Both the previous and the current professional heads of the British Army believe that failure in warfare is as much about being out-thought as it is about being out-fought. They have both stressed the need for soldiers to take a ‘professional interest in their profession’. In 2018, as the Army reflected upon the nature and character of warfare 100 years after the end of the First World War, the CHACR and the War Studies Departments of RMA Sandhurst and King’s College London combined to reflect upon the use and abuse of military history by the military and academic professions. This issue of Ares & Athena seeks to capture some of that debate.