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David J Betz

David J Betz is Reader in War Studies at King’s College, London, where he heads the Insurgency Research Group in the War Studies Department and is director of MA programmes. He also led the two-year US Department of Defense Minerva-funded project, 'Strategy and the Network Society'. He is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a consultant to the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre at the Ministry of Defence and to the British Army Land Warfare Centre. His most recent book is Carnage and Connectivity: landmarks in the decline of conventional military power.
David J Betz is Reader in War Studies at King’s College, London, where he heads the Insurgency Research Group in the War Studies Department and is director of MA programmes. He also led the two-year US Department of Defense Minerva-funded project, 'Strategy and the Network Society'. He is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a consultant to the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre at the Ministry of Defence and to the British Army Land Warfare Centre. His most recent book is Carnage and Connectivity: landmarks in the decline of conventional military power.
Fortifications in the style of the brilliant French military engineer Sebastian de Vauban (1633-1701) . Engraving c1890

On guard: the contemporary salience of military fortification

David J Betz

Fortresses, border walls and guard towers – today’s excessively guarded age is on a global scale far exceeding famous past efforts including that of Roman Emperor Hadrian and the Great Wall of China. Often unremarked on, these fascinating structures tell us a story of changing global power struggles and political might.

getty images

The restless search for the fun wars

David J Betz

The West, more specifically the United States, with its major allies alongside it, has been chasing the ‘fun wars’ for 40 years and serially coming up empty.

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