Flexible response?

More about the book

This report provides a checklist of 11 potential threats and general vulnerabilities which ought to be addressed in the imminent Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). We believe that the Government's "tiered" approach to mapping the threat picture - soon to be set out in the National Security Strategy - is flawed in assuming that the probability of potential threats becoming actual ones can reliably be predicted. Greater emphasis should be laid upon military flexibility: the ability of versatile Armed Forces to cope with what cannot reliably be foretold. Consequently, our checklist does not pretend to prioritise the credible potential threats and vulnerabilities we have listed. We intend to evaluate the SDSR against our checklist to see if it provides an adequate structure for the Armed Forces to cope with and counter each of these threats if it actually emerges between now and the next Defence Review.