Future Reserves 2020: the British Army and the Politics of Military Innovation during the Cameron Era

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Oxford University Press via the DOI in this record.Since 2001 there has been an increase in the use of reserve forces in conflicts sparking a number of organizational transformations when it comes to reserves. In Britain, the Future Reserves 2020 (FR2020) transformation was a cornerstone of recent defence policy. Yet, the scholarly work on military innovations has ignored reserve forces. This article examines why and how the recent attempt to transform the British Army Reserve was undertaken, and analyses its outcome. In doing so, this article contributes a major new case-study to the literature focused on civilian-directed peacetime innovation and the impact of intra-party and intra-service politics upon it. Firstly, we originally examine how intra-party political motivations were the primary initiator of the innovation. Secondly, contrary to previous intra-service rivalry explanations, we argue that our case is a compelling example of intra-service rivalry between components rather than branches, and over manpower and organizational structure rather than technology and visions of victory. Finally, addressing the lack of theory in innovation studies, we show how the transformation followed post-Fordist principles to address its political, ideological and financial drivers. We conclude that numerous innovation processes can be operant at different times, and that FR2020 has been frustrated by the interaction between these processes

The gendered politics of researching military policy in the age of the ‘knowledge economy’

This is the final version. Available on open access from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this record. This article explores our experiences of conducting feminist interpretive research on the British Army Reserves. The project, which examined the everyday work-Army-life balance challenges that reservists face, and the roles of their partners/spouses in enabling them to fulfil their military commitments, is an example of a potential contribution to the so-called ‘knowledge economy’, where publicly funded research has come to be seen as ‘functional’ for political, military, economic, and social advancement. As feminist interpretive researchers examining an institution that prizes masculinist and functionalist methodologies, instrumentalised knowledge production, and highly formalised ethics approval processes, we faced multiple challenges to how we were able to conduct our research, who we were able to access, and what we were able to say. We show how military assumptions about what constitutes proper ‘research’, bolstered by knowledge economy logics, reinforces gendered power relationships that keep hidden the significant roles women (in our case, the partners/spouses of reservists) play in state security. Accordingly, we argue that the functionalist and masculinist logics interpretive researchers face in the age of the knowledge economy help more in sustaining orthodox modes of knowledge production about militaries and security, and in reinforcing gendered power relations, than they do in advancing knowledge.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)UK Ministry of DefenceBritish Arm

Reproducing the military and heteropatriarchal normal: Army Reserve service as serious leisure

This is the final version. Available on open access from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record.The notion that military violence engenders security and that military service is a selfless and necessary act are orthodoxies in political, military and scholarly debate. The UK Reserves’ recent expansion prompts reconsideration of this orthodoxy, particularly as it suggests that reservists serve selflessly. Drawing on fieldwork with British Army reservists and their spouses/partners, we examine how this orthodoxy allows reservists to engage in everyday embodied performances, and occasionally articulations, of the need to serve, to free themselves up from household responsibilities. This supposed necessity of military service necessitates heteropatriarchal divisions of labour, which facilitate participation in military service and the state’s ability to conduct war/war preparations. However, whilst reserve service is represented as sacrificial and necessary it is far more self-serving and is better understood as ‘serious leisure’ (Stebbins, 1982), an activity whose perceived importance engenders deep self-fulfilment. By showing that the performances of sacrifice and necessity reservists rely on are selfish, not selfless, we show how militarism is facilitated by such everyday desires. We conclude by reflecting on how exposing reserve service as serious leisure could contribute to problematising the state’s ability to rely on everyday performances and articulations of militarism and heteropatriarchy to prepare for and wage war.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC

Introduction to the Armed Forces & Society forum on military reserves in the “New Wars”

This is the final version. Available on open access from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record. This Armed Forces & Society forum is dedicated to exploring recent trends in the characteristics of military reserves and of the changing character of reserve forces within the armed forces within the military, the civilian sphere, and in between them. To bring new and critical perspectives to the study of reserve forces and civil–military relations, this introduction and the five articles that follow draw on two organizing conceptual models: The first portrays reservists as transmigrants and focuses on the plural membership of reservists in the military and in civilian society and the “travel” between them. The second model focuses on the multiple formal and informal compacts (contracts, agreements, or pacts) between reservists and the military

Conduit artery structure and function in lowlanders and native highlanders: relationships with oxidative stress and role of sympathoexcitation

