Who decides how to use the UK military budget and how can we be sure that the UK’s armed forces can meet the threats of tomorrow? This book provides the answers to these questions. Concentrating on decisions taken below the political level, it uncovers the factors that underpin the translation of strategic direction into military capability.

In war, do mass and materiel matter most? Will states with the largest, best equipped, information-technology-rich militaries invariably win? The prevailing answer today among both scholars and policymakers is yes. But this is to overlook force employment, or the doctrine and tactics by which materiel is actually used. In a landmark reconception of battle and war, this book provides a systematic account of how force employment interacts with materiel to produce real combat outcomes. Stephen Biddle argues that force employment is central to modern war, becoming increasingly important since 1900 as the key to surviving ever more lethal weaponry. Technological change produces opposite effects depending on how forces are employed; to focus only on materiel is thus to risk major error--with serious consequences for both policy and scholarship. In clear, fluent prose, Biddle provides a systematic account of force employment's role and shows how this account holds up under rigorous, multimethod testing. The results challenge a wide variety of standard views, from current expectations for a revolution in military affairs to mainstream scholarship in international relations and orthodox interpretations of modern military history. Military Power will have a resounding impact on both scholarship in the field and on policy debates over the future of warfare, the size of the military, and the makeup of the defense budget.

Published each year since 1959, The Military Balance is an indispensable reference to the capabilities of armed forces across the globe. It is used by academia, the media, armed forces, the private sector and government. It is an open-source assessment of the military forces and equipment inventories of 171 countries, with accompanying defence economics and procurement data. Alongside detailed country data, The Military Balance assesses important defence issues, by region, as well as key global trends, such as in defence technology and equipment modernisation. This analysis is accompanied by full-colour graphics, including maps and illustrations. With extensive explanatory notes and reference information, The Military Balance is as straightforward to use as it is extensive. The 2022 edition is accompanied by a fullcolour wall chart illustrating security dynamics in the Arctic.

This Green Paper looks at the procurement of equipment, support, and technology for UK defence and security and follows on from the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) (ISBN 9780101794824), published on the 19th October 2010. The UK today faces a different and more complex range of threats than last century. The most serious threats include international terrorism, hostile attacks upon UK cyberspace, a major natural hazard or an international military crisis. Therefore the Government needs access to critical technologies and skills to underpin the UK's national security and to achieve these by setting out clear plans covering the following areas: (i) acquiring the equipment needed; (ii) support for the equipment and its users; (iii) investing or acquiring the necessary technologies to secure these objectives both now and in the future. This consultation paper and the responses it receives will form part of a White Paper to be published in 2011.

This strategy document sets out the Government's analysis of the UK's defence industrial capabilities requirement, and is divided into three parts: i) a strategic overview including information on the principles and processes that underpin procurement and industrial decisions, the need for transparency, the evolving defence industry environment, developments and innovation in defence research technology; ii) a review of different industrial sectors and cross-cutting industrial capabilities; and iii) how the strategy will be implemented and an assessment of implications for the Ministry of Defence and industry as a whole.

In 1688, Britain was successfully invaded, its army and navy unable to prevent the overthrow of the government. 1815, Britain was the strongest power in the world with the most succesful navy and the largest empire. Britain had not only played a prominent role in the defeat of Napoleonic France, but had also established itself as a significant power in South Asia and was unsurpassed in her global reach. Her military strength was related to, and based on, one of the best systems of public finance in the world and held a strong trade position. This illustrated text assesses the military aspects of this shift, concentrating on the multi-faceted nature of the British military effort.; Topics covered include: the rise of Britain; an analysis of military infrastructure; warfare in the British Isles; conventional warfare in Europe; trans- oceanic warfare with European powers; the challenge of America; and the challenge of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.

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.

A TLS and a Prospect Book of the Year 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 from 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.

Military Strategy: A Very Short Introduction adapts Clausewitz's framework to highlight the dynamic relationship between the main elements of strategy: purpose, method, and means. Drawing on historical examples, Antulio J. Echevarria discusses the major types of military strategy and how emerging technologies are affecting them. This second edition has been updated to include an expanded chapter on manipulation through cyberwarfare and new further reading.