- Retired Gen David Petraeus says it is critical to rethink how
future wars are fought and how military institutions are
structured, trained, and equipped
- UK is ideally placed to overhaul its military, and to lead
such inititiatives in NATO nations, because of its continued
support of, and presence in, Ukraine
- The US and UK, with its allies, also face unprecedented
challenges that make change in our militaries imperative, he says
- And, on the fifth anniversary of the withdrawal from
Afghanistan, he questions the rationale for ending involvement in
the war there, as he says it was very sustainable from the US and
Allied perspective
The UK is uniquely positioned to become the first major Western
nation to dramatically reshape its military for the wars of the
future, General David Petraeus says.
In so doing, it could also help spur the transformation of other
NATO forces and the operational concepts of NATO's commanders in
eastern Europe.
Gen Petraeus was delivering the Lord Speaker's Lecture (Tuesday
Sept 1 2026) after being invited by the Lord Speaker, of Drumlean, to address peers
at the House of Lords.
said: "David Petraeus has
combined frontline military leadership with experience at the
highest levels of intelligence and public service. At a time of
international peril, his conclusions on the lessons he has
learned are crucial to our future security."
Among those expected to be present are Field Marshal Lord
Richards praised by Gen Petraeus as a a superb coalition
commander in Afghanistan; Air Chief Marshal, now , who was Chief of Defence
Staff during the Surge in Iraq; , former head of the British
Army, and , former Chief of the Defence
Staff and Chairman of NATO's Military Committee.
Gen Petraeus, a retired four-star general who served 37 years in
the US military, became the best-known commander in George W
Bush's war on terror, leading coalition forces in Iraq during the
surge of 2007-8 and in Afghanistan in 2010-11, before going on to
serve as Director of the CIA.
He says Britain was ahead of the game in terms of the Russian war
of aggression in Ukraine, demonstrating strategic clarity early
on and providing exemplary support of Ukraine ever since.
That now presents Britain with another opportunity: to become the
first major Western nation to organise its defence institutions
around the new concept of warfare that Ukraine has been
pioneering, and, in doing so, to help lead the transformation of
NATO itself, he says.
While the US is at the forefront of developing technologies to
fight wars, no nation would secure strategic advantage just by
purchasing better technology, he tells peers.
He adds: The United States has not yet developed the
revolutionary new concept of warfare this moment requires, much
less begun the vast resulting changes in force structure,
organisation, training, leader education, procurement, and
personnel.
This will not be easy, he notes, because many vested interests
and long-held assumptions would need to be confronted and old
playbooks discarded.
Every generation is tempted to believe that its challenges are
unprecedented. Occasionally, however, a generation is correct. I
believe ours is such a generation. The challenge before us is to
recognise that the concept of warfare is changing fundamentally,
and that our institutions must change with it, urgently.
Referring to the 1st Duke of Wellington's defeat of Napoleon at
the Battle of Waterloo, he says: The legacy of the first reminds us that
strategic success depends not only upon courage on the
battlefield, but also upon the ability to rethink how wars are
fought and how military institutions prepare for future
conflicts.
The ninth currently sits as a
crossbench peer in the House of Lords.
Gen Petraeus concludes: If Britain once again demonstrates the
strategic clarity it showed in recognising the implications of
Russia's aggression against Ukraine, and if the United States
matches its extraordinary technological dynamism with equally
determined institutional transformation, then I believe our two
nations, together with our allies, can once again shape the
future of warfare rather than simply respond to it. That is not
merely an opportunity. It is the responsibility of our
generation.
Notes to editors
Gen Petraeus co-authored, in 2023, with historian and peer Lord
(Andrew) Roberts, Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from
1945 to Gaza.
