π§ The Royal Family & WW1
π§ Warfare • 29m
Happy Platinum Jubilee! As Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to mark 70 years on the throne - as well as commander-in-chief of Her Majesty's Armed Forces - we trace the origins of the House of Windsor's close-knit links to the British military.
Why are the two so seemingly inseparable? The story begins in the First World War, when the dynasty changed its name from the House of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha to distance itself from its German roots. Rather than suffer due to its kinship with the kaiser, the royal family's stock amongst the UK public and its soldiery actually rose during and after the Great War.
In this episode James is joined by Heather Jones, Professor in Modern & Contemporary European History at UCL and the author of a new book on the subject, to explore exactly why the Armed Forces serve for king, queen and country.
Up Next in π§ Warfare
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π§ US at War: Who Funds it?
The US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan marked the beginning of the longest wars in US history - but how were they funded for upwards of two decades? James is joined by Professor Sarah Kreps to talk about how warfare has changed over the course of American history, and how that's allowed for a c...
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π§ The Assassination of Heydrich
He was nicknamed βthe man with the iron heartβ by Hitler, and was tipped to be his successor. But on the 27th May 1942, Reinhard Heydrich was mortally injured in Prague by Czechoslovak resistance operatives Jozef GabΔΓk and Jan KubiΕ‘. They were part of Operation Anthropoid, and today George Bearf...
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π§ Killer Robots: AI at War
What if we could take people completely out of the equation when planning military strikes? βLethal autonomous weapons systemsβ use artificial intelligence to identify, select and kill human targets without human intervention. Whilst with unmanned military drones, the decision to strike is made r...
