Caux Forum, July 2017, p.1. S. Agency for International Development, Guide to the Drivers of Violent Extremism (Washington, D.C., 2009). Zinchenko, Yury P., "Extremism from the perspective of a system approach," Psychology in Russia: State of the Art Volume 7, Issue 1, 2014, p.29.

Observing Data-Driven Approaches to Covid-19: Reflections from a Distributed, Remote, Interdisciplinary Research Project

The Observatory for Monitoring Data-Driven Approaches to Covid-19 (OMDDAC) is an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded research project investigating data-driven approaches to Covid-19, focused upon legal, ethical, policy and operational challenges. The project is a collaboration between Northumbria University (Law School, Department of Computing and Information Sciences, Department of Mathematics) and the Royal United Services Institute, a defence and security think-tank, and aims to carry out integrated interdisciplinary research, regarded as the most challenging type of interdisciplinarity but where the outputs can be the most impactful. Due to the constraints of the pandemic, the project has been carried out in a fully distributed and remote manner, with some team members never having met in person. The subject of the research is continually changing and developing, creating unique project management issues, with the impact of the pandemic pervasive in the lives of the researchers. This article takes the form of a series of reflections from the points of view of individual project researchers – the specialist legal researcher, the think-tank Co-Investigator, the post-doctoral researcher, statistical and data science researchers, and the Principal Investigator – and organised under two main themes - project management and internal communication; and methodologies/interdisciplinary research. We thus draw out lessons for future remote and distributed research, focused upon interdisciplinarity, the benefits and challenges of remote research methodologies, and issues of collegiality. Finally, we warn that it will be a false economy for universities and funders to assume that research projects can continue to be conducted in a mainly remote manner and therefore, that budgetary savings can be made by reducing time allocations, travel and academic networking.

AI and Policing: Impact Assessment and Empirical Evidence Needed

This paper is about the report ‘Data Analytics and Algorithms in Policing in England and Wales’ written by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and commissioned by the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation to study the use of data analytics by police force, with a focus on algorithmic bias. In this piece we will first provide a summary of the report and then further comment on three core areas of the report: the need of governance, the integrated impact assessment, and the discussion about transparency, explainability and accountability. We used the descriptive methodology with document analyses as research technique.

Impact Assessment Needed: An Analysis of Data Analytics and Algorithms in Policing (RUSI Report)

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) report into ‘Data Analytics and Algorithms in Policing in England and Wales’ was commissioned by the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation to study the use of data analytics by the police force, with a focus on algorithmic bias. In this piece we provide a summary of the report and principally comment on three areas, namely the issue of governance, the Integrated Impact Assessment and Transparency, Explainability and Accountability (areas that align with our research interests).

News - Briefing. Machine Learning - Police use of AI should be regulated 'as a matter of urgency', warns report.

A new report has called for the introduction of regulations ensuring transparency and responsibility when UK police forces trial machine-learning (ML) tools. The report, which was written by researchers from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and the University of Winchester's Centre for Information Rights, lays out the current state of ML algorithm use in UK law enforcement, and lays out a possible framework for appropriate use.

A Commentary on Lord Eustace Percy’s ‘The League of Nations’

This lecture by Lord Eustace Percy, at what was then called the Royal United Services Institution, was delivered a little less than a year after the Armistice of 1918 that brought an end to active ...

The Art of Power and the Power of Art

An essay commissioned by the Royal United Services Institute, an independent think tank on international defence and security. The piece claims the value art brings to the subject of conflict, highlighting a number of artists who variously address many different aspects of conflict in their work such as Omer Fast on the subject of cyber warfare and Dinh Q Le bringing memories of the Vietnam War back into consideration.

Canada and the Netherlands in Afghanistan Martello Papers Series, no. 38, by Jospeh T. Jockel

