WO2 Paul Barnes

WO2(SQMS) Paul Barnes MBE is SO2 Warfare at the British Army’s Land Warfare Centre. He is the author of British Land Doctrine (2025) and UK Defence’s capstone land doctrine, JDP 0-20 Land Power (2023). He currently has responsibility for domain level doctrine and academic interface, is Secretary of NATO’s Senior Land Doctrine Panel, Chairman of its NATO MDO Study Group, and leads ABCANZ’s Maneuver Doctrine Project Team. He regularly speaks on doctrine matters to audiences at home and abroad.

WO2 Barnes has an MA in Military History from the University of Birmingham, where his dissertation was entitled ‘The Development of British and Dominion Aerial Re-supply in the First World War 1916-18′. He is a CGS’ Fellow and, uniquely, a CAS’ Fellow; was the British Army’s Visiting Fellow at RUSI in 2018/19 and a Fellow at West Point in 2020/21. He won the RAF’s Salmond Prize for Essay Writing in that Service’s centenary year. He has written articles which have been widely published in the UK, USA and Australia and is currently writing a book on the Principles of War for Swift Press to be published in 2026.