It is always interesting to compare and contrast the ‘language of defence’ used today and in time past. This is from June 1981 and the then Conservative Secretary of State for Defence, John Nott. With permission, Mr. Speaker, I should…
One of the fundamental difficulties faced by any strategic defence review is trying to understand what the future holds. As we know, the future is a very unpredictable place. At the end of every major deployment, the clarion call of more…
One of the hallmarks of a good officer is the ability to plagiarise with confidence. To that end as we all eagerly honehone our 300 word SDSR 15 submissions I thought it would be worthwhile to look at similar exercises…
As we approach the National Security Strategy review, Strategic Defence and Security Review and Comprehensive Spending Review there will be an avalanche of leaks and speculative articles in the press that are part of the careful ‘ground preparation’ campaigns waged…
The reaction to the news that France has increased their defence budget by €2.3 Billion this year and €3.8 billion by 2019 has been met by what I think are predictable reactions in the UK; France now sets the political…
In the loosely themed SDSR 2015 series of posts I started with a look at the depressing inevitably of leaks, service-centric opinion pieces and general jockeying for position that has characterised every single defence review because the other inevitable result…
The Management of Savagery” is much more than the A-Z of how to establish a caliphate, it is an Islamist justification for the use of violence and in particular of exemplary violence for political (religious) ends. If Afghanistan was about Armed Politics according to Emile Simpson then what we are looking at with “The Management of Savagery” is as much Armed Evangelisation as it is caliphate building according to Abu Bakr Naji.
In a game of chess, there are two priorities; protect your king, to prevent yourself from being defeated, and checkmate the enemy’s king to win the game. In geopolitics, each nation must assess its priorities and ensure it upholds them to avoid defeat.
At the Munich Security Conference last week Angela Merkel was talking Hybrid Warfare. Hybrid warfare is most definitely back in vogue, wise heads point at ongoing events in the Ukraine, nod sagely and say ‘Hybrid warfare, don’t you know”. Hybrid Warfare…
The ongoing struggle in the Ukraine and its resultant debate is merely an indicator of a larger question that Europe seems increasingly unable to answer. Ukraine might seem important to European defence in itself but it is not, it is merely an indicator of…
