Matthew Ford
Matthew Ford is an academic currently focusing on war and the data-saturated battlefields of the 21st century.
His most recent book - Radical War - with Professor Andrew Hoskins from Glasgow University traces war’s data trajectories, from the epicentres of battle out to distant parts of the world, into history, memory and as it is memed into the platforms that mediate digital culture.
Matthew's first book, 'Weapon of Choice - Small Arms and the Culture of Military Innovation', is an analysis of military innovation and culture and was published by Hurst & Co, London and Oxford University Press, New York in 2017.
Matthew is an Honorary Historical Consultant to the Royal Armouries (UK), the founding Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal for Military History, a former West Point Fellow and a Visiting Scholar at the Defense Analysis Department at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA.
Address: Strategy Division
Swedish Defence University, Stockholm
His most recent book - Radical War - with Professor Andrew Hoskins from Glasgow University traces war’s data trajectories, from the epicentres of battle out to distant parts of the world, into history, memory and as it is memed into the platforms that mediate digital culture.
Matthew's first book, 'Weapon of Choice - Small Arms and the Culture of Military Innovation', is an analysis of military innovation and culture and was published by Hurst & Co, London and Oxford University Press, New York in 2017.
Matthew is an Honorary Historical Consultant to the Royal Armouries (UK), the founding Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal for Military History, a former West Point Fellow and a Visiting Scholar at the Defense Analysis Department at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA.
Address: Strategy Division
Swedish Defence University, Stockholm
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Radical War by Matthew Ford
The paper was originally commissioned by UnHerd and completed on 11 March 2022
Articles by Matthew Ford
The paper was originally commissioned by UnHerd and completed on 11 March 2022
"The birth of the British Journal for Military History will be as welcome as it is long overdue" - Professor Sir Michael Howard
"The birth of the British Journal for Military History will be as welcome as it is long overdue" - Professor Sir Michael Howard
"The birth of the British Journal for Military History will be as welcome as it is long overdue" - Professor Sir Michael Howard
This book examines Western military technological innovation through the lens of developments in small arms during the twentieth century. These weapons have existed for centuries, appear to have matured only incrementally and might seem unlikely technologies for investigating the trajectory of military–technical change. Their relative simplicity, however, makes it easy to use them to map patterns of innovation within the military–industrial complex. Advanced technologies may have captured the military imagination, offering the possibility of clean and decisive outcomes, but it is the low technologies of the infantryman that can help us develop an appreciation for the dynamics of military–technical change.
Tracing the path of innovation from battlefield to back office, and from industry to alliance partner, Ford develops insights into the way that small arms are socially constructed. He thereby exposes the mechanics of power across the military–industrial complex. This in turn reveals that shifting power relations between soldiers and scientists, bureaucrats and engineers, have allowed the private sector to exploit infantry status anxiety and shape soldier weapon preferences. Ford’s analysis allows us to draw wider conclusions about how military innovation works and what social factors frame Western military purchasing policy, from small arms to more sophisticated and expensive weapons.
Allied Fighting Effectiveness in North Africa and Italy, 1942-1945 offers a collection of scholarly papers focusing on heretofore understudied aspects of the Second World War. Encompassing the major campaigns of North Africa, Sicily and Italy from operation TORCH to the end of the war in Europe, this volume explores the intriguing dichotomy of the nature of battle in the Mediterranean theatre, whilst helping to emphasise its significance to the study of Second Word War military history. The chapters, written by a number of international scholars, offer a discussion of a range of subjects, including: logistics, the air-land battle, coalition operations, doctrine and training, command, control and communications, and airborne and special forces.
Over the past twenty years academic literature has demonstrated that technological determinism has persistently crept into accounts of technical change. By consistently leaving human agency out of the equation, technology has appeared to evolve autonomously and to have determinate effects. Whilst studies of civilian technologies have shown that this way of seeing has serious flaws, very little has been undertaken to show how the same issues arise in a military context. The approach adopted here explicitly aims to highlight and avoid problems of technological determinism by putting human choice back into the story of British rifle design.
This is achieved through the identification of key personalities and social groups who had a perspective on, and an interest in, the development of the various systems. Having identified the key actors, their views on each artefact are explored. What emerges is that different groups see a particular technical solution differently. The arguments about what must be included in, and what is irrelevant to, a design of rifle are as a result exposed for further examination. The eventual weapon that emerges from these debates can be seen as a negotiation among the various parties: an artefact around which various perspectives coalesce. What transpires is a detailed picture of the tactical problems each weapon attempts to resolve. This not only indicates how various groups see the battlefield problem but also describes how these same actors want the infantry to fight.
Purpose – This paper aims to review the connections between studies of innovation management in organizational and military scholarship.
Design/methodology/approach – We offer a review of literature from the two fields, and a framework for comparing them which comprises three levels of analysis - idea, organizational and inter-organizational work.
Findings – We identify opportunities for cross-disciplinary scholarship, and assert that collaborative research into military ‘inter-organizational work’ and its meta-governance is especially urgent. We define the current ‘military-innovation complex’ as differing to Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex, in that it opaquely encompasses academic and entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems. We argue this sits in a ‘blind spot’ of organizational scholarship.
Originality/value – Power, politics and conflict are integral to military studies, but often neglected in organizational scholarship. Nevertheless, these elements are present in organizations, and will be crucial in future grand challenges. We call for critical scholarship of the military-innovation complex, and a deeper understanding of the relationships between military and civilian organizations.