How do the protagonists at the heart of the nation's defence network – the policy-makers, industrialists, armed forces and the society from which these groups are drawn – interact and what does this mean for UK defence policy at a time of great uncertainty and crushing fiscal constraint?

This Whitehall Report introduces the Defence, Industries, and Societies Programme and its ongoing research activities, exploring this delicate and complex web of interactions.

By conceptualising a defence industrial ecosystem – an ordered system where hierarchies, functions, relationships and behaviours can be captured, modelled and analysed, this paper explores the drivers and imperatives of the defence industrial purpose and its role within sovereign policy and military force projection.