The Changing of the Guard

A revelatory, explosive new analysis of the British military today--and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A must-read for anyone interested in these wars.

Over the first two decades of the 21st century, the British Army fought two campaigns, in Iraq and Afghanistan, at enormous financial and considerable human cost. Neither of those wars achieved their objectives. The Changing of the Guard examines how the British Army faced the challenges of 21st-century warfare. Necessarily, the book spends much of its time in Iraq and Afghanistan, interrogating many of the decisions, strategies, and initiatives undertaken in those two asymmetrical conflicts. But its canvas is wider, from grim barracks in Germany and vast prairie training areas in Canada to reflections of the army in popular culture, stage, and film. It is as much a book about Britain, and about the politics of failure, as it is about the military.

Composed of assiduous documentary research, field reportage and hundreds of frank interviews with many soldiers and officers who served, the politicians who directed them, the allies who accompanied them, and the family members who loved and--on occasion--lost them, The Changing of the Guard offers a strikingly rich, nuanced portrait of the British armed forces.