The Quest for Relevant Air Power

POST–COLD WAR CHALLENGES │ 49
power working group, initially bringing together air force officers
and senior academics but later expanded to include representatives
from the British Army, Royal Navy, USAF, and RAAF. The
goal was not only to promote air power thinking in the wake of
Desert Storm but also to advocate the British view on air power
within the UK as well as with the USAF and the RAAF. The first
workshop resulted in the publication The Dynamics of Air Power. 226
It examined evolving air power theory and the role of air power in
peace support operations, a highly topical area given the operations
over the Balkans. 227 In the ensuing years, a succession of directors
of defence studies RAF compiled and edited a growing
body of topical doctrinal literature evolving from the chief of the
Air Staff ’s air power workshops, which had emerged from the air
power working group. 228 Besides the activities of the air power
working group and the workshops, air power conferences have
been organised not only to promote air power thinking or to inform
initial thinking on recent campaigns but also to influence
British decision makers. 229
Another significant step in broadening the doctrinal debate
was the creation of the Royal Air Force Air Power Review in 1998.
The first issue’s opening pages point out the RAF’s historical role
as being in the vanguard of air power thinking as well as the journal’s
intent to foster that leading posture through robust and informed
debate. The journal has been distributed free of charge
across and beyond the service. 230 This platform was intended to
provide an open forum for study, stimulating discussion and
thinking on air power in its broadest context. 231
One of the UK’s most recently established vehicles for promoting
air power thinking is the Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power
Studies. Established in August 2007, it synergistically draws upon
the competencies of the Air Power Studies Division of King’s College
London, the Directorate of Defence Studies RAF, and the Air
Historical Branch RAF. The centre aims to strengthen the relationship
between academia and the RAF. 232
The post–Cold War era has also seen the reemergence of major
analytical surveys analogous to World War II’s United States Strategic
Bombing Survey. The Gulf War Air Power Survey endeavoured
to compile the conduct and the lessons of the Gulf War air
campaign in five volumes and a summary volume. Sponsored by