The War Diaries

Antonio Garcia served as a combat engineer in the SANDF. He is now a civil servant with experience as a researcher at Stellenbosch University, lecturer at Durham University, and tutor at the Open University.

Max Lauker served in the Swedish Armed Forces from 2002 to 2018, including roles in special operations and intelligence. He led numerous covert missions in Africa and the former Eastern Bloc. Now, he works in the private security sector, focusing on intelligence.

Both of them, the authors of the book Number 788 bring you their War Diaries, a column where they explore contemporary warfare, reflect on past conflicts, ask questions related to the future of war, and discuss many other aspects of war and warfare. Read their stories, leave comments, and join the discussion.

Past, Present & Future The War Diaries

Writing Military Biography/Autobiography

The book is an autobiography, and as a historian and biographer, I was given a front-row seat to a firsthand account of the Swedish military experience in the 2000s.

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Past, Present & Future The War Diaries

Veterans and Generals

This idea of the great general who could command and solve every issue through the use of force is perhaps something well suited for ancient history.

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Past, Present & Future The War Diaries

The Continuities and Discontinuities of War

‘Existing military doctrine and training will very quickly prove challenging or out of date during the initial combat of a new war,’ a hypothesis associated with the eminent historian Sir Michael Howard. Before 2022, many theorists and pundits were strongly of the opinion that there was no chance of Putin invading Ukraine.

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Past, Present & Future The War Diaries

Thinking Twice Before Praising War on Social Media

With the ongoing wars in Ukraine, Palestine, Tigray, Myanmar, Central African Republic, and eastern DRC, to name a few, social media has become a space for propaganda.

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Past, Present & Future The War Diaries

Investment in the Military is a Waste… Until the Next War

The chants of war now occur in multiple dimensions – in person, and digitally. They come not only from the modern Cossack astride their battle tank, but there is also another voice, a contemporary war viewer, shouting their war slogans over the many social media platforms, ‘death to… kill so and so’.

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