My "Writing the History of the Royal Navy, 1945-2020" is out with IJMH (link in next text), surveying interesting new work by Ed Hampshire and Peter Hore, and covering mistakes in existing work such as the Official History of the Falklands Campaign, and where gaps remain. 1/2

New open access article by @fabiodeninno.bsky.social and I available here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... It focuses on the impacts of blockade on Sicily and Sardinia, 1940-43. It links 3 themes that, in our view, have too often been siloed in the historiography of the SWW (esp Italy). 1/ 🗃️

I am not convinced about several of the statements below, but they are an excellent list nonetheless.

Having depleted fish stocks in its own coastal waters in the early 2000s, Chinese fishing boats are now destroying fishing stock all across the world. The destruction in South America by the Chinese fishing vessels is unimaginable.

I had not been aware of this development. For renewable energy this is doubtless useful; from a military perspective it, and the doubtless further examples that follow, is another piece of energy infrastructure to attack and defend.

It was a pleasure to review Peter Hore's excellent biography of Jock Slater, First Sea Lord 1995-8, which also reveals much hitherto unexplored about the Royal Navy of the 1990s. I do though query whether Slater kept himself almost too busy. www.naval-review.com/book-reviews...

I've had two articles out in The Naval Review recently: www.naval-review.com/news-views/a...

Just attended this. Very interesting, lots to think about!

It’s a good day to delete your account on academia dot edu

I'm delighted that I'll be speaking at KCL at 1715 on Thursday 2 October about sea power thought in the Cold War. There is much from what our predecessors worked out that has relevance today. Do join in person or on-line: www.kcl.ac.uk/events/sea-p...

There is much talk of AI in warfare, but rather less progress in applying it usefully to naval tactics. In this short piece for The Naval Review I reviewed a recent German effort. There is some way to go yet... www.naval-review.com/book-reviews...

If you want to know more about what historians actually do, I've covered that in two posts, one on what the job of a research historian actually is (acoup.blog/2025/03/07/c...) and another on how that research moves through other kinds of historians to reach the public (acoup.blog/2020/07/09/c...)

⚓No More Napoleons: How did Britain manage Europe from Waterloo to WWI? Join Prof Andrew Lambert for the launch of the Corbett Sea Power Centre + the 2025 Peter N. Davies Lecture 🗓️18 June |17:15 | Strand Campus & Online 🎟️Free & open to all – Register: bit.ly/4kGshce

Had great fun recording this podcast on Economic Warfare with my friend and colleague @andrewlivsey.bsky.social for the Marriner’s Mirror and @rnssc.bsky.social series: Seapower Past and Present. Have a listen! open.spotify.com/episode/1Za0...

This is a genuinely good summary of how history is written: acoup.blog/2025/03/07/c...

Great in-depth article about Norway and allies' defence of the High North

Do you consider the Royal Navy to be a thinking organisation? King's College London have kindly published a summary of my article on the development of Royal Navy tactical doctrine in the Cold War. With the return of peer competition there are some lessons for today. www.kcl.ac.uk/thinking-wel...

Culture famously eats strategy for breakfast* but there has been little written about Royal Navy culture recently, and some of it is wrong. This is my attempt, kindly published by RUSI. (* though Drucker probably didn't say it) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

How did western Cold War Navies work together in practice? My article on the development of Royal Navy tactical doctrine in the cold war is out (link at end). It explans how year after year of Royal Navy work on classified doctrine was vital for RN and NATO success. This is a shameless plug. 1/x

There have been some excellent books published recently on current maritime issues, and (to shamelessly plug myself) I have been privileged to review a few of them for The Naval Review. My latest reviews are: 1/x