UK Integrated Review Refresh

Contributing to the debate on the 2021 Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Foreign Policy and Development (IR), and its successor the March 2023 Integrated Review Refresh




William Barton / Alamy Stock Photo


Following the December 2019 election, the Government embarked on: “the most radical assessment of the UK’s place in the world since the end of the Cold War”. The result was the Integrated Review, which was announced under the title 'Global Britain in a Competitive Age' on 16 March 2021.

This set out how the Government would fulfil its post-Brexit ambitions. The Integrated Review Refresh (IRR), which followed two years later on 13 March 2023, was subtitled ‘Responding to a More Contested and Volatile World’.

RUSI has been contributing to this debate from the beginning of this process. Much of this work analyses in depth the underlying strategic rationales, tensions and trade-offs which characterised both reviews. A particular focus has been on how UK defence priorities and budgets have shifted as a result of the two reviews.

William Barton / Alamy Stock Photo


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