A former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, hailed as one as one of the foremost military thinkers of modern times, is to give a lecture at Liverpool Cathedral.
General Sir Rupert Smith KCB, DSO & Bar, OBE, QGM will speak on The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World at Liverpool Cathedral on February 22nd 2010.
He is renowned around the world for combining high command with an intellectual approach to soldiering, and is one of Britain’s most distinguished generals.
His lecture, based on his book of the same name (published in 2005) describes the changed circumstances of warfare in the modern world.
He describes a war now fought ‘among the people’ and discusses why military intervention can only be successful if it is an integrated part of wider political and economic processes that lead to peace.
Justin Welby, Dean of Liverpool Cathedral said, “The book is a radical and provocative relook at the nature of modern warfare, of immense importance to the present war in Afghanistan, and this lecture by one of the foremost military thinkers of these times, with questions and answers to follow, will stimulate fresh thinking.”
General Sir Rupert Smith was born in 1943 and was an officer in the British Army until his retirement in 2002. He was educated at the Haileybury and Imperial Service College and later at Sandhurst.
He enlisted in 1962, was commissioned into the Parachute Regiment in 1964 and has served in East and South Africa, Arabia, the Caribbean, Europe and Malaysia.
As a major general, Smith commanded the British 1st Armoured Division during the Gulf War (1990–1991) and became the first Assistant Chief of Defence Operations and Security at the UK Ministry of Defence in 1992.
While there he was intimately involved in the UK's development of the strategy in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In 1995 he was Commander UNPROFOR in Sarajevo, and was responsible for breaking the siege of the city by creating the UN Rapid Reaction Force, and ultimately thereby bringing the war to an end.
Between 1996 and 1998 he was General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland. His final assignment was as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe between 1998 and 2001, covering NATO's Operation Allied Force during the Kosovo war, and the development of the European Security and Defence Identity.
He is currently the Honorary Colonel of Exeter UOTC.
Doors open 6.30pm (drinks reception) Lecture 7.00-8.00pm. For further information visit www.liverpoolcathedral.org.uk
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