The British campaign in Northern Ireland remains one of the most controversial actions in recent history. This new book by Aaron Edwards considers the strategic, operational and tactical aspects of what become the longest ever campaign embarked upon by British troops. The 38-year campaign, codenamed Operation Banner, went through a number of phases. It began as a peacekeeping operation, morphed into a counter-insurgency operation and ending as a policing and counter-terrorism force. Banner was massive in scale. No less than 10,000 troops were on active service throughout the campaign and at one point as many as 30,000 men and women were deployed on Ulster's streets. Drawing on extensive new research, this book presents an authoritative introduction to the 'Troubles', providing a strategic analysis of the successes and failures of the campaign.

Aaron Edwards is a Senior Lecturer in Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the Queen's University of Belfast and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His main research interests span modern war studies and contemporary military history and he is the author of several books, including Mad Mitch's Tribal Law: Aden and the End of Empire (2014), UVF: Behind the Mask (2017) and Agents of Influence: Britain's Secret Intelligence War Against the IRA (2021).