A Question of Security: The British Defence Review in an Age of Austerity

Edited by Michael Codner with Michael Clarke
Foreword by Lord Hutton of Furness

January 2011, Paperback, £19.50 (+P&P)

Available online from Amazon and other retailers. 

In an age of austerity and uncertainty, can Britain’s security be assured – and its place in the world be maintained?

The publication of the British government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review in October 2010 provoked widespread and lively public debate. The review was long overdue: the world has changed dramatically since the last review in the 1990s, and its assumptions did not account for the increased and prolonged challenges faced by the armed forces in a post-9/11 world. At the same time, the financial crisis had also rendered the current defence programme unaffordable.

Written by the foremost independent security and defence experts in the field, including Michael Clarke, Hew Strachan and Malcolm Chalmers, this vital new book analyses every important facet of the 2010 review and the fundamental questions and tough choices that are still to be resolved. It examines the impact of the spending cuts; the decisions on the military equipment that should be procured; the industrial implications of defence procurement decisions; the relationships with allies and partners; the intelligence sources; and, not least, the moral and ethical dimensions of modern security policy in a globalised but disordered world.

A Question of Security sets the core agenda for all wishing to understand the defence problems Britain now faces – and also for those in government and parliament who will have to continue to answer these difficult questions in a generational moment for UK defence policy.

Contents 

Foreword
Lord Hutton of Furness

Introduction
Michael Codner

The United Kingdom’s Strategic Moment
Michael Clarke

Multilateral Approaches to British Security
Andrew Rathmell

The Lean Years: Defence Consequences of the Fiscal Crisis
Malcolm Chalmers

Strategic Considerations for the Anglo-American Alliance
Lisa Aronsson

Entente or Oblivion: Franco-British Defence Co-operation
Etienne de Durand

The SDSR and China
Alexander Neill

British Strategy after Afghanistan
Geoffrey Till

A Force for Honour? UK Military Strategic Options
Michael Codner

Jointery and the Defence Review 175
Trevor Taylor

The Special Relationship and the British Army 187
Antulio J Echevarria II

Redefining the Military’s Role in Domestic Security 195
Mark Phillips

The Case for the RAF
Eric Grove

Armed Inducement in Conflict Prevention
Michael Codner

Defence Information Superiority: Still Underplayed
Bill Robins

Failing Intelligence: Reform of the Machinery
Mark Phillips

The Armed Forces and the British People
Hew Strachan

Procurement Reform
David Gould

Defence Industrial Strategy under the Coalition
Keith Hayward

Conclusion
Michael Codner