Defence in an uncertain world: a reader
The global situation has sent me back to defence policy repeatedly in recent months, so here is a quick round-up for anyone who is interested
[Feel free to scroll straight to the links at the end. But also feel free to read what I’ve written about how I came to be so interested in defence issues. It’s up to you.]
From my earliest remembered times, I have been fascinated by soldiers and fighting. In a lot of people this inspires a career in the armed forces, ruggedness, tough discipline, action and adventure. Not so in me (pretty obviously). The late Sir John Keegan, one of the best British military historians of the post-war period, was fired by a similar passion, but, having suffered orthopaedic tuberculosis as a child, was unfit for military service and sublimated his obsession into learning and writing about soldiering. He explained:
I am a military historian and I’ve never been to war, and there must be some explanations then. I've never been in the army; I’ve never worn a uniform. I’ve never been in the navy or the air force, so I have to have a reason. I have a very good reason, which is that the medical officer, the army recruiting centre took one look at me and signed me off. I mean, I’m completely unfit for military service… for years, I taught at Sandhurst, which is Britain’s West Point, which has the most wonderful library… most of what I know in life, I learned in the Sandhurst library.
I am merely unfit. And I am not a epochally gifted military historian. But I know what he means. My childhood, in a way which perhaps would not have been unusual 10, 15, 20 years before but by the 1980s was somewhat peculiar, was in part spent devouring books about soldiers and war and fighting and uniforms, and, driving it all, an appetite for almost any war film.
It has already been done many times, at brows high and low, by Al Murray, AKA Pub Landlord, and by David Thomson, but I would at some point like to pen some thoughtful little monograph on war films. (Who am I kidding? Little? I am no more capable of that kind of concision than I am of flying to the moon.) It’s a vast genre, of course, almost so big as to be meaningless: how can you compare The Battle of Algiers with The 300 with Sink the Bismarck!, all films with huge positive qualities, and hope to reach any coherent conclusions?
But I was a young connoisseur, and before I hit double digits, I suspect, I knew most of the script of A Bridge Too Far, and therefore an inordinate amount not only about Operation Market Garden but about Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick “Boy” Browning, the father of British airborne forces, who was married to Daphne du Maurier; about Johnny Frost and Roy Urquhart, the daughter of the second of whom I would come to know a little when she was Lady Campbell, wife of Sir Menzies, leader of the UK delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly of which I was secretary 2013-15 (I loved Elspeth, she was brilliant fun, fierce, chain-smoking and possessor of an Open University degree for which she had written a dissertation on gender roles in Coronation Street); about Walter Model, one of Germany’s most gifted military commanders but a hard man, loyal to Hitler, middle-class in a world of Prussian aristocrats, rushing from place to place late in the war as the Führer’s Feuerwehrmann or “fireman” and shooting himself dead nine days before his commander-in-chief took his own life.
All of this led me to be absolutely delighted when, towards the end of my first year as a clerk in the House of Commons, I was summoned from my berth on the Health Committee, where I was sidekick to the brilliant, mercurial, eccentric Dr David Harrison—not a physician but an historian, the foremost authority of England’s mediaeval bridges—to see Helen Irwin. Helen was then clerk of committees and in charge of what was then called “circulation”, the allocation of clerks to positions every autumn for those who were due to change jobs. She told me gravely that, after a year at Health (I might have expected to stay for one more year), I was being moved to be second clerk of the Defence Committee. It was, Helen noted, quite a big job, a senior committee dealing with weighty and vaguely secret-squirrel matters—this was 2006, so we were still waist-deep in Afghanistan and Iraq—and it would challenge me, but she thought, or hoped, I had the “stature” to pull it off. (I wondered precisely what she meant: I’m a little over six-foot-two, and Richard Cooke, whom I was replacing, is taller still. But then I quite often wondered precisely what Helen meant.)
In any event, I was delighted. It was, in the confines of junior clerks, pretty much my dream job, and I trooped over to introduce myself properly to the committee clerk, Philippa Helme, with whom, on the whole, I would get on pretty well, although we had very different… approaches. But it was the beginning of two years of childhood wish fulfilment, spending my professional life pondering military matters, talking to defence experts, soldiers, Ministry of Defence civil servants and ministers.
