SJMS Talks Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies

Contributor Professor David Betz visits the podcast to talk about the future of warfare. Rather than pointing to novel information technologies as war’s driving force, David turns to techniques from the past, such as citadel and marching forts, arguing that drivers of future warfare at best is technological in origin only secondary, and that rather than tactics of maneuvering, tactics of fortification is key when looking at the future of warfare.

There seems to be something true to the logistics experts saying: “In peace time we talk about war, in war time, we talk about logistics.” One of the most read articles in our journal tries to elaborate on the failing logistics on the Russian side early in the war. Contributors Thomas Ekström and Per Skoglund are in the studio to discuss what is their take on how Russian logistics have evolved throughout the war, and how it might evolve in the future.

Lessons from the war in Ukraine indicate that in future emergencies a kind of cyber militia might be useful to have. But what is a cyber militia? How should it be governed? And what roles can it perform? Contributor Dan Jerker Svantesson is invited to the podcast, to talk about cyber defence post Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Groups such as the Popular Resistance of Ukraine and the Atesh partisan movement of Crimea have taken credit for several attacks on Russian soldiers and military infrastructures. Is there anything new about these forms of popular resistance? And what is the future of unconventional warfare? To answer these questions, we have invited one of the world’s leading voices on irregular warfare and counterinsurgency, David Kilcullen.

Recently in Denmark, a survey showed that every fifth person in the Danish Army had experienced sexual harassment. This is a lot, but it is less than the general population. How come? Has the work with minimizing sexual harassment paid off? Or do people in the defense tend to report less, than others do? In the studio, contributor Iselin Silja Kaspersen joins Jeppe Teglskov Jacobsen on zoom to talk about how institutions such as the military shape and break our identity.

Light infantry are flexible, lightly equipped soldiers who engage in ground combat on foot. What are the dos and don’ts when considering investing in such units? Kristian Lindhardt is in the studio five years after Denmark got its first light infantry, and two years after he published his practice-oriented article on historical uses of light infantry in Vietnam, Rhodesia and Sierra Leone.