Although it is commonplace to describe today’s security environment as ‘complex’, there are still pockets of coherence around which policy-makers can anchor their strategy. Jamie Gaskarth argues that attempts to mirror the supposedly disorderly global security world with a disorderly strategy have led only to confusion, inefficiency and declining public support. Instead, the government needs to grapple with British identity and link this to a coherent narrative about how and why it wants to act in the future.