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A revelatory, explosive new analysis of the military today.
Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Western militaries changed enormously. Multi-year campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan had a considerable financial and human cost. Yet neither war achieved its objectives. This book questions why, and provides challenging but necessary answers.
Composed from assiduous research including hundreds of interviews, The Changing of the Guard is a strikingly rich, nuanced portrait of a military institution in a time of great stress. It is informed by conversations with soldiers who served in the British Army, and the politicians who directed them, as well as interviews with members of the US military and other allies who accompanied them, and the family members who loved and—on occasion—lost them.
Award-winning journalist Simon Akam, who spent a year in the British Army when he was 18, returned a decade later to see how the institution had changed. His book examines the relevance of the armed forces today—their social, economic, political, and cultural role. This is as much a book about the politics of failure, as it is about the military.
“A new book looks at the changes the British Army has undergone and roles it has played as an almost volunteer sidekick to the American military in the war on terror.”
—CJ Chivers, The New York Times
“Akam’s beautifully written, from the inside out, account of the British Army’s reluctance to engage with the realities of recent small wars, in Afghanistan in particular, is a must-read for every serious student of modern military history. At one level, it explains how and why we managed to turn victory over Al Qaeda in Afghanistan into defeat at the hands of the Taliban. But this book is about much more than the army in Afghanistan—it is a parable about failure, the failure of a revered institution, with a proud history and an uncritical public, to come to terms with a changed and changing world.”
—Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, former British ambassador to Afghanistan
“Simon Akam delivers a devastating indictment of Britain’s military chiefs for overseeing the shocking decline of the nation’s armed forces.”
—Tom Bower, biographer
“Simon Akam has written a perceptive, challenging and passionate book that looks at modern soldiering. In doing so, Akam provides an invaluable look at how the British Army works—and how the changing world in the 21st century is asking new and complex questions for soldiers and military strategy alike.”
—Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
“This brave, absorbing and prodigiously well-researched tour de force renders every previous account of the British Army in its disastrous recent campaigns obsolete. Akam makes an unanswerable case that we are no longer very good at fighting wars, building his arguments with panache and good sense. In doing so he has done his country, and the army, a great service—although the Generals may not see it quite that way just yet. Put away the self-serving autobiographies and the obsequious histories of in-house academics; this is the definitive account of the British Army in its 21st Century misadventures.”
—Frank Ledwidge, author of Losing Small Wars
“A brilliant book…Gets right to the heart of so many of the British Army’s problems.”
—Simon Scarrow, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Eagles of the Empire series
“[An] excellent and valuable book.”
—Jason Burke, The Guardian
“[A] valuable and salutary read.”
—Foreign Affairs
“The Changing of the Guard has contributed to the ongoing debate over how the British Army might change further as it enters a post-pandemic world where security challenges demand considerable flexibility of mind… Anything that provokes such self-awareness is good for institutions.”
—War on the Rocks
Contents
Note on Language
Introduction: Over the Top
Part 1 — Preparation for Battle
Chapter 1: Canada
Chapter 2: Germany
Chapter 3: Invasion
Chapter 4: Occupation
Part 2 – Something Happened
Chapter 5: Inbound
Chapter 6: Dogwood
Chapter 7: Amalgamation
Part 3 – Storytime
Chapter 8: Post-production
Chapter 9: Enter Helmand
Chapter 10: Feedback
Part 4 – Endgame
Chapter 11: The Bad Day
Chapter 12: Accommodation
Chapter 13: Palace Guard
Chapter 14: Iron and Mohan
Chapter 15: Charge
Chapter 16: Reform
Part 5 – Blame Game
Chapter 17: Man Down
Chapter 18: Lee Way
Chapter 19: New Rules
Chapter 20: Lawfare
Chapter 21: Johnny and the IHAT
Chapter 22: Hear No Evil
Chapter 23: Speak No Evil
Chapter 24: Marine A
Part 6 – Home and Away
Epilog: War Games
Note on Research Methods
Note on Supporting Institutions
Notes and References
Index