Welcome to the British Army Review (BAR) 177 winter and spring 2020.  We open this edition with an obituary for Professor Sir Michael Howard who sadly passed away in December last year.  As the pre-eminent figure in British military history, Sir Michael was a driving force in the development of war studies as an academic discipline in the 20th century.

When we chose the theme ‘Competing in the Constant Competition’ for this edition, we could not have predicted that it would reflect the recent dramatic developments in the conduct of international relations as closely as it has.