The role of peace support operations doctrine in the British Army

Abstract

This article examines the role of military doctrine in the post‐Cold War period, focusing on the rationale behind the British Army's production of Wider Peacekeeping. This publication was nothing if not controversial. For why should an army, traditionally chary of doctrine for combat tasks in a ‘normal’ security environment, rush into producing such a doctrine for operations that it, in any case, called ‘nothing new'? Indeed, many in the Army treated Wider Peacekeeping with contempt. The article investigates the reasons why the Army needed this doctrine and why its creation generated such ire. The vituperative nature of the debate within military circles underlines the controversial nature of Wider Peacekeeping.