Please note the changed location: The lecture will now be held in the Innovation Theatre at the Innovation Building, on corner of Garran and Eggleston Roads, ANU.

Lecture Topic:

How do the British, and especially the British Army view the Iraq war? In this lecture, Richard Iron, British Army (ret.) argues the UK’s conduct of the war Iraq represents a case of strategic failure.

Drawing on his own experience planning, participating in and later analysing the conflict for the British army, Iron examines the British role in Iraq and highlights the strategic lessons to be learnt. He draws on his personal experience, such as the retaking of Basra in 2008, to provide insight into how the war was fought.

Finally he will touch on Iraq today, and examine the political, military and economic changes and the US 'legacy' ten years after the conflict.

About the speaker:
Colonel Richard Iron, British Army (ret.)
Richard Iron commanded 1st Battalion of the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment, serving in Bosnia and Macedonia. During two years as an instructor at the UK’s joint staff college he was responsible for development of campaigning concepts. He was subsequently appointed Assistant Director Land Warfare (Doctrine) responsible for the development of British Army doctrine, including its capstone Army Doctrine Publication Land Operations. In this latter post he also deployed to the Coalition Land Component HQ in Kuwait in 2002-03, where he led a UK/US planning team. He was also responsible for the British Army’s subsequent analysis of the Iraq War. He is a Visiting Fellow of the Changing Character of War programme, is editor of the programme’s forthcoming book British Generals in Blair’s Wars, and is currently working on a military history of the Sierra Leone War 1991-2002. In 2012 he ran the security for the US military’s legacy mission in Iraq.