RUSI Journal

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The RUSI Journal^[1] is the flagship publication of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.

It describes itself as

a leading forum for the exchange of ideas on national and international defence and security issues. First published in 1857, the RUSI Journal is the oldest publication of its kind in the world and considered by practitioners and scholars alike to be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand war and conflict, the UK's and other states’ armed forces and defence and security policies, and military history.

RUSI Journal is published six times a year. It contains:

• ten to twelve timely and policy-relevant articles on contemporary defence and security matters
• two to four scholarly studies on military history subjects
• book reviews and essays on film, art and media

[edit] History

In 1857, RUSI started to produce a periodical, the Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, which published both the transcripts of lectures given, including the discussions which followed, and articles submitted for publication. Colonel Bowlder, a later editor, summed up the aim of the journal as to publish ‘ . . . articles, whether original, compiled, or translated, which seem likely to be of interest to the Service at large, and are of sufficient importance to be worthy of insertion in its limited pages.’ The Journal thus sought to be responsive to the interests of its readership, rather than promoting any particular views of RUSI itself (indeed every issue carried the caveat that ‘Authors alone are responsible for the contents of their respective papers’). The Journal has rightly been described as the most important military periodical of Victorian Britain.

The Journal and RUSI was an important method of disseminating information within the Services, both at home and abroad. It was, for example, useful for naval officers to keep track of the rapid technological changes in the Royal Navy, and for Army officers to follow the debates over the Army's organization and tactics. Information about the Armed Forces of other European nations also formed a significant proportion of the Journal. Today the Journal continues to examine these subjects and issues pertaining to international security.