Command and Control

C2 has become an industry - but has the essence of command and control been lost? Explore the conversations with us and experts.

Find out more

The enemy gets a vote

Western military planning has ignored the adversary for too long. Are we adapting to their way of war?

Find out more

How to Train a Military

Simulation has huge potential to improve lethality but it is an addition rather than a replacement for live training and exercises. Listen to discussions with experts to discover why.

Find out more

The Profession of Arms

We like theories but only when they add value to the real world. It's not pretty, nor easy.

This Means War

We should pay more attention to combat and warfare around the world. Conversations with experts help us do that.

Find out more

MOST RECENT EPISODES

VIEW ALL
SEASON 3 / EP.1
The Civ/Mil part (of C2) from a NATO SecGen
Former NATO Sec Gen Jaap de Hoop Scheffer talks about what it takes to make effective command relationships work at the...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.14
How will this feel different?
The competition for a commercial strategic partner for the British Army as part of the Land Training System continues....

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.4
NATO’s Successes and Unsuccesses
NATO is often trumpeted as the most successful military Alliance in human history: a grand claim indeed. The reality is...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.9
C2 Systems – How Much Has Changed?
In providing commanders with the ability to command and control, computerised systems have been in use for more than 50...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.13
The British Army Land Training System
Over the past 12 months the British Army has designed a model to train its entire force to a set standard. It will also...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.8
Naval C2
The captain of a warship has, sometimes, godlike omnipotence. Does this mean that naval command and control has some...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 4 / EP.1
NATO isn’t perfect (but it isn’t going badly either)
Professors Peter Roberts and Julian Lindley French try and put the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty in...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.7
Not the Heroic Model of Decision-Making
What makes a good and a great military leader? The myth of a divine, born leader is very popular but today we actually...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.12
CWC – The Graduates
Peter sits down with two officers from the British Army who had just completed the culminating exercise of the...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.6
Delegation to the point of discomfort
Many medium powers have been struggling to keep pace with the US military as it reimagines how it will undertake...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.5
You Cannot Beat Winter
A discussion with Major General Karl Engelbrekston, former chief of the Swedish Army who retired in Jun 2023. Command...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.11
The Grizz
Two Junior NCOs from the British Army talk about their experiences of the Armoured Close Recce course in Warminster...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.9
CWC – The Directing Staff
The Captain's Warfare Course in Warminster delivers the key skills to the people expected to execute 'the fight' in the...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.4
The Devolution of Command
Having an intelligent conversation about command and control requires a discussion with the USMC, the same institution...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 3 / EP.13
A Cautionary Tale from 1973
Intelligence failures, strategic surprise, heavy attrition, mass casualties, reversals, internal rivalries, personality...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.3
Air C2
Command and control in the air domain has always been very different to that of other domains. Much more control,...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 3 / EP.12
Norms and Forms of Warfare
It seems useful to frame some of the discussion about warfare around norms and forms rather than the character and...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 3 / EP.11
AUKUS – a reality check
Peter is joined by John Hemmings from the US and Malcolm Davies from Australia to talk about AUKUS. Since the security...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.2
NATO C2: How to Improve
Having spent the week at the NATO C2 Centre of Excellence in The Hague, talking C2 with some impressive people, this...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 3 / EP.10
Future War, Technology and Strategy
In October 2023, an expert group of national security experts from around the world came together at Wilton Park in...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.7
Military Training: What Needs to Change?
In 2023, a report by the Royal United Services Institute on military training didn't make headlines. And that's a shame...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.6
CWC: Learning and Development
In this episode we go back down to Warminster – for the second of a series of interviews with the staff of the...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.5
The Engine
Everyone seems to be talking about technology as the engine of future training but sometimes that drives a conversation...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.4
The Captain’s Warfare Course
The CWC provides junior officers with the skills they need to plan and execute operations at the Battlegroup to Brigade...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.3
Combat Engineers – trained to fix stuff under fire
On any modern battlefield, the people you want most in a fight – be it in urban terrain or facing a determined...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.2
Can Partnering Work in Military Training?
Commercial arrangements with providers of military training are usually transactional: most will have experienced how...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.1
Naval Training: Putting People First
For decades, navies have crewed the ship ‘cos the ship fights (the people – apparently – didn’t). According to...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 2 / EP.1
JADC2 – a primer
In 2019, the Chiefs of Staff of the US military determined that C2 really had to adapt. The decision came after the...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 3 / EP.9
Balancing and regional actors
States face complex calculations in balancing their reactions to wars. Many (perhaps most?) governments of the day are...