In the course of my time there, I would visit Iraq (twice), Washington DC and Ottawa, Cyprus (Akrotiri and Dhekelia, the UK Sovereign Base Areas, as well as Nicosia and UNFICYP), Paris (St Valentine’s Day with Sir Robert Key, the Member for Salisbury), the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (dstl, thus stylised) at Porton Down in Wiltshire, the Defence Academy at Shrivenham and military units and defence-related factories around the country. I met some extraordinary people, from a Royal Scots Dragoon Guards officer in a tent in the Iraqi desert with whom I’d been at university (“Oh, hello!”) and a regimental goat mascot called Lance Corporal Billy Windsor (he had only recently regained the rank after temporary demotion for “lack of decorum”) to General David Petraeus, then commander of Multi-National Force—Iraq and still one of the all-round most impressive people I’ve ever encountered, and our man in Baghdad, Dominic Asquith, who apologised that he had to go to bed but assured me the drinks cabinet was open and there was some “quite nice” brandy in it. There was.
After the Defence Committee I kept in touch with the broad policy sphere in a number of ways. I clerked the Home Affairs Committee’s sub-committee on counter-terrorism, chaired by Conservative MP and former colonel Patrick Mercer, in 2008/09; we produced a report on the government’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, and its 2009 “refresh”. I did some work on setting up the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, which, from unpromising beginnings, has emerged as a useful part of Parliament’s scrutiny framework in terms of defence and security policy. Between 2010 and 2013 I worked on the temporary UK/French team which supported the annual sessions of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, before I became secretary of the UK delegation in 2013-15, which coincided with the British presidency of the assembly under Labour’s Sir Hugh Bayley. And while I was clerk of the Scottish Affairs Committee in 2012-13, as we approached the referendum on independence in 2014, we published several reports on the defence aspects of a separate Scottish state including the future of the UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent, shipbuilding on the Clyde, the defence industry in Scotland and a future Scottish defence force. My last post in the Commons was looking after the unlovely, awkward Blairite beast which is the Committees on Arms Export Controls.
This is not meant as a curriculum vitae so much as an explanation, analogous to Tom Lehrer’s quip about those who had “met mathematicians and wondered how they got that way”. I’m trying to explain why I have an abiding interest in defence, in case it sometimes seems random or unprompted, and I suppose, too, I want to say mildly that I’m not a neophyte in this, my eye suddenly caught by dramatic headlines or media opportunities. I may not always be right (spolier alert: I’m always right) but I have put some thought into these issues and I try to add the weight of history and context where I can.
So, here is a round-up of pieces I’ve written on broadly defence-related issues, grouped as much as possible thematically. I assume, obviously, that those of you who have made it this far have signed up to my blog, The Ideas Lab, follow the aggregator which collects my paid work and have listened to the podcast interviews I’ve done for the consultancy I co-founded, Pivot Point Group. Have a browse if this is your thing, and I hope you enjoy it.
Defence procurement
Lawyers, guns and money: how to future-proof the defence industry (City AM)
Britain’s defence procurement strategy wastes millions of pounds and puts lives at risk (City AM)
Tirpitz syndrome: is defence procurement broken? (The Ideas Lab)
More EU bureaucracy will not help Ukraine (CapX)
UK defence policy
What does Prime Minister Boris Johnson mean for UK military? (quoted) (Army Technology)
Singing of arms and the man: Behind the big Boris defence announcement (City AM)
Aye aye, Captain! The new defence chief of staff needs to tackle the China question (City AM)
Joining the dots: coordinating national security for the 21st century state (The Ideas Lab)
Defence of the realm: but at what cost? (The Ideas Lab)
Rewriting the Integrated Review in the new era (The Ideas Lab)
AUKUS: Britain’s foreign policy vibes (The Ideas Lab)
Sometimes communications come by force (The Ideas Lab)
Reintroducing National Service would be a disaster—not least for the armed forces (i News)
Changing the guard: who will replace Wallace? (The Ideas Lab)
Grant Shapps’s fight will be protecting spending for a shrinking British Army (City AM)
Britain’s shrinking army faces an uncertain future (The Spectator)
As global crises grow, Sunak should embrace the National Security Council (City AM)
Grant Shapps keeps the show on the road (The Ideas Lab)
The tip of the American spear? How the United Kingdom could pursue military specialization (War on the Rocks)
Britain can no longer defend itself (The Spectator)
