Chief of the Defence Staff Warns of a ‘Third Nuclear Age’ in RUSI Annual Lecture
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin KCB ADC delivered RUSI’s Annual Chief of the Defence Staff Lecture, addressing the challenges facing the Armed Forces, as well as broader considerations for the UK’s security.
In his address, Admiral Radakin framed one of the key global threats facing the West as the growing alignment and “coordination between Moscow, Tehran and Pyongyang.” Discussing also what he described as the “dawn of a third nuclear age”, Admiral Radakin said:
Global power is shifting, and a third nuclear age is upon us. The era of state competition primarily through geo-economics has shifted to a resurgence of geo-politics. And it will last decades… [the third nuclear age] is defined by multiple and concurrent dilemmas, proliferating nuclear and disruptive technologies, and the almost total absence of the security architectures that went before.
Addressing the question of UK defence reform, Admiral Radakin continued:
We are still too slow. We are still too cautious. Too risk adverse. There is still too much hierarchy and process. Too much duplication and not enough prioritisation... we haven’t gone nearly fast enough to get after those things that I outlined back in December 2021… [we must] overcome the organisational inertia and bias to the status quo that pervades much of our system.
Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin KCB ADC
The lecture and subsequent Q and A session were moderated by RUSI’s Director of Military Sciences, Matthew Savill.
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