'A GATHERING STORM WORTHY OF WORRY'

FROM THE EDITOR

An anecdote, shared by one of the much sharper minds that I endeavour to sponge knowledge from daily at the Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research, leapt to the fore as the final touches were applied to this latest edition of The British Army Review.

The recollection related to the military oracle in question being profoundly struck by an interview with an octogenarian – “the sweetest of old ladies who would be delighted to bring you biscuits and serve you tea in a thin china cup” but, as a former Special Operations Executive, was “not to be messed with and truly hard as nails”.

Speaking with clarity about her wartime escapades, the interviewee repeatedly referred to “this blessed generation” – those ‘young’ enough to genuinely worry about things that are in reality petty; the blessed privileged to fret over how others see them as opposed to whether they are likely to live beyond the day’s end; the blessed for whom such terrors have always been so geographically and emotionally distant.

From a UK perspective, the blessed are certainly plentiful. Wars, and all the horrors they entail, are – in the main – the worries of others. And that extends to this writer, who, despite deploying on repeated reporting assignments to the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, is blessed to have experienced only fleeting moments of genuine cause for concern during an enduring career in Defence. Choice certainly played a part in minimising my exposure to things worth worrying about. There were no orders to ‘stand to’ in the darkness or six-month tours aways from family for this scribe – logistics willing, getting ‘out of Dodge’ was always an option – and, once distanced from theatre by a long flight, it was relatively easy to slip back into a blessed status of stress being confined to school runs or white goods going on the blink.

World events, however, suggest that the UK’s blessed generation should now be giving some serious thought to their understanding of what it is to worry and accept that the element of ‘choice’ when it comes to contemplating conflict is in peril. Indeed, there is a mounting list of things to feel anxious about – chief among them the bloody war still raging on the European continent, the presence of a war criminal with an expansionist agenda in the Kremlin and a change in personnel at the White House that has seemingly seen America’s longrelied on shield slip from NATO’s side.

There is a creeping unease and it is clear that the UK and its allies can’t just chew their nails from afar. It is not down to blind paranoia, for example, that ‘sabotage’ was the first thought of many on hearing the news in March that Heathrow – one of the world’s busiest airports – had been brought to a standstill by an off-site fire. Russia, after all, has form for trying to exact “sustained mayhem on British and European streets”, according to the head of MI5 Ken McCallum.

For those already losing sleep about security’s rapid rise up the domestic agenda, this issue should hopefully provide some solace – the articles on the pages that follow demonstrate the British Army is already worrying for others and assessing how best to recalibrate to ensure we are safe at home by – as one reviewer succinctly puts it – thinking the unthinkable.

And for those in uniform losing sleep about the suitability of the UK’s populace for soldiering should greater mass be required, take note of Major Andy Richardson’s How to Prepare for Invasion (pages 18-21), which champions the fitness of the oft-derided Generation Z and Generation Alpha. Being historically unburdened by real worries does not necessarily mean the ‘blessed generations’ will not step up if required. ‘For King and country’ may not resonate with wider society as it did in the past but protecting loved ones, communities and even an individual’s right to be preoccupied by the roll call of reality TV shows can be compelling reasons to fight. – Andrew Simms