Breaking the mould: the United Kingdom Strategic Defence Review 2010 |
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| Authors: | PAUL CORNISH ANDREW M DORMAN |
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| Institution: | 1. Holds the Carrington Chair in International Security and is Head of the International Security Programme at Chatham House.;2. The analysis, opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Joint Services Command and Staff College, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence or any other government agency.;3. Associate Fellow at Chatham House and a Senior Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department, King's College London based at the United Kingdom's Joint Services Command and Staff College. |
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| Abstract: | With a strategic defence review expected to begin in 2010, this article reflects upon the history of the review in British defence policy and planning. The authors argue that for decades successive defence reviews have followed a process in which policy development moves through four phases: failure, inertia, formulation and misimplementation. This has resulted in a cycle of defence reviews that have proved to be incomplete and unsustainable: a cycle in which each review leaves so much unfinished business that another radical reappraisal of defence policy is soon thought necessary, and a cycle from which a succession of governments have so far proved unable or unwilling to escape. The article suggests that the strategic defence (and security) review promised for the next parliament is in danger of continuing this pattern of policy deficiency. The authors contest that this need not be the case. With a close understanding of the pattern of past reviews it should be possible for the 2010 review finally to break the mould and produce a coherent and above all sustainable defence policy and strategy. |
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