Britain’s
Defence Policy in the 21st century (Politics/International
Relations)
In 1998 the UK government finally published a long-awaited
Strategic Defence Review. This report was the first comprehensive
re-appraisal of UK defence policy since the Nott Review of
1981.
There were two strategic dynamics that compelled the UK government
to draft the Strategic Defence Review; namely the consolidation
of post-Cold War global strategic features and the challenge
posed to the UK by the development of a common European defence
policy.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991 and the official
end of the Cold War created a global strategic vacuum. The
certainties of the Cold War period disappeared overnight and
this inevitably prompted many analysts and policy makers to
question the defence and security policies of the major Western
powers.
However no comprehensive strategic review of resources and
approach to conflicts and crises was undertaken by the U.S.A.
or the UK, as both countries felt that the fluidity of the
immediate post Cold-War world counselled against such measures.
By the late 1990’s it had become increasingly apparent
to UK defence and security planners that the first post-Cold
War decade had acquired certain definitive features. First
and foremost it was a world that was increasingly dominated
by the overwhelming economic and military supremacy of the
United States. Secondly the post-Cold War world presented
a set of isolated and atomised threats. In other words the
range of threats confronting the west was no longer reducible
to one single source (i.e. the Soviet Union and its satellite
states) as was the case during the Cold War.
The demise of the Soviet Union prompted many west European
powers, in particular France and Germany, to distance themselves
from U.S. military patronage. Indeed the continental EU powers
felt that Europe needed a common defence framework outside
NATO. The UK did not share these views, as Britain’s
defence policy has been closely intertwined with that of the
U.S. for more than 50 years.
However the UK was eventually forced to make concessions to
France and Germany as the pressures became increasingly relentless
in the late 1990’s. The Strategic Defence Review can
be seen in the context of these developments.
The Strategic Defence Review directly led to the historic
concessions made by the Blair government in the St. Malo summit
of December 1998. In that Summit the UK, for the first time,
officially recognised the utility of a common European defence
initiative.
The United Kingdom is a major participant in the European
Security & Defence Policy—a defence/security mechanism
that constitutes a significant European defence project. The
UK denies that the ESDP is designed to rival NATO, but the
major continental powers (in particular the French) disagree.
It is clear that the ESDP poses significant challenges to
the future course of Britain’s defence policy. It has
the potential to undermine Britain’s historic defence
and security ties with the U.S. and this could have major
repercussion not only for UK defence policy but for the very
identity of the British state itself.
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