Defence Review 2020

In an earlier piece I expressed the hope that, in any future defence review, the Government would link defence posture with the declared aims of our foreign policy.  It is encouraging that the PM has signalled that he wants an in-depth examination of Britain’s place in the world to feed into a new era of foreign policy.  Good news.  It should follow that the derived defence policy should be based not on what we propose to spend, for example 2% of GDP, but what we actually need to carry out the likely range of missions and postures.  There should be no room for considerations such as jobs on Clydeside and the military chiefs must make their recommendations to the Treasury based upon hard-nosed assessments of the threat.  Of course Parliament must have the final say over expenditure and be accountable to the people accordingly but they should, otherwise, refrain from setting the agenda of the debate on military matters on which their potential competence is now, regrettably, very limited.  As Churchill famously remarked to Roosevelt, “give us the tools and we will finish the job.”