Preparing for Tomorrow’s Battles: Lessons from History

What if the wars of the future look nothing like the wars of the past?

In this live edition of Facing Coming Storms, recorded at the Hereford Military History Festival, Pete Apps is joined by two leading voices on conflict: Sir Antony Beevor, Britain’s most acclaimed military historian, and Patrick Bury, former Royal Irish Regiment officer and security lecturer at the University of Bath. Together, they explore how the character of war is shifting - from the trenches of history to the drone-filled skies of today.

The discussion ranges from the lessons of Stalingrad and the Second World War to the realities of Ukraine and beyond. Along the way, they tackle the rise of AI and autonomous weapons, the brutality of state-on-state fighting, and the question of how democratic societies can mobilise for conflict in an age of disinformation and division.

What You’ll Learn

- History’s Lessons: Why the past never repeats neatly - but still offers vital warnings for the present.

- Technology and Warfare: How drones, AI, and modern weapons are changing the battlefield in unexpected ways.

- Resilience and Society: What it takes for nations to prepare, mobilise, and endure in times of war.

This thought-provoking conversation reminds us that while the tools of war may change, its human costs remain constant. It’s a call to understand the storms gathering on the horizon and to think seriously about how we face them.

Facing Coming Storms is brought to you by the British Army’s Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research, in partnership with the Project for the Study of the 21st Century, and produced by Urban Podcasts.