First published in 1977, British Defence Policy in a Changing World provides an analysis of the changes which have taken place in Britain’s security policies since the Second World War. Domestic political, economic, and social factors are discussed as well as the range of international circumstances which have influenced policy. The approach is essentially a thematic one, isolating several key issues and examining them in detail. The authors use their skills to study a comprehensive range of affairs relating to Britain’s security policy since 1945. The book may be divided into four main sections. The first looks at the relationship between foreign policy and defence policy in general and more specifically at the three circles of British policy: East of Suez, the ‘special relationship’, and Europe. The second section looks at the place of nuclear weapons in defence policy. The third section is concerned with defence economics, national priorities, and the recurring dilemmas of decision-making, while the final section concentrates on issues of civil military relations and discuss public attitudes towards defence in terms of their political implications. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of international politics, British politics, defence and strategic studies.

This book explores the process by which defence policy is made in contemporary Britain and the institutions, actors and conflicting interests which interact in its inception and continuous reformulation. Rather than dealing with the substance of defence policy, this study focuses upon the institutional actors involved in this process. This is a subject which has commanded far more interest from public, Parliament, government and the armed forces since the protracted, bloody and ultimately unsuccessful British military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The work begins with a discussion of two contextual factors shaping policy. The first relates to the impact of Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with the United States over defence and intelligence matters, while the second considers the impact of Britain’s relatively disappointing economic performance upon the funding of British defence since 1945. It then goes on to explore the role and impact of all the key policy actors, from the Prime Minister, Cabinet and core executive, to the Ministry of Defence and its relations with the broader ‘Whitehall village’, and the Foreign Office and Treasury in particular. The work concludes by examining the increasing influence of external policy actors and forces, such as Parliament, the courts, political parties, pressure groups and public opinion. This book will be of much interest to students of British defence policy, security studies, and contemporary military history.

Foreign policy has dominated successive governments' time in office and cast a consistently long shadow over British politics in the period since 1945. Robert Self provides a readable and incisive assessment of the key issues and events from the retreat from empire through the cold war period to Humanitarian Intervention and the debacle in Iraq.

The Defence White Paper (Cm 6041-I,II, ISBN 0101604122) published in December 2003 discussed the implications of international security issues (such as the threat of international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction) for strategic defence priorities, and detailed a revised set of 18 military tasks to underpin future policy planning for the UKs armed forces. Following on from this document, this White Paper sets out the Governments five-year plan for force structure and organisational changes to deliver the revised capability requirements, with an emphasis on using technology to secure maximum military effect from the forces available. This is in order to continue the process of modernisation to provide flexible and adaptable armed forces and to achieve efficiency savings of £2.8 billion by 2007-08, as identified in the Governments 2004 Spending Review. Measures include phased reductions of 1,500 in navy and 7,500 in air force manpower, with an expected army manpower level of 102,000 by 2008; with investment in several major technology systems to support the Network Enabled Capability (NEC) programme.

This book provides a long-term perspective on the opinions of the British public on foreign and defence policy in the post-war era. Thematically wide-ranging, it looks at the broader role of foreign and defence policy in British politics and elections, public opinion towards Britain’s key international relationships and alliances (the United States, NATO, the EU and the Commonwealth), and public opinion towards the projection of ‘soft power’ (overseas aid) and ‘hard power’ (defence spending, nuclear weapons and military intervention). Assessing the main areas of change and continuity in the public’s views, it also pays close attention to the dividing lines in wider society over foreign and defence policy. Analysing an extensive range of surveys and opinion polls, the book situates the analysis in the wider context of Britain’s changing foreign policy role and priorities in the post-war era, as well as linking public opinion with the politics of British external policy – the post-war consensus on Britain’s overseas role, historical and contemporary areas of inter-party debate, and enduring intra-party divides. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of British politics, European politics, foreign policy analysis, public opinion, defence and security studies and more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.

The author examines the extent to which the United Kingdom (UK) has transitioned to effects-based operations to ascertain: (1) Areas where the U.S. Army could draw lessons from UK policies; (2) Areas where the U.S. Army and the British Ministry of Defence could develop integrated or complementary approaches and doctrines towards transformation for future alliance/coalition operations; and (3) Implications for the U.S. Army for working with the UK. This monograph is subdivided into four parts. Section 1 is a review of the evolution of British defence policy since the end of the Cold War and evaluates the degree to which it has adopted an effects based approach. Section 2 examines the British operational experience since the end of the Cold War including an analysis of the lessons learned and its experiences of working with allies. Section 3 analyses the UK's capability development through its doctrine and acquisition strategies. Section 4 evaluates the implications of these findings for the U.S. Army and makes 17 main recommendations.

This volume records the transition from planning against any post-war resurgence of German and Japanese militarism to preparations against a possible threat from the Soviet Union. It charts Foreign Office resistance to consideration of even the possibility of Soviet hostility after the war.

The United Kingdom's recent Strategic Defence Review (SDR) builds on a process of military transformation underway since the end of the Cold War. In contrast to earlier reforms, the SDR is firmly rooted in foreign policy and a clear intellectual framework for assessing the future size and shape of U.K. armed forces.