REVIEW - Air Power Studies

As a consequence, governments and their armed forces will doubtless be paying more
attention to the serious ecological ramifications of conflict. Some already are. The
Global Strategic Trends paper published by the MOD’s Development, Concepts and
Doctrine Centre (DCDC) illustrates the importance now being placed on these matters
by cutting-edge British strategists. Balancing strategic and operational needs with both
military and environmental ethics is certainly not impossible, and responsible armed
forces, including the Royal Air Force, are already thinking deeply about how best to
balance what superficially seem to be (but actually are not) competing imperatives.
This highly innovative conference – the first on this topic in the United Kingdom – will
touch on several broader security themes and topics but will focus especially on the
concepts and practices of modern air power and their environmental implications.
This conference will be held at the historic and prestigious Royal Air Force College, the
spiritual home of the RAF. The cost to attendees is £95. This covers accommodation for
the night of Wednesday 26 August, all food including a Conference Dinner in College
Hall and basic refreshments for the duration of the Conference.
Welcome and Closing: Air Marshal Stephen Dalton, CB BSc FRAeS FCMI RAF, Chief
of the Air Staff (Designate),
Conference Convenor: Dr Joel Hayward, Dean of the Royal Air Force College
Keynote Addresses: Victor W Sidel, MD, “The Impact of War on the Environment,
Public Health, and Natural Resources’ and Dr Phillip S Meilinger, “The Role of Air
Power in Reducing Collateral Damage in War”
Speakers (This programme may be subject to alteration):
• Air University, Panel Discussion, “Air Power: Environmental Security for AFRICOM”
• Heather Hrychuk, “The Canadian Air Force’s Environmental Evolution”
• Peter Lee, “Just War and the Environment: Rethinking Proportionality”
• Michael J and Sarah Masterson, “Fighting the Good (Green) Fight?”
• Jim Morgan and Terry Yonkers, “Air Power and the Environment within Combat
Threat Zones: A Mission Support Contractor’s Perspective”
• Evelyn Krache Morris, “The Forest and the Trees: Aerial Herbicide Spraying and
the Environment”
• Mark A Olinger, US Army, “Air Power and the Targeting of a Nation’s Energy
Based Sector”
• Chris Rein, USAF, “The Environmental Impact of the US Army Air Force’s
Production and Training Infrastructure on the Great Plains”
• Sebastian Ritchie, “The flooding of Walcheren Island, October 1944”
• Tara Smith, “Legal Obligations and Voluntary Commitments: Should the
Weakness of Environmental Humanitarian Law be a Cause for Concern?”
• Toby Thacker, “Environmental Considerations in the Planning for the British
Strategic Bombing of Germany, 1939-1945”
• Mr Siemon Wezeman, “Cluster Munitions and the Environment”
• Mr Dimitrios Ziakkas, “Building Synthetic Training in the Air”
For more details and Registration go to http://www.airpowerstudies.co.uk/
august09conference.htm