British Defence In The 21st Century

This book analyses UK defence as a complex, interdependent public-private enterprise covering politics, management, society, and technology, as well as the military. Building upon wide-ranging applied research, with extensive access to ministers, policy makers, senior military commanders, and industrialists, the book characterises British defence as a phenomenon that has endured extensive transformation this century. Looking at the subject afresh as a complex, extended enterprise involving politics, alliances, businesses, skills, economics, military practices, and citizens, the authors profoundly reshape our understanding of ‘defence’ and how it is to be commissioned and delivered in a world dominated by geopolitical risks and uncertainties. The book makes the case that this new understanding of defence must inevitably lead to new policies and processes to ensure its health and vitality. This book will be of much interest to students of defence studies, British politics, and military and strategic studies, as well as policy makers and practitioners.

British defense policy experts discuss the role of defense in British foreign policy and the problem of assessing national priorities.

In the United Kingdom, a central issue of contemporary foreign policy is whether or not to enter into full membership of the European Monetary Union (EMU). Membership has profound implications for the development of the European Union (EU) and the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and potentially upon the much heralded Anglo-American special relationship'. On a practical level, excluding the political implications of membership, joining the EMU means surrendering the pound sterling for the euro and in doing so the British would also surrender control of monetary policy. This thesis will examine the historical links between British defence and monetary policy and argues that there are strong historical bonds that link the two in the political psychology of Britain. This link has created for Britain twin nationalistic icons in the pound and the military. This thesis illustrates that a paradox exists in that membership in the EMU would improve British defence spending and yet nationalistic forces resist membership.

A history of the Joint Intelligence Bureau - an organisation designed to preserve and advance British capability in military intelligence for the Cold War - shedding light on the largely unknown world of military and economic intelligence after 1945, and how this intelligence influenced British policies throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

A revelatory, explosive new analysis of the British military today. Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Britain has changed enormously. During this time, the British Army fought two campaigns, in Iraq and Afghanistan, at considerable financial and human cost. Yet neither war achieved its objectives. This book questions why, and provides challenging but necessary answers. Composed of assiduous documentary research, field reportage, and hundreds of interviews with many soldiers and officers who served, as well as the politicians who directed them, the allies who accompanied them, and the family members who loved and -- on occasion -- lost them, it is a strikingly rich, nuanced portrait of one of our pivotal national institutions in a time of great stress. Award-winning journalist Simon Akam, who spent a year in the army when he was 18, returned a decade later to see how the institution had changed. His book examines the relevance of the armed forces today -- their social, economic, political, and cultural role. This is as much a book about Britain, and about the politics of failure, as it is about the military.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of UK defence exports, as an example of the international trade in defence capabilities. The work explores the subject of defence exports from the UK through various lenses, ranging from ethics, geopolitics, and national resilience to technology transfer, industrial partnering and military cooperation. By unveiling a multi-perspective model of defence exports, the book reveals the arms trade to be possessed of many meanings and understandings. At a moment in world history when the threat of state-on-state conflict has re-emerged, wedded to rapid technological changes in the practice of warfare, it is time to reassess the dynamics of the trade in arms through the experiences of the UK – a case study of defence exports from a mature democracy with a well-established military and defence industrial sector. Building upon extensive applied research across the UK defence environment, the work positions defence exports at the centre of a cat’s cradle of multiple drivers and understandings, from the geopolitical to the commercial. Traditional and refreshed ethical arguments relating to the arms trade in the 21st century are also presented and explored which, together, reshape our knowledge and consideration of the roles of defence exports and the challenges that reside in its practice. With extensive access to ministers, policymakers, industrialists, campaigners and military commanders, the author is well-placed to deliver an appreciation of these multiple perspectives and explanations of defence exports, which are presented in an accessible manner for readers. This book will be of much interest to students of defence and security studies, British politics and International Relations, as well as policymakers.