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⇱ Dr Jack Watling | Royal United Services Institute

Biography

Dr Jack Watling is Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute. Jack works closely with the British military on the development of concepts of operation, assessments of the future operating environment, and conducts operational analysis of contemporary conflicts.

Jack is the author Statecraft: The New Rules of Power in a Divided World and The Arms of the Future: Technology and Close Combat in the Twenty First Century.

Jack's PhD examined the evolution of Britain’s policy responses to civil war in the early twentieth century. He has worked extensively with the Ukrainian Armed Forces during Russia's full-scale invasion, across NATO, and in Iraq, Mali, Rwanda, on Yemen and further afield.

Land Warfare

The RUSI Land Warfare team conducts extensive fieldwork to study contemporary conflicts and to evaluate the impact of emerging military concepts, doctrine and technologies on the future battlefield.

Latest books

  • Statecraft (2026)

    In Statecraft Jack Watling reveals how states collaborate, compete and fight in this era of global turmoil. With a career spent on the ground in conflict zones, and advising generals and political leaders, Watling examines the dilemmas that states face to get ahead, no matter their size. From economic alliances and global trade to sea power and military technology, Statecraft provides a powerful new lens to understand geopolitics in a divided world.

    View the book

  • The Arms of the Future (2023)

    The Arms of the Future analyses how the emergence of novel weapons systems is shaping the risks and opportunities on the battlefield. Drawing on extensive practical observation and experimentation, the book unpacks the operational challenges new weapons pose on the battlefield and how armies might be structured to overcome them.

    View the book

  • Jack Watling, a senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, agreed: “The Ukrainians lost 10,000 people... killed and wounded over the course of the defence of Bakhmut [in eastern Ukraine in 2022-23], which is a small market town,” he warned. “That would almost be the entire infantry force in the British military.”

    Dr Jack Watling

    Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare

  • The Ukrainians trying to defend Bakhmut lost 10,000 people, killed and wounded over the course of the defence of Bakhmut, which is a small market town, and that would almost be the entire infantry force in the British military”, he warned. The researcher also warned that the UK is critically short of artillery, after having given large amounts to Ukraine.

    Dr Jack Watling

    Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare

  • Jack Watling, a senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), agreed with the brutal assessment. “The Ukrainians trying to defend Bakhmut lost 10,000 people, killed and wounded over the course of the defence of Bakhmut, which is a small market town, and that would almost be the entire infantry force in the British military,” he warned. The researcher also warned that the UK is critically short of artillery, after having given large amounts to Ukraine

    Dr Jack Watling

    Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare

Latest publications

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Report: Ore to Ordnance: Disrupting Russia's Artillery Supply Chains

This report by Open Source Centre and RUSI provides a comprehensive overview of Russia’s artillery supply chain, with the goal to inform a cross-government, and ideally inter-governmental, approach to disrupting this specific supply chain. (10 October 2024)

This Means War Podcast: A Turning Point in Ukraine?

Dr Jack Watling talks to Peter Roberts as he returns from his most recent trip to Ukraine. Whilst Jack brings his latest insights to the listeners, he and Peter have a discussion over the information war and debunk some of the myths and fallacies around the public face of the war.