This essay gives a fresh account of a pivotal moment in the events that led to the outbreak of the Iraq War in March 2003, when Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins addressed his troops – the Royal Irish Regiment – paraphrasing off-the-cuff the speech that Shakespeare’s Henry V gives to his men on the eve of the battle of Agincourt. In this essay, Collins reflects on the power of Shakespeare’s language to move not only his audiences in theatres around the world but also soldiers on the battlefield. He explains how important it is for a military leader to be able to inspire his troops into action, especially when the reasons for going to war and the complexities of a conflict like the Iraq War can prove problematic and divisive.

In this essay, retired Major-General Jonathan Shaw, who served as commander of the allied forces in southern Iraq in 2007, gives a vivid account of his role as military adviser during the rehearsals of Nicholas Hytner’s production of Othello at the National Theatre in 2013. Shaw explains why he focused his briefing of the actors on the dynamics of garrisoning, on how ‘command’ operates, and what the stresses and strains for soldiers are in these circumstances. Shaw’s first-hand experience as a military leader stationed in the Middle East during the Iraq War gave the actors fresh insight into how the play’s wartime setting, as much as Othello’s racial diversity, shapes his reaction to Cassio’s disorderly and drunken behaviour and to Iago’s accusation of infidelity against Cassio and Desdemona.