This research project seeks to examine the impact of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on attitudes to war and war preparation in the UK. The investigation starts from the belief that a close study of a single military base will reveal the effects of significant policy changes aimed at reorganising the relationship between military and civilian communities in the country as a whole. We argue that it is particularly important to scrutinise both the impact and the societal implications of these changes at a time when the armed forces have all but disappeared from the headlines.