Mightier than the sword?

My professional ‘brush’ with the British Army has been sustained and close enough to put a serious dent in the once cast-iron convictions I held as a fledgling journalist about the power of the written word.

For a civilian ever green to the stark realities of combat, the pen certainly does not feel mightier than the sword when you find yourself in range of enemy mortar fire, cowering in a Scud trench or on hearing your host unit being ordered to ‘stand to’.

Throughout history, wars have served to significantly sharpen the edge of the metaphorical sword, with advances in technology making its blows ever more accurate and deadly. In contrast, it can be argued that the pen’s ability to affect social, cultural or political change has been blunted by the advent of social media and citizen journalism. Accuracy and balance all too frequently find themselves as casualties of immediacy, the prioritisation of clicks over credibility and deliberate attempts to misinform.

There is, however, still some truth to be found in the metonymic adage – as I hope the pages of this British Army Review testify. Take, for example, how words – albeit constrained to 280 characters in the case of the part played by the app formerly known as Twitter – have helped Ukraine to raise a formidable international force. As detailed in our interview with a senior member of the IT Army of Ukraine, a very modern call-to-arms has seen more than 230,000 anonymous volunteers mobilised in support of the group’s battle for cyber supremacy with Russia.

Closer to home, language is a key component of the arsenal being deployed by Army Futures as it scans the horizon and attempts to build a picture of what is likely to lie beyond the line-of-sight for land forces. Articulating the conceptual toil and supporting analysis that continues to be undertaken to refine the Service and drive change into the 2030s is a challenge that must be conquered if the Land Operating Concept – A New Way of Winning – is to prove the firm foundation on which the future of the Army is built. Convincing internal and external stakeholders of this new direction’s validity will, to quote Major General James Bowder, increase “the consistency and coherence of army force development” and improve “the quality of the capability and resource conversation with the broader defence community, across government and internationally”.

The words in the articles of this edition are grist to this mill and the professional thinking they are intended to provoke will assist in oiling the Army’s blade for tomorrow’s battles. – Andrew Simms