LISTEN HERE

SEASON 3 / EP.7
DPRK in an era of Great Power realignment
Most people will not have missed the visit North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, to Russia last month. What went without...

LISTEN HERE

WHO WE ARE

Pursuing the reality of national security, based on evidence not heresay

With an on-line national security audience of nearly a million people in 120+ states around the world, and face-to-face meetings with nearly 17,000 military personnel annually, we strive to stimulate challenging discussions, engaging their intellectual curiosity to improve mental capacity, build resilience, and expanding thinking space.

Our Background

There is compelling evidence that ideas, people and thinking are decisive factors in combat and warfare. Peculiarly, Western militaries seem to sideline the intellectual development of their people and instead rely on the promise of technological revolution. We aim to help in redressing that balance by starting conversations that challenge orthodoxy, offer advice (on tactics, operational art and strategy), inform and educate. Not everyone likes this approach: It takes open minds, intellectual curiosity, and a pragmatic, realistic understanding of warfare.

Find Out More

Who we are

The national security community contains military personnel, industry, politicians, diplomats, civil servants, scholars and academics, civil servants, and veterans. We stimulate challenging discussions for these audiences, engaging their intellectual curiosity to improve mental capacity, build resilience, and expanding thinking space. From this, better decision-making results under stress.

Find out more

Meet our Founder

Professor Peter Roberts spent more than 20 years in the British military, serving all over the world and engaged with a variety of agencies and nations. He went on to become Director of Military Sciences at RUSI, a London based Think Tank, where he spent nearly a decade and remains a Senior Associate Fellow. Peter founded the company to serve the intellectual curiosity of the military and wider national security community. He likes a challenge, reading discordant thinking, visiting hot spots, and a bit of history: things he tries to keep at the heart of the company.

Just listened to this again - the series was a real tour de force. So many important points I particularly liked “ideas, then people, then equipment” & being clear on “how we fight” is a critical capability.
ANONYMOUS
Twitter
A genuinely original take on our mission, and guidance on actual strategy that has turned out to be useful.
ANONYMOUS
Spotify
Challenging, insightful, discordant.
ANONYMOUS
iTunes
This was really good (as usual). Particularly like the part on the importance of process (GOOD process) and not just blithely regurgitating buzz words ‘agile’ ’lean’ ’just-in-time’ and actually doing harm
ANONYMOUS
Twitter
Fabulous content, the must-listen resource on contemporary conflict. Fascinating speakers and wonderfully moderated.
ANONYMOUS
iTunes
Definitely the most valuable high level brief we have had in the 5 years I have been in post. A deep examination of where the future of warfare will take us – and how we will get there. Looking forward to having you back next year
CEO
European Defence Company

PODCAST

Conversations about military thinking, combat, wars and adversaries

A wide range of discussions that match the demands of people in the Profession of Arms; those who want to understand more about what's going on their world - not simply their own organisation. With access to some brilliant people around the world we strive to sate the intellectual curiosity of our audience

VIEW ALL

LATEST SERIES

SERIES 01

Command and Control

The Command and Control podcast breaks new ground in determining what C2 might look like for the fight tonight and the fight tomorrow. Join us as we talk through C2 for an era of high-end war fighting. Blending human decision and cutting edge technology has been evolutionary but will this change,...

LISTEN HERE

SHARE EPiSODE

SPONSORED BY

SERIES 02

How to train a Military

How do you train the optimal military force for the wars to come? Learning, education, training and simulation are all tackled as priorities in this podcast as a series of interviews with experts who think about military training. A lot.

LISTEN HERE

SHARE EPiSODE

SPONSORED BY

SERIES 03

This means war

Conversations about contemporary wars, trends and technologies and what they might mean to the future of warfare.

LISTEN HERE

SHARE EPiSODE

SPONSORED BY

ARTICLE FEATURED IN THE WAVELL ROOM

The Quest for Certainty

Martin Van Creveld talked about Command and Control being a constant quest for certainty. Despite the arrival of numberous C2 systems in our HQs, this is a fallacy.
DOWNLOAD HERE

THINKING

They're not fighting how we want them to

It might be that we have forgotten that the enemy gets a vote. We need to think more about the realities of how adversaries fight

View All