Reviewed by: Matthew Willis, independent researcher, formerly of the Royal United Services Institute, LondonOn one level, Joseph Jockel's recent Martello Paper is an intelligent comparative study that demonstrates the striking similarities between the security engagements of Canada and the Netherlands. On another, it is persuasive answer to two questions that have baffled Canadians and Dutch alike since their countries' 2006 deployments to southern Afghanistan: How did we get there; and why were we so ill-equipped to meet the challenges we encountered? On third, it is valuable addition to the small catalogue of studies that put national experiences of Afghanistan in their wider multinational context. Altogether, Canada and the Netherlands in Afghanistan is one of the more rewarding historical inquiries to come out of Canada's Afghan decade.Jockel remarks early on that, from the beginning of their involvement, Canada and the Netherlands put themselves in a laboratory situation ... in which it is possible to compare how their politicians, armed forces, civilian government agencies, and publics reacted (10-11). This is no throwaway line--the study resembles the logbook to decade-long science experiment in which the evolving behaviours of two adjacent specimens are painstakingly recorded and compared before finally being interpreted. In inexperienced hands, the account could drag, but Jockel pulls it off.After scene-setting overview of the two countries' international security policies since 1945--which establishes notable parallels in worldview, self-perception, and interests--Jockel methodically profiles his subjects: their initial contributions to the American invasion; their stints as ISAF peacekeepers; and their turbulent deployments to the south. Focusing on this third phase, he then compares their motivations for picking southern provinces, their in-theatre experiences, their eventual pull-outs, and their attitudes--public as well as governmental--toward the war.By introducing Canadians to the Netherlands' experience of Afghanistan, and wealth of Dutch scholarship, Jockel offers readers an original perspective on Kandahar and the deployments preceding it.[1] The net effect is to show just how un-unique Canada's experience was, from the delicate sales job that launched it, through the intense violence that defined it, to the political deal-making that conditioned its end. That is not to say that the Canadian and Dutch experiences were identical--far from it--and Jockel diligently points out their differences. But following war in which Canada sometimes believed itself to be alone, and often told itself it was, it is extremely useful to be reminded, categorically, that it was not.Besides serving as an aide-memoire , Jockel's comparison also counterbalances some earlier studies, de-sensationalizing certain dimensions of the Kandahar deployment while highlighting others. The militarization of the Canadian foreign-policy apparatus, for example, central to Janice Stein and Eugene Lang's The Unexpected War , seems less nefarious when viewed alongside the prominent policy-shaping role played by the Dutch defence ministry.[2] Meanwhile, both governments' continued insistence that the violence of the southern deployments surprised them seems considerably more noteworthy when the available intelligence was as significant as Jockel suggests.Because Jockel coolly lays out 90 pages of findings before drawing everything together, it is at times hard to tell where he is going. Nevertheless, his conclusions, when they do arrive, are cogent. …

Soldiering Archaeology: Pitt Rivers and ‘Militarism’

This paper initially explores the impact of the military on the development of British archaeology generally. It then focuses on the career of General Pitt Rivers, whose army background – especially his work in ordnance and when serving as legal prosecutor – fundamentally informed his archaeology, providing the basis for his concept of proof and the adjudication of evidence. Pitt Rivers was an active member of, and contributed to, the collections of the ‘lost’ museum of the Royal United Services Institute. His particular interest was in the study of Primitive Warfare , and he demonstrated its evolution through his ‘typological’ collections of weapons. Finally, given the breadth of military experience and the diverse participation of its members within the discipline, critique is made of Wheeler’s singular formulation of an ‘army-influenced archaeology’.

Conference round-up: Space, defence and trips to the Moon

What are the trends in missile defence, the perceptions of space and defence in society and the now emergent commercial human spaceflight industry? Europe seems stuck in a financial rut and unable to fashion a united approach, the USA and Russia have not acknowledged the need to understand the issues in a context broader than that of a bilateral debate over the intentions of Iran, and a growing number of companies is getting serious about taking paying customers into space. This report covers the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Missile Defence Conference 2012; the RUSI Defence, Industries and Society Conference 2012 and the third European Space Tourism Conference held at the Royal Aeronautical Society in July, all in London.

Does UK Development Aid in Afghanistan Contribute to Stability in a Positive Way or Does it Facilitate Corruption?

Since 2001, Afghanistan has received over $50 billion in development aid, 1 yet there is scant evidence to suggest that it has been effective in delivering stabilisation or security objectives, and...

MISSILE DEFENSE: WHERE DOES THE DANGER LIE?

The global missile defense system being built at the start of the 21st century is a purely American project, in which American missile defense elements and American money spent to deploy those elem...

Lessons to be Learnt from the Campaigns in which British Forces have been Employed Since the Year 1865

(1887). Lessons to be Learnt from the Campaigns in which British Forces have been Employed Since the Year 1865. Royal United Services Institution. Journal: Vol. 31, No. 139, pp. 357-412.

SCRUTINIZINGTHE BATTLE OF DORKING: THE ROYAL UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION AND THE MID-VICTORIAN INVASION CONTROVERSY

The first major examplein what would become a long line of popular pre-1914 British invasion-scare narratives was the inflammatory 1871 taleThe Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer. Through its vivid depiction of a German invasion and conquest of Britain, this story was designed to serve as a warning to Britons about the necessity of securing the nation's defenses. The dramatic impact of this work on the Victorian reading public and the political culture of the era has been treated by a number of scholars, most notably I. F. Clarke. Yet little attention has been accorded to the reaction it elicited from the professional peers of its author, Lieutenant-Colonel George Chesney. This interdisciplinary essay – which joins the study of literature with military history and politics – seeks to shed new light on the circumstances surrounding this extraordinarily influential tale, as well as on the genre it popularized, in large part by examining its reception by British officers. It begins by describing the tale's prehistory and emergence into widespread popularity and then evaluates the work's reception within armed forces circles. Some of the most trenchant assessments of this literary text, it turns out, were delivered within the austere confines of the Royal United Service Institution, a body whose meetings functioned as the crucible in which British military and naval judgments were forged.