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Committing Britain to War in Helmand, 2005-06Ten years after British troops entered Afghanistan, a new book dissects the strategic decisions that took the UK to war in Helmand.
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Forthcoming events
Throughout its history, RUSI has been the podium of choice for influential leaders and thinkers of global defence and security.
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List of events
During our 180th year, RUSI will be holding many events, a selection of which we include below. For the full programme, please visit: www.rusi.org/events
Manstein: Hitler’s Greatest General
12:45, 7 March 2011
A lecture by Major General Mungo Melvin OBE, Senior Army Member, Royal College of Defence Studies. In his lecture, Major General Melvin will provide a compelling account of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein’s conflict with his political leader and the dilemmas involved in following a flawed strategy and in resisting an immoral regime.
RUSI 180 Lunchtime Panel: The World In 1831
12:45, 25 May 2011
In 1831, the Royal United Services Institute was founded in London by the Duke of Wellington. It was the beginning of a period of rapid advance in the direction of democracy with fundamental constitutional reforms in France (1830), Belgium (1831) and Britain in the Reform Act of 1832. Nationalism also came to the fore in Europe with movements in Belgium, Poland, Italy, Bosnia and Greece among others challenging the treaties of 1815 and the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. Europe was essentially divided into two opposing diplomatic combinations; the Eastern Powers (Russia, Austria and Prussia) and the Western Powers (Great Britain and France).
RUSI History Book Launch
18:30, 16 June 2011
RUSI is proud to announce the launch of its latest book, Between Peace and War – a lively new history of the Institute and its role in British and imperial defence over the last 180 years.
The book will be launched in the RUSI Library of Military History, accompanied by a drinks and canapés reception, on the eve of the Institute’s 180th anniversary.
Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature
13:00, 17 June 2011
The Royal United Services Institute is proud to announce this year’s Winner of the Duke of Westminster Medal for Military Literature: Sir Rodric Braithwaite’s Afgantsy: the Russians in Afghanistan 1979-1989.
War in the Pacific: The Breaking of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Main Operational Code, JN-25
12:45, 22 June 2011
A lecture by Professor John Mack AM PhD MA (Cantab) BSc, Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney, Australia. During the War in the Pacific, the Japanese Imperial Navy relied upon one main operational code, the JN-25 series. In 1944, it was estimated that the inability of the Allies to read JN-25 was depriving them of an astonishing sixty percent of all useful intelligence in the Pacific. In his lecture, Professor Mack will describe the invaluable preparatory work done on this code in 1939-1941 and show how flaws in its design and operational use enabled it to be broken.
War and Civil Conflict in Asia, 1936-1956
12:45, 20 July 2011
A lecture by Professor Sir Christopher Bayly FBA, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History and Fellow of St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge. The period 1936-1956 saw the rise and fall of the Japanese Empire and the beginning of the end of the British, French and Dutch empires across Asia. In his lecture, Professor Bayly will set out both the 'grand strategy' issues that informed these conflicts and will also consider the internal divisions which resulted in mass casualties and emigration. Without implying the existence of any simple historical connection, he will also consider how the events of that period created the conditions for some of today's most pressing political and military problems in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Burma, Malaya and Singapore.
The Royal Air Force in France, May and June 1940
12:45, 9 November 2011
A lecture by Christopher Finn MPhil FRAeS, Senior Air Power Lecturer (Operations), Air Power Studies Division, King's College London at the RAF College Cranwell. In his lecture, Christopher Finn will tell the story of the actions of the RAF in France in May and June 1940 and suggest that the British Air Forces in France, and latterly Fighter Command, made a significant contribution in that period to the RAF's success in the subsequent Battle of Britain.
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