“As the UK re-evaluates its doctrinal and force development stance, including in light of the opportunities offered by the recent Security Defence Review, the research project captured in this Ares & Athena, commissioned originally by 1st UK Division, explores a range of aspects of the utility of light forces. We have divided this publication into three parts. The first explores the history of light forces and offers examples of how they may have been used and useful in the past – by design, as opposed to by necessity. The second explores how specific-to-purpose light forces have and can be used and those battlespace circumstances that demand their use. The third looks at the emphasis that is placed upon light forces by some of the Nordic members of the NATO alliance alongside whom the UK is expecting to operate. In so doing we ask in what way might ‘might be light’? – Dr Andrew Sharpe, Director CHACR.

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