Eminent military experts visit the University

Friday, 11 November 2011

(from left) Dr Geoff Sloan, from the Centre for Strategic Studies, the Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Professor Tony Downes, Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading, and Professor Alan Cromartie, Head of the

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland visited the University on Wednesday (November 9) to hear a frank assessment of the British Army's strategic successes and failures during the Troubles.

The Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP attended a seminar organised by the Centre for Strategic Studies, part of the School of Politics, Economics and International Relations.

The seminar, part of a series of events under the title: ‘British Military Campaigns Since 1969: An Audit of Performance', was chaired by the University's Professor Colin Gray, and sponsored by the General Dynamics Research Foundation.

This first seminar in the series, held at Park House Whiteknights, was given by the former General Officer Commanding in Northern Ireland, General Sir Rupert Smith, whose topic was 'Military Operations and the Good Friday Agreement'.

Sir Rupert was responsible for the British military operations in Northern Ireland from 1996 to 1998, the year the historic Good Friday peace accord was signed, and when a Real IRA car bomb in Omagh killed 29 people.

The seminar series intends to conduct an audit of five British military campaigns since 1969. Next year seminars will focus on British involvement during the conflict in the Falklands, the Balkans and the first Gulf War.

The aim of the series is to bring together a mixture of former operational commanders and academics to present papers who will address a number of key issues about each campaign.

Dr Geoff Sloan, Department of Politics, who organises the seminars, said: "The first seminar of the series was particularly pleasing on two counts. First, the diverse audience ensured a healthy debate between practitioners and a former operational commander. Secondly, having the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland participating in the seminar underlined the openness and frank approach of Owen Paterson to understanding the past as a guide to the future.

"The presence of the Secretary of State in the audience underlined his desire to understand the long and complex history of the British Army's involvement in maintaining peace and the rule of law in Northern Ireland.

"It also demonstrates that in the field of Strategic Studies the University of Reading can mount seminars of real quality."