The Lowy Institute

With the US out of Iraq and on its way out of Afghanistan American military strategy may be reverting back to large war scenarios for its future planning. The lecture will consider the basis for this reversion, including a reassessment of the war on terror, frustration with COIN (counter-insurgency) and concerns about China, and ask whether it will be any easier for the US to avoid the lesser contingencies in the future than it has been in the past. Lawrence Freedman has been Professor of War Studies at King's College London since 1982, and Vice-Principal since 2003. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995 and awarded the CBE in 1996, he was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997. He was awarded the KCMG in 2003. In June 2009 he was appointed to serve as a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War. Professor Freedman has written extensively on nuclear strategy and the cold war, as well as commentating regularly on contemporary security issues. His most