Politics Essays

Politics Essays: Britain's Defence Policy

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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