Evaluating the intellectual project of critical military studies: the first decade in review

This Special Issue presents a timely critical reflection on the intellectual project of the journal Critical Military Studies at its 10th anniversary of publication during 2025. Within this article we provide an introduction which responds to the original question posed in the first issue of the journal asking ‘What is critical military studies?’, and outline some of its now established critiques. We then consider ‘encounters’ with the military within critical military studies (CMS), a notion introduced in the first issue of the journal, and a key complexity at the centre of some CMS scholarship. This Special Issue then follows with a selection of interdisciplinary scholars, at differing academic career stages, providing unique contributions discussing their work within CMS, established practices within the CMS field, and reflections on the progress and potential future of its namesake journal. This unique and opportune intervention in the history and scholarship of the journal Critical Military Studies is addressed across three key themes: reflecting on ‘criticality’, conceptual thinking, and spaces in-between.