{"id":11887,"date":"2024-12-14T16:18:38","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T16:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davelevy.info\/wiki\/?p=11887"},"modified":"2025-06-17T19:23:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T19:23:25","slug":"sdr-2024-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davelevy.info\/wiki\/sdr-2024-25\/","title":{"rendered":"SDR 2024\/25"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is to be another Strategic Defence Review, its being going for a while just showing that all new governments need one; and I am of the view that it is clear that the Tories left the Armed Forces in a very poor position. This was first made in Dec 14, and I made a series of major revisions on publication of the review. Here as ever are my links and notes …<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It’s out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  1. The Strategic Defence Review 2025 – Making Britain Safer: secure at home, strong abroad<\/a>, at the HMG site. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. \u2018Organised irresponsibility\u2019: How Britain\u2019s defence strategy clings to a bygone world<\/a> by Mary Kaldor & Luke Cooper; this I find excellent. My reaction is that, “Once again, the military are preparing for the last war, and not the next. The weapons are wrong, the alliances are wrong, there\u2019s insufficient investment in the state & people\u2019s resilience, be it cyber-security or social security,”.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. The Strategic Defence Review: Implications and implementation <\/a>, by the Council on Geostrategy, they say, “In Episode 7, Viktorija Starych-Samuolien\u0117<\/strong>, our Co-founder (Strategy), and Paul Mason<\/strong>, journalist, author and our Associate Fellow, are joined by Kevin Craven<\/strong>, CEO, ADS Group, and Air Marshal (rtd.) Edward Stringer CB CBE<\/strong>, Director, iJ7, and Senior Fellow, Policy Exchange. Viktorija, Paul, Kevin and Edward explore the Strategic Defence Review and its implications for industry, military personnel and Britain\u2019s international partners.” NB the panelist disagree with my analysis, although Stringer, the only veteran, asks a number of questions, on innovation, which is a synonym for cheap, that the paper while Nato first, is not NATO only and they argue for “People, Ideas and Materiale” and in that order. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Further notes from the Council on Geostrategy video, there are five domains, the classic three, plus space and Cyber. Is industrial capability a 6th domain? (I mean, yes, but has the UK forgotten this?) How does the UK military get into space? While there is a need for “stuff in the locker”, we also need people to be resting; can this be provided by the Reserves? What damage do the fiscal rules cause to the military, it seems they certainly retire material before others do. They discussed building for export and the need for “exquisite” weapons, and Stringer raised the question of escalation theory in the light of the decision to buy air-launched tactical nuclear weapons; it seems the British military don’t know how to use them. The big unanswered question for me, is does this not tie us even closer to the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The making of …<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The SDR has issued a “call for evidence”<\/a>; which has a link to the Terms of Reference<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mary Kaldor critiques the Terms of Reference <\/a>in the Chartist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    A starting point is that we live in a world in which we face existential threats to humanity, including, but not only, a major war. National security used to mean the defence of British people and British territory from attacks by a foreign state. Nowadays, the only way to guarantee the security of British people and British territory is through a more secure world. This is why a contemporary version of national security needs to be based on human security, which is about the security of individual human beings and the communities in which they live anywhere in the planet, from both physical threats (violence) and material threats (famine, climate change, pandemics etc.), not to mention virtual threats emanating from cyber attacks and misinformation. Human security is linked to the idea of a law based world, especially international humanitarian law and human rights law, what Ruti Teitel calls \u2018humanity\u2019s law\u2019. And human security entails a collective approach where the UK contributes to global efforts to address existential threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mary Kaldor – The Chartist<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    Articles on this wiki, tagged ‘defence’<\/a>. See also UK Defence Review 2020<\/a> and Defending the UK<\/a> both on this wiki and articles on on my blog tagged ‘defence’<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. Strategy, mostly Paul Mason, \n