30th August 2011
The wire is carefully concealed: stretched through the grass at ankle-height and attached at one end to a grenade. When a soldier’s boot connects with it there is a mighty explosion. Nearby, a military convoy is ambushed by enemy forces and a helicopter is called in to evacuate the wounded. Fortunately, this is a military […]
12th May 2011
A couple of people have commented on my recent Oxford speech that they were surprised to see how much military co-operation went on between Ukraine and the UK. Having listed various other areas of joint work (EU, energy, macro-financial assistance) I said: A final key area of cooperation is military. There’s a lot the UK […]
19th April 2011
Last week I went down to Romania’s naval base at Constanta to visit the frigate ‘King Ferdinand’ as it makes its final preparations for ‘Operation Unified Protector’, the NATO led operation to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya. The ‘Ferdinand’ has a distinguished record of service in similar operations, notably ‘Operation Active Endeavour’ – […]