Contributor: David Benest

David Benest has undertaken numerous tours of duty in Northern Ireland and served with 2 PARA during the Falklands war. He has completed three tours of duty in MoD with responsibility for operational requirements (OR) for counter terrorism.

He was appointed as director defence studies (army) and was deputy director of the Defence Leadership and Management Centre within the Defence Academy. In 2005 he was appointed director of security studies and resilience within the Defence College of Management and Technology and served as a British counterinsurgency adviser in Afghanistan in 2008.