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foreign affairs in strategic context
Browsing All Posts filed under »NSS«
Has David Cameron re-nationalised the national interest?
One of my bugbears is what I call the ‘internationalisation of the national interest’. It is the belief that the world has become so globalised and interconnected that every crisis is a threat to our health and well-being and that it is vital we are involved in sorting it out. The result of such a […]
Realism: to be sandwiched between craziness and naivety
June 21, 2011
Late this morning I tweeted sardonically, ‘If I had a pound for every pound I had for each day a government minister said Gaddafi is on his way out…’ The next thing I know, I’m being asked to speak on the BBC World Service about the surprising durability of the regime three months after our […]
Afghanistan, David Cameron and British grand strategy
May 17, 2011
Yesterday, the Daily Telegraph reported that David Cameron has told the military to draw up plans for an early exit from Afghanistan. American commanders are alarmed by this and they are putting pressure on their British counterparts, as it might hasten an early US withdrawal. The story also ties into concerns the United States supposedly […]
A minister departs
May 9, 2011
It was a surprise to read Pauline Neville-Jones, the security minister, quit the government today. She had informed the Prime Minister about her wish to leave months ago, according to her resignation letter, but, in all the chatter about a reshuffle, I don’t think her departure had ever been suggested. This is an opportunity for […]
Failed states and their threat to our country
April 21, 2011
Why does David Cameron support the war in Afghanistan? This is the title of a speech I’m giving soon, in which I examine his stated reasons for backing our involvement and explore possible ones. “Our forces are in Afghanistan to prevent Afghan territory from again being used by al-Qaeda as a base from which to […]
Go for growth! A narrative for British grand strategy
December 17, 2010
If work is getting you down, and you feel frustrated intellectually, then the answer is Hew Strachan. My afternoon yesterday was spent reading his 2009 essay ‘The Strategic Gap in British Defence Policy’, which puts succinctly many of the problems I’ve been struggling with for months. As well as the internationalisation of national security and […]
Mark Sutherland: Reflections on the Reserves
December 8, 2010
As I’m still working on my Afghanistan paper, I haven’t had the time to write as many considered posts as I would like to or the ones I have planned. To keep the love alive between the reader and me, I’ve asked talented and learned friends of mine to guest post on the blog and […]
Making grand strategy
November 11, 2010
How do we make grand strategy? Jason Fritz wrote a piece on this yesterday, asking if good grand strategy needs an enemy. He uses Winston Churchill as inspiration, who argued in his memoirs that a theme throughout British history is focusing our efforts on resisting great existential threats. That has become ‘somewhat useless’ as a […]
The hidden Blairism in David Cameron’s worldview
November 5, 2010
As pundits focused on the defence cuts last month, Iain Martin at the Wall Street Journal pointed out the government had put an end to the Blair Doctrine with its new National Security Strategy. ‘Britain is out of Iraq, heading for the exit in Afghanistan and scaling back its ambitions to more modest levels.’ The […]
Max Boot: My Take
October 23, 2010
Personally, I’m ambivalent about Max Boot. Sometimes, he hits upon an original observation; his writing can also be cliché. It didn’t take me long to figure out his latest piece was the latter. He says the defence cuts announced by the government this week mean Britain is ‘out’ of the power game. The tale of […]
December 16, 2011
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