On 22 October 2026, the Swedish Defence University hosted a workshop on urban warfare, bringing together researchers and military practitioners to explore how research and operational experience can strengthen education, training and exercises.
The war in Ukraine has reinforced the need to prepare officers and military organisations for operations in urban environments. Addressing this challenge requires connections between research, military practice, doctrine and the methods used to educate and train future commanders.
The workshop opened with a keynote address by Colonel ustaf Dufberg, Commander of Sweden’s Central Military Region. The morning session brought together Professor Anna Danielsson, Associate Professor Kristin Ljungkvist, Dr Douglas W. Winton, Major Jonas Björkqvist and myself to discuss ongoing research at the Swedish Defence University and approaches to military education, including training and staff rides.
My contribution formed part of this exchange between research and professional military education. Together with Douglas W. Winton, Deputy Provost of Army University in the United States, I research urban warfare and the implications of the war in Ukraine. Our co-authored chapter, “The City as a Battlefield: (Re)Thinking Urban Warfare in the Wake of Ukraine”, provides one contribution to this work. Staff rides and wargames offer further opportunities to connect historical experience, contemporary research and tactical problems.
This pedagogical work is developed further in the Ortona 1943 staff ride handbook, the updated and expanded Fältövningshandboken: Att planera och leda en fältövning (2026), and Jonas Björkqvist’s and my article “Staff Rides in Professional Military Education: Fusing History, the Modern Battlefield, and the Battlefield of the Future”.
The workshop was organised through the Swedish Defence University’s Officers’ Programme development project and the SEDU Centre for Land Warfare’s Landpower Conference initiative.
