Andrew D Firth

United in Fact? a Critical Analysis of Intent and Perspective in the Application of American and British Army Doctrine Andrew D Firth

Publisher Marketing: In the complex modern environment, the importance of doctrine to a single national service is obvious. It is the glue that binds the military together in the face of an ever widening spectrum of conflict, ever more influential technology and an increasingly Byzantine network of international relationships. Equally its role in joint, and especially coalition warfare is fundamental to the level of integration that such a force might achieve. In the opinion of the author, those closest of military allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, commonly believe their military doctrines to be fundamentally similar to each other. This observation is based upon his experience of fifteen years in the British Army and latterly two years spent as a student at the United States Command and General Staff College. This is not surprising, perhaps as, after all, they emerged from the same chrysalis - the threat posed by numerically superior forces of the Soviet Union in Central Europe during the Cold War. Since then United States and United Kingdom forces have deployed together in high intensity conflict, on complicated peace enforcement and peace keeping operations and, of course, recently to Afghanistan and Iraq. This monograph asks whether perception of a common understanding of military doctrine really does exist in practice. Its relevance is fundamentally important to how the partners should view one another's approach to future coalition operations.