As we watch with horror the unfolding war in Ukraine, it offers a stark reminder of Leon Trotsky’s warning from history that whilst you may not be interested in war, it is interested in you. Aspects of war many had thought long gone – trench warfare and tank battles, or at sea, ‘blockade’ and a war against commerce, remind us too of the harsh reality that whilst the ‘means’ of war change over time, its ‘ways’, and certainly its ‘ends’, evolve rather more slowly. For this reason, there has always been value in studying history as a way to understand and inform future policy and strategy. In ter…
