-
27 March 2023. By Nigel Biggar for The Times. World leaders, even Putin, take the nuclear threat seriously. Why if Kyiv had kept its stockpile? When Russian forces crossed the border and advanced on Kyiv just over a year ago, only two responses were possible: acquiesce or fight. The Ukrainians chose to fight and the…
-
Paul Cornish, Nigel Biggar, Robert Johnson and Gareth Stansfield prepared a report commissioned by the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) of the UK Ministry of Defence. The authors considered intervention policy and practice for those circumstances in which the UK national interest might demand action. The authors argue that UK intervention operations are permissible to maintain the rules-based…
-
Nigel Biggar recently reflected on the legacy of the Royal Air Force, with particular attention given to Flight Lieutenant Richard Hope Hillary (1919-1943). Hillary was the author of The Last Enemy (1942), an account of his experiences that was republished by Penguin in their 2018 Centenary Collection. The article was published alonside other reflections on the centenary of the First…
-
On January 31, 2017, Policy Exchange, one of Britain’s leading public-policy think-tanks, invited Prof Nigel Biggar to deliver a lecture on some of the moral lessons to be learned from the recent history of British military interventions abroad. After Iraq, he asks, in what circumstances should Britain go to war? The lecture was followed by a Vote…
-
A report released last week by the Joint Business, Innovation and Skills and International Development Committee claims to have found evidence of breaches of international humanitarian law by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Shia rebels in neighbouring Yemen. The report recommends that the UK should stop sales of weapons which could be used by the coalition pending a formal inquiry. In a letter…
-
See Nigel’s contribution to Agenda, the column for outside contributors at The Herald, here.
-
Read Nigel’s essay ‘Evaluating the Somme‘ at Providence Magazine.
-
Following the publication of the long-awaited inquiry into the Iraq War by Sir John Chilcot, Nigel Biggar offers a series of critical reflections on its strengths and weaknesses.
-
Please read Nigel’s briefing, which is held at the McDonald Centre website here.
-
British firepower would be effective if we were prepared to deploy sufficient military force. Sir, Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, is correct to call the lack of RAF airstrikes against Isil in Syria “morally indefensible”. Last week the House of Commons foreign affairs committee recommended no extension of British military action into Syria “unless there…