CENTRE FOR AIR POWER STUDIES

The King's College London academics at the Royal Air Force College expect their IOT students to use books and articles in the excellent RAF College Library as their main source of research information as they prepare their Bandar Essays.

They also want students to utilise only well-researched, credible and reliable internet sources, and to avoid the countless unreliable and unverifiable internet sources, when they conduct research for their Bandar Essays.

With this in mind, the Air Power Studies scholars strongly encourage their IOT students to utilise materials from the following sites with complete confidence that they can, with proper citations of course, quote or paraphrase them in their Bandar Essay work.

(An example of a Bandar Essay can be found by clicking HERE. And an example of an IOT Exam answer can be found HERE)

 

-- The website of the United Nations is a rich treasure trove of reports, briefings, press releases, resolutions, studies and other invaluable, publicly accessible material explaining aspects of our complex world and its myriad challenges. The Peace and Security section of the UN's website may prove especially useful. And the exact text of every Security Council Resolution EVER passed can be found HERE!

 

-- The United Nations Institute of Disarmament Research has an excellent library of freely downloadable articles, books and book chapters on nuclear issues, chemical issues, biological issues, small arms, landmines and peacekeeping.

 

-- The website of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office is a useful start point for researching the UK's foreign policy priorities, from which the UK's defence vision and policies flow. Students can even download the key UK defence policy document, Strategic Defence Review: A New Chapter.

 

-- The British Ministry of Defence website has a helpful site designed to aid researchers. It has many downloadable reports and papers (including Defence White Papers) and a fascinating statistics section.

 

-- The International Committee of the Red Cross is the oldest, largest and most respected international organisation dedicated solely to the preservation of peace and the alleviation of the suffering caused by war and conflict. Its website contains many freely downloadable books and booklets on international humanitarian law and human rights.

 

-- Amnesty International (AI) is a highly respected worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognised human rights. AI aims to create a world in which all humans everywhere enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. AI’s website contains an excellent searchable library of articles on many crucial issues arising from war and conflict.

 

-- The Strategic Studies Institute of the United States Army War College has many cutting-edge and publicly accessible e-journals and e-books, mainly in PDF format, that cover such topics as insurgency, terrorism, war, strategy, and operational art.

 

-- The Royal Air Force has compiled an excellent list of air power terms and definitions in its doctrine manual, AP3000, and made this list available as a useful download.

 

-- Air and Space Power Journal is one of the most informative air power journals in the world. It is the USAF's flagship periodical and contains illuminating articles, many reflecting American perspectives (that may naturally differ from Britain's and other nations' views), on a wide range of air power and defence-related issues.

 

-- Air University Press, perhaps the world's largest publisher of air power books and booklets, offers free downloads of most of its books and working papers.

 

-- The website of the Royal Australian Air Force Air Power Development Centre contains an excellent series of working papers on various aspect of air power history and doctrine, many of which can be downloaded free in PDF format. Click HERE for these Air Power Development Centre Papers.

 

-- Joint Force Quarterly, published by the U.S. National Defence University under the auspices of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the world's only journal dedicated solely to jointness (British "jointery") and joint operational art and command in particular. Every single issue is available as a free, downloadable PDF document.

 

-- Almost every book and working paper ever published by the National Defence University is available as a free, downloadable PDF document from the NDU Press. These cover almost the entire spectrum of conflict.

 

-- Defense and the National Interest is a popular online American forum that aims to foster debate on the roles of the U.S. armed forces in the post-Cold War era and on the resources devoted to them. The website’s scores of freely downloadable articles and power-point presentations, listed under subject headings down the site's left margin, make it an invaluable start-point for understanding some uniquely American perspectives on war and conflict throughout the world.

 

-- The website of The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a motivated and moderate single-issue organisation, has an excellent research and resource section, titled "TOOLS", that will provide Bandar Essay cadets with helpful information.

 

 

 

NOTE!

 

The internet can also be used for quick and thorough bibliographical research. That is, Bandar Essay students can hunt for relevant book and article publication details. They can then search the RAF College Library catalogue to see if it holds those books and articles. A collection of excellent, specialised, professionally compiled military reading lists can be found at: http://web.archive.org/web/20060826115759/http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/bib97.htm

 

(An example of a Bandar Essay can be found by clicking HERE. And an example of an IOT Exam answer can be found HERE)

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