Research detailing the normal vascular adaptions to high altitude is minimal and often confounded by pathology (e.g. chronic mountain sickness) and methodological issues. We examined vascular function and structure in: (1) healthy lowlanders during acute hypoxia and prolonged ( 2 weeks) exposure to high altitude, and (2) high-altitude natives at 5050 m (highlanders). In 12 healthy lowlanders (aged 32 ± 7 years) and 12 highlanders(Sherpa; 33 ± 14 years) we assessed brachial endothelium-dependent flow-mediated dilatation(FMD), endothelium-independent dilatation (via glyceryl trinitrate; GTN), common carotid intima–media thickness (CIMT) and diameter (ultrasound), and arterial stiffness via pulse wave velocity (PWV; applanation tonometry). Cephalic venous biomarkers of free radical-mediated lipid peroxidation (lipid hydroperoxides, LOOH), nitrite (NO2 –) and lipid soluble antioxidants were also obtained at rest. In lowlanders, measurements were performed at sea level (334 m) and between days 3–4 (acute high altitude) and 12–14 (chronic high altitude) following arrival to 5050 m. Highlanders were assessed once at 5050 m. Compared with sea level, acute high altitude reduced lowlanders’ FMD (7.9 ± 0.4 vs. 6.8 ± 0.4%; P = 0.004) and GTN-induced dilatation (16.6 ± 0.9 vs. 14.5 ± 0.8%; P = 0.006), and raised central PWV (6.0 ± 0.2 vs. 6.6 ± 0.3 m s−1; P = 0.001). These changes persisted at days 12–14, and after allometricallyscaling FMD to adjust for altered baseline diameter. Compared to lowlanders at sea level and high altitude, highlanders had a lower carotid wall:lumen ratio ( 19%, P 0.04), attributable to a narrower CIMT and wider lumen. Although both LOOH and NO2 – increased with high altitude in lowlanders, only LOOH correlated with the reduction in GTN-induced dilatation evident during acute (n = 11, r=−0.53) and chronic (n = 7, r=−0.69; P 0.01) exposure to 5050 m. In a follow-up, placebo-controlled experiment (n=11 healthy lowlanders) conducted in a normobaric hypoxic chamber (inspiredO2 fraction (FIO2 )=0.11; 6 h), a sustained reduction in FMD was evident within 1 h of hypoxic exposure when compared to normoxic baseline (5.7±1.6 vs. 8.0 ±1.3%; P < 0.01); this decline in FMD was largely reversed following α1-adrenoreceptor blockade. In conclusion, high-altitude exposure in lowlanders caused persistent impairment in vascular function, which was mediated partially via oxidative stress and sympathoexcitation. Although a lifetime of high-altitude exposure neither intensifies nor attenuates the impairments seen with short-term exposure, chronic high-altitude exposure appears to be associated with arterial remodelling

Time course of the increase in 4β-hydroxycholesterol concentration during carbamazepine treatment of paediatric patients with epilepsy

Cholesterol is a vital compound that can undergo cytochrome P450 (CYP) mediated conversion into steroid hormones, bile acids and oxysterols. CYP enzymes are present in all human tissues and mediate the metabolism of several endogenous and exogenous compounds such as steroids and drugs. Vitamin D status has been shown to be important for several biological processes such as drug metabolism, modulation of the immune system and bone health. Enzymes in subfamily CYP3A (CYP3A4, CYP3A5, CYP3A7 and CYP3A43) are present in liver and intestine. They metabolize about 50% of all prescribed drugs. Genetic factors, age, sex, ethnicity and environmental factors influence the activity and expression of CYP3A enzymes. These factors combined cause wide inter-patient variability in CYP3A mediated drug response. There are a number of clinical markers to assess the CYP3A activity, e.g. plasma midazolam clearance, quinine metabolic ratio and 4β- hydroxycholesterol/cholesterol ratio. In the present study the plasma levels of 4β- hydroxycholesterol and the 4β-hydroxycholesterol/cholesterol ratio has been evaluated as markers of CYP3A activity during enzyme induction by a number of drugs (carbamazepine in Papers I and III, rifampicin in Papers IV-V and efavirenz in Paper V) and by pregnancy (Paper III). The association between CYP3A activity and vitamin D status has also been studied (Paper IV-V). In Paper I, carbamazepine treatment in children with epilepsy doubled the plasma levels of 4β-hydroxycholesterol within two weeks of treatment. The increase was 5 to 10-fold within eight weeks treatment. In Paper III, pregnancy increased the 4β- hydroxycholesterol/cholesterol ratio and the plasma levels of cholesterol. Newborn children had the same CYP3A activity as adults as indicated by similar 4β-hydroxycholesterol/ cholesterol ratios. Carbamazepine treatment during pregnancy further increased the CYP3A activity in one mother and her child. In Papers IV-V, rifampicin-mediated CYP3A induction did not affect the plasma levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in healthy volunteers or in tuberculosis-HIV co-infected patients. In tuberculosis-HIV co-infected patients there was a significant negative correlation between the plasma levels of 25- hydroxyvitamin D and the 4β-hydroxycholesterol/cholesterol ratio already at initiation of treatment (Paper V). Efavirenz treatment caused a transient decrease in the plasma levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in HIV-infected patients (Paper V). To summarize, 4β-hydroxycholesterol and the 4β-hydroxycholesterol/cholesterol ratio are useful as markers of CYP3A induction. 4β-Hydroxycholesterol is a non-invasive endogenous clinical marker that is easy to use also in children and vulnerable patient groups. The blood samples can be taken at any time of the day regardless of food intake