Thomas Wagstaff

Thomas Wagstaff is an Academic Adviser at the Near East South Asia (NESA) Center for Strategic Studies. Prior to this, he had a full career, serving 34 years as a commissioned officer in the British Military. He commissioned from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as an Infantry Officer into The Prince of Wales’s Regiment of Yorkshire in 1986. During his military career, he was deployed on operations to Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq, Abkhazia/Georgia, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, and other assignments to Germany, Canada, Oman, Cyprus, Poland, and Saudi Arabia. He has served on operations with his Battalion at most command appointments: infantry Platoon Commander, anti-tank Platoon Commander, Adjutant, Company Commander, and Battle Group Chief of Staff/Deputy Commanding Officer. His Battalion’s roles included light, mechanised, armoured infantry and air mobility. The Battalion has always operated in an extensive and complex environment, from combined arms brigade to division or at UK Joint and coalition/multi-national (mainly NATO but also UN).

Highlights of command include, as a young captain, leading Battlegroup Alternative HQ during the First Gulf War. Additionally, leading his company in Northern Ireland within a multi-agency network in support of the Royal Ulster Constabulary anti-terrorism and counterinsurgency. Finally, at UK Joint operations, he commanded an all-arms company group within a UK Joint Task Force, which deployed to Sierra Leone in support of government forces to stabilise the Country. At the multi-national level, he was the Battle Group Chief of Staff/Deputy Commander on deployment as part of the NATO-led International Stabilisation Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Staff and individual appointments have mainly focused on G3/J3. He was the G3 Operations & Training at HQ 20th Armoured Brigade, Germany. The Brigade deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina as the Multi-National Divisional HQ, part of the NATO-led International Stabilisation Force. Further G3 appointments included G3/J3 Operations with UK’s HQ Joint Force Logistic Component on two deployments: in 2001 to Oman in support of the US/UK task forces in Afghanistan and then in 2003 deploying to Iraq in support of the UK’s Joint Forces within the Coalition during Gulf War 2. Two deployments to Afghanistan included an assignment to the UK-led Multi-National Headquarters Regional Centre (South) based at Kandahar as the lead mentor in a joint Afghan/Coalition Operations Coordination Centre. On the second deployment, he was responsible as the Commanding Officer Mentor for delivering the inaugural commissioning course at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy, a UK-led project modeled on the Sandhurst officer training. Other staff appointments have been in Germany, as Chief of Staff, Germany Support Group and G2/G3/G6 at HQ British Forces Germany. These assignments both focused on coordinating sustainment and life support in Germany for over 12,000 UK servicemen, MOD civil servants, and their families.

Thomas Wagstaff’s final military assignment was in 2015 to Saudi Arabia as a UK Military Advisor embedded with the Saudi Arabia National Guard in Riyadh. During this time, he was fortunate to perform two appointments. Initially, he was assigned to a frontline unit, the 2nd Special Security Brigade, advising the Brigade Commander and his staff on G1-G8. In his second appointment, he was Chief of Staff/Deputy Commander British Military Mission, embedded at the Ministry of National Guard (MNG). His main role was to advise senior MNG leaders, mainly in the G7 Education and Training department. He was also invited to attend the MNG Transformation (TMO) technical committee as an advisor to the MNG TMO programme.

Thomas Wagstaff attended and qualified from the United Kingdom Defence Academy, Joint Services Command and Staff College with psc(j) and graduated with a Master of Arts in Defence Studies (King’s College London). He also holds a diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership (Chartered Management Institute).