An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir May 2015 www.dfmagazine.ie 14 | by DR DAVID MURPHY, CENTRE FOR MILITARY HISTORY & STRATEGIC STUDIES, NUI MAYNOOTH PhotoS by ARMN ADAM MURPHY, GROUP PHOTO: CPL NEVILLE COUGHLAN I n late February 2015, I was extremely glad to facilitate an interview at the Command & Staff School at the DFtC with General David Petraeus, a previous US com- mander in Iraq and Afghanistan and also former director of the CIA. General Petraeus has been referred to as one of the most influential figures of the 21st Century and it is a measure of the increasing international reputation of the Irish Defence Forces that such a high-profile speaker was willing to attend an event of this kind. The process that led to this interview began in October 2014, when Comdt Gareth Prendergast, a graduate of the Command & General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, made an initial overture to General Petraeus. On receiving a positive response, the planning began in earnest. The format was established with the general and Comdt Pren- dergast asked if I would be interested in chairing the event and acting as the interviewer. As December approached and tentative plans concerning the visit began to look more real and imminent, Gareth and I trawled through books and other literature relating to the general's varied career so as to formulate appropriate and useful questions to ask him. This research took in a wide range of sources. Petraeus has a reputation as a 'warrior academic' and was hugely in- fluential in the formulation of current US COIN (counter-in- surgency) doctrine. This was embodied in the Counterinsur- gency Field Manual, often commonly referred to as just FM 3-24. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have spawned a huge literature and useful publications included Thomas E Ricks's The Gamble: General Petraeus and the untold story of the American surge in Iraq (2009) and the RAND publica- tion Counterinsurgency in Iraq, 2003-2006 (2008), among many others. The audience consisted of the staff and students from both the current C&S and JC&S courses. There were also officers and NCOs present who had previously served in Afghanistan as part of Defence Forces' missions there. Given the ethos of the C&S School, the final list of ques- tions focused on issues of training and education and the development of leadership skills appropriate to complex, conflict situations. After being introduced by Commandant of the Military College, Colonel Eamon Caulfield, the ques- tions I put to General Petraeus included: • As the divisional commander of 101st Airborne, how did you prepare yourself for your initial deployment in Iraq? • How did you prepare yourself to take over command in Afghanistan following the unexpected departure of General Stanley McCrystal? • How important is a 'whole of government' approach to COIN in political-military campaigns such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan? • How important is a declared, visualised end-state in modern military campaigns? Can it be replaced by a politically conceived end-date? During the course of the interview on 27th February, General Petraeus answered all of the above questions at length and with great frankness. Towards the end of the interview, Comdt Prendergast invited further questions from the audience and the resultant lines of inquiry proved to be extremely thought-provoking. Ultimately, General Petraeus offered the audience fascinating insights into his own experience in planning and commanding during some of the most difficult military campaigns of recent times. Dr David Murphy is a lecturer with the Centre for Military History and Strategic Studies, at the Department of History, NUI Maynooth. His courses include the "Irish Solider at War", "the Development of Modern Warfare" and "Unconventional Warfare". He is currently supervising five Ph.D. candidates and six MA students and is the convenor of the centre's War and Security Seminar series. His current research is focused on WWI and he is com- pleting a book on the failed Nivelle Offensive of 1917, which will be published in 2015. Dr David Murphy and US General David Petraeus Retd Comdt Gareth Prendergast and US General David Petraeus Retd Retired US General Visits C&S School

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