The few must not be allowed to dominate to defence conversation |
January can always be a tough month, but this one has had a few notable points that stand out, and not for the reasons we might hope for.
On the geopolitical stage, NATO’s defensive capabilities in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions may need urgent review, but the chest puffed-out pronouncements on whose hand should be on the tiller for the future of Greenland have been shocking in the delivery and the content.
Meanwhile, the unilateral interventions to remove the sitting president of Venezuela are at best unnerving, no matter how questionable the status or tricky the record of the individual. And the appetite for destruction, injury and death by President Putin in Ukraine shows no sign of relenting, whilst support to Ukraine from its strongest ally appears to be doing exactly that as efforts to find an acceptable path to peace prove elusive.
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These all clarify and strengthen the reasons why the UK and our European allies are reassessing their defence capability in both people and equipment at pace and, honestly, not before time. The last 100 years or so have taught us that in a world characterised by superpowers acting in this way, with unstable regimes pursuing their agendas through proxy actors, strength is respected, and the only effective deterrence is a unified voice and purpose, backed by strong and flexible military capabilities.
With the protection of the UK’s national security the highest priority of government, it’s gut-wrenching to watch the attacks on defence........