GEOPOLITICS OF THE 2015 BRITISH DEFENSE WHITE PAPER AND ITS HISTORICAL PREDECESSORS

Abstract

IntroductionDefense white papers, sometimes called national security strategy documents, are important expressions of countries national security policy goals. They describe the international security environment facing individual countries at given moments in time and how they expect to counter and defeat national enemies if r esort t o military force is requir ed. The U.S. Gover nment and military r egularly issue national security policy documents such as the National Security Strategy of the United States issued by presidential admin- istrations every four to five years, the congressionally mandated Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) issued by t he Department of Defense, and the National Military Strategy of the United States. Such documents are important assessments by governments of the day on their national and international security priorities and the financial measures they are willing to take to meet their national interests. These documents also cover economic, diplomatic, environmental, financial, and geopolitical factors influencing their ability or inability to achieve these objectives.1This work examines recent the defense white paper released by the United Kingdom in November 2015. It will analyze the contents of historic defense white papers produced by the UK, the geopolitical factors influencing historical and contemporary British defense white papers, and the UK's willingness and ability to carry out objectives described in these white papers given historical and current economic and security environments facing London. Such documents receive both praise and criticism from interested observers depending on their political perspectives. Research on these documents can revea l significa nt ins ights on how their gover nments addr essed nat iona l secur ity a nd economic priorities they confr onted. These documents a nd research also demonstrate the degree of security coordination Britain has or does not have with its superpower ally the U.S.2The UK has issued a number of defense white papers since World War II. Annual government parliamentary commissions called Statement on Defence and Statement on the Defense Estimates were issued from 1946-1996.3 The 1957 Sandys Review issued by Minister of Defense Duncan Sandys (1908- 1987) during the Macmillan Government (1957-1963) was the first major post-war British defense white paper. Issued in the aftermath of the Suez debacle, this document stressed nuclear deterrence as the keystone of British defense policy recommending the abolition of compulsory military service, greater allied burden sharing with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) conventional forces, reducing overseas military forces and the number of Royal Air Force (RAF) fighters, and changing the Navy's role to emphasize relying on aircraft carriers to project power in peacetime emergencies and limited hostilities.4The next British defense white papers were issued between 1965-1968 by Harold Wilson's Labour Government (1964-1970) under Minister of Defence Denis Healy (1917-2015). These documents and subsequently implemented policies involved withdrawing British military forces from east of the Suez, reducing the size of the territorial army, cancelling further construction of aircraft carriers and domestic aircraft construction, and r educing military forces deployed in C yprus, Germany, and Malta due to fina ncia l cris es forcing the pound's devaluation.5 A decade later, another Wils on Labour Government under Minister of Defence Roy Mason (1924-2015) issued a defense review (1974-1975) stating that defense spending would be reduced from 5% to 4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over ten years, that British defense spending should be harmonized with the NATO avera ge which included 3.8% of GDP for France and 4.1% for Germany, and that London's defense spending should be focused on the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries.6T he next ma jor Br it is h defense review was initiated during Margar et Thatcher's Conservative government (1979-1990) under the stewardship of Defence Minister John Nott. …