The Prime Minister’s commitment to spending £188-billion on defence over the coming four years – an UKĭiplomacy is underwritten by the credibility of the UK armed forces and they will be more integrated,Īctive and agile, capable of both deterring threats and defeating enemies. Souls the world over the chance of a better life, and do so through our actions, not just our words. We must actively champion those shared values of liberty, justice and tolerance that have given billions of Let us be clear, the benefits and institutions of multilateralism, to which we became so accustomed, are an extension not anĪlternative for our shared leadership and our hard power. In thisĭefence in a more competitive age, a ‘Global Britain’ has no choice but to step up, ready to take on the challenges and shape the opportunities of the years ahead, alongside our allies and friends. To become so requires Britain’s soft and hard power to be better integrated. Union, better equipped for a more competitive age, as a problem-solving and burden-sharing nation withĪ global perspective. The Prime Minister’s vision for the UK in 2030 sees a stronger, more secure, prosperous and resilient The Integrated Review gave us theįramework to do just that and it is with good reason the next decade will see unprecedented levels of Which equipment, and what resources are required to field them. That is why the process for this Defence Command Paper began with assessing the threats we areĮncountering and anticipating, before considering how we should address them, and only then with As the threatĬhanges we must change with it, remaining clear-eyed about what capabilities we retire, why we are History shows us, time and time again, that failing to do so risks irrelevance and defeat. Traditional ones, but always adapting to the threat. Those of us in governmentĬharged to protect and defend have a duty to enter new domains, as well as continuing investment in the Necessarily redundant, just as new technologies are not always relevant. Proven on the promise of novelty, without regard for what is left behind. It would similarly endanger our people if we simply wielded a sword of cuts, slicing away the battle. It risks the lives of our people, who are Resourcing, leads to even harder consequences down the line. Such sentimentality, when coupled with over-ambition and under. In defence it is always tempting to use the shield of sentimentality to protect previously battle-winningīut now outdated capabilities. That is why we have put at the heart of this Defence Command Paper a mission to seek out and to understand future threats, and to invest in the capabilities to defeat them. Not the fall of the Soviet Union, but other geopolitical changes such as the rise of China, terrorist threat from Al Qaeda and global impact of the internet, which were all some way off but no one was really prepared for what happened when they did. We did not know it then, but the world was set for a massive change. Foreword from the Secretary of State for DefenceĪs a young officer, thirty years ago almost to the day, I was summoned to the drill square to have read aloud key decisions from the government’s defence review, Options for Change. Printed in the UK by the APS Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum. This publication is available at Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at: 0221109268. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. To view this licence, visit the National Archives website. This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0Įxcept where otherwise stated. Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Defence by Command of Her Majesty.
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