Write for us!Nuclear deterrent
The Nuclear Deterrent and Reality in the UK Political Scene
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The United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent sits at the centre of a sharpening political debate. As billions are committed to renewing the Trident programme and deepening NATO nuclear cooperation, fundamental questions are being asked about strategic independence from the United States, about the true cost to Britain’s defence budget, about the burden the deterrent places on Royal Navy strategy, and about what each major party actually believes. This article surveys the landscape: the current programme, its fiscal and naval consequences, and where Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, and the Greens stand. The UK Nuclear Deterrent Today Britain’s deterrent rests on…
Recasting Our Defence Priorities
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Defence is an ever-increasing priority, and hence adequate spending on it is required. Yet debate too often focuses on how much to spend rather than what we want that spending to achieve. As Carl von Clausewitz famously noted in On War – war is the continuation of policy by other means. The political objective is the goal and military force is the means. If we are to justify increased defence spending — money that could otherwise be spent elsewhere — we must first be clear about the political objectives it is intended to serve. I put defence spending into roughly…
Liberal Democrats and Nuclear Weapons
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For decades, Kevin White was the party’s leading peace campaigner. His death last year came as a shock to his friends and party colleagues. In the following article he sets out his view on the party’s defence stance. The LibDems have sadly turned from being a party of peace into one with a bellicose similarity to the Tory and Labour parties when it comes to defence and disarmament. In the time of the old Liberal Party we were committed to working with international institutions, but today we stand against signing the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and…
