Event Details

Dr Robert Seely discusses his new book, 'The New Total War: From Child Abduction to Cyber Attacks and Drones to Disinformation – Russia’s Conflict with Ukraine and the West'

CWD Book Talk: Dr Robert Seely MBE, 'The New Total War'

Thursday 22 January 2026, 5:00pm to 6:30pm

Cavendish Colloquium, Faraday Building

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Robert Seely, The New Total War (Biteback Publishing, 2025)

From the revolutionary use of drones to staged coups, child abduction and psychological warfare, Russia’s new total war combines traditional military force with all the non-military tools of the Russian state.

Combining over a decade of research, astute analysis and powerful stories from the front line, and including striking photographs of the people and scenes he encountered, Bob Seely has written the authoritative guide to this new form of conflict.

Insightful, gripping and at times moving, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the unconventional methods Russia and other authoritarian states are using to challenge the West for global supremacy to undermine our beliefs, power and influence.

Dr Robert (Bob) Seely is a former soldier, journalist and Member of Parliament.

As a young foreign correspondent, he witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union. He first warned of a revanchist Russia in the mid-1990s and has researched and written about the topic extensively since then. As a British soldier, he served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and the campaign against ISIS, where he witnessed the changing nature of war at first hand. As an MP from 2017 to 2024, he warned of the growing threat to peace from Russia.

Dr Seely has long been fascinated by the fusion of different forms of conflict. He devoted a decade of academic study to his PhD from King’s College London. The New Total War is the result of over thirty years of expertise in Russia, Ukraine and modern warfare.