Britain in a Perilous World ― The Strategic Defence and Security Review We Need

Every five or six years, the British Government publish a Strategic Defense and Security Review – an appraisal of the armed forces to seeks to understand and prepare for the defense challenges that lie ahead. SDSR is perennially controversial – the 2010 hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Major defense projects such as the NIMROD aircraft were abandoned at huge cost while others were controversially continued because they were too expensive to scrap. In advance of the next Strategic Defense and Security Review scheduled for 2015, Major General Jonathan Shaw argues persuasively for the need to rethink the way governments and Whitehall devise strategy and reach decisions. Taking the imprecise use of language as his starting point, Shaw challenges the assumptions that underlie Whitehall practice. Based on extensive personal experience of working in Whitehall and applying strategy in the field, Shaw provides a piercing insight into how the British government really works. In this powerfully argued piece, he suggests how Whitehall can do better and why improving the credibility of our political class depends on getting it right.