When the Labour Party won the U.K. general election in July, it took office having promised wholesale change. Its campaign manifesto, a safe and unthreatening document of generalizations and platitudes, had been stripped of as many promises as possible; one result is that the new government’s reflexive response is “that’s under review.”

However, Labour had said since 2021 that the first task at the Ministry of Defence would be a full-scale Strategic Defence Review.

New administrations tend to conduct early defense reviews: The last Labour government under Tony Blair did so in 1997, David Cameron’s coalition government undertook a review in 2010 and repeated the exercise after the 2015 election, when he parted with his allies and governed as a Conservative.

The new defense secretary, John Healey, announced the current Strategic Defence Review within two weeks of taking over. It has broad terms of reference, to “consider all aspects of Defence, involving and receiving inputs from other Government Departments, agencies and industry, in areas where they support UK Defence,” and the review team will deliver its conclusions and recommendations in the first half of 2025.

The U.K. prides itself on being a staunch and reliable ally of the U.S., and a resolute supporter of NATO, so what difference might the outcome of the review make from Washington’s perspective?

There are some areas outside the........

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