If Britain cannot stand up for the Falklands, what will we stand for? (Daily Express)
Is Whitehall ready for war? (The Spectator)
Germany has no right to lecture Britain on defence (Daily Express)
Why did it take Rishi Sunak so long to up defence spending? (The Spectator)
Parliament and defence policy
Ellwood jumps rather than risk being pushed (The Ideas Lab)
The UK House of Commons Defence Committee: Continuity or Reset? (RUSI Commentary)
War powers: Parliament can’t always be the first to know (The Ideas Lab)
NATO
If Ben Wallace takes the helm of NATO it could be a boost for Global Britain (City AM)
Biden’s NATO rebuff (The Critic)
NATO has just handed Putin another weapon in his fight to prevent Ukraine joining the alliance (i News)
Biden doesn’t have much time to future-proof NATO against Trump (The Hill)
David Cameron’s comeback may be his next step to taking over NATO (Daily Express)
The flaw in the SNP’s plan to ‘build a new Scotland’ (The Spectator)
Scotland in NATO: the SNP glosses over reality (The Ideas Lab)
NATO’s unhappy birthday (The Spectator)
The war in Ukraine
Putin’s war in Ukraine must make us wonder about our military capabilities (City AM)
Ukraine is a real life learning curve of the price of modern war and defence (City AM)
“If Hell exists, it came here to Kherson”—Review: The Eastern Front (CulturAll)
Cluster bombs to Ukraine: who’s right? (The Ideas Lab)
Ukraine: realism, optimism or politics? (The Ideas Lab)
Can the US afford for Ukraine to lose? (The Hill)
Why Denmark is sending all its artillery to Ukraine (The Spectator)
The Middle East
Why the West needs Israel (Times of Israel)
Israel is a force for good in the Middle East: discuss (Times of Israel)
“Afghans cherish customs and abhor rules” (The Ideas Lab)
The fall of Afghanistan: Western governments got bored and Taliban rule has been resurrected (City AM)
As we cosy up to Qatar, the West must face the moral maze of the Middle East (City AM)
Reflections on 20 years in Afghanistan (The Ideas Lab)
Rishi Sunak has emerged looking sincere and even-handed in the Israel-Hamas conflict (i News)
Qatar has stepped in where the West has failed (i News)
The Red Sea could be 2024’s front line (The Ideas Lab)
Strikes on Yemen: initial thoughts (The Ideas Lab)
When will the Left realise the Houthis are not good guys but violent Islamists? (Daily Express)
“The War on Terror”: how America framed an unwinnable conflict (The Ideas Lab)
A sense of mission: Fighting the Houthis and Iran (The Ideas Lab)
Houthi attacks in the Red Sea won’t end until the people of Iran are free (City AM)
Defence and the Labour Party
Keir Starmer’s Labour has no foreign policy plans in a world full of crises (City AM)
Labour will allow its EU obsession to overshadow geopolitical reality (CapX)
Can Starmer be trusted with Trident? (The Spectator)
Defence in the Indo-Pacific region
UK Carrier Strike Group heads east to send a signal (quoted) (Global Defence Technology)
China’s undeclared information war with Taiwan is a warning from Beijing (City AM)
To achieve a strong semiconductor strategy, we need to keep Taiwan safe (City AM)
“China spy” arrest raises concerns that parliament is UK’s soft underbelly (i News)
Is it time to admit China is a “threat”? (The Spectator)
Japan’s growing military power will help the West challenge China’s threat (City AM)
Biden needs to know how far he is willing to go in a tussle with Beijing (City AM)
Japan should assume its role as a major US security partner (The Hill)
Protect Taiwan by integrating it further into the international community (The Hill)
The UK should expect retaliation after rebuking China for cyber-attack (i News)
The Taiwan crisis is coming—the West needs to prepare (CapX)
Nuclear policy
Why I no longer believe in the nuclear deterrent (CapX)
Third World War: will Russia go nuclear? (The Ideas Lab)
Does the US still need its nuclear triad? (The Hill)
Now Brussels wants its own bomb (The Ideas Lab)
Can Britain afford Trident? (The Spectator)
Intelligence, terrorism and counter-terrorism
A study in terror: new degree programme opens in London (CulturAll)
Dishonourable Members? Spies in Parliament (The Ideas Lab)
The spying game: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (The Ideas Lab)
Failing the intelligence test: Israel off guard (The Ideas Lab)
Do you trust Donald Trump? The intelligence agencies don’t have a choice (The Ideas Lab)
Defence miscellany
Old soldiers never die—maybe you should hire them (Worth)
Toy soldiers: politicians in uniform (The Ideas Lab)
Military history
1917: General Allenby enters Jerusalem (Times of Israel)
The Iraq War: the Left’s obsession (The Ideas Lab)
Joined-up fighting: the road to a unified Ministry of Defence, part 1 (The Ideas Lab)
Joined-up fighting: the road to a unified Ministry of Defence, part 2 (The Ideas Lab)
Harry Truman and the atomic bomb (The Ideas Lab)
Podcast interviews
Major General Jez Bennett, director of capability, British Army
Professor Michael Clarke, Distinguished Fellow and former director-general, RUSI