From the Editors

Abstract

The military profession, like the scholarly one, faces the dualistic
conundrum of learning from the past in an effort to shape future reality. The
question is not only how to balance the study of history with concerns of, in many
cases, the unpredictable, foreseeable future. It is also a matter of how to study both
history (in an effort to draw the right lessons from past experience) and
contemporary trends (to temper our expectations of the future). Historically,
informed guesswork governed by what Colin Gray refers to as the ‘golden rule of
prudence’ is the best way to ‘gamble’ with the future and ensure that plans are not
only governed by hope.1 As editors of a journal on military studies our challenge is
always to find a careful balance in the content between looking at what has
happened and what is due to influence future strategic and tactical realities.