Green paper asks 'the big questions'

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

The Defence Green Paper will give the country a chance to discuss 'the big questions' about defence in years to come, according to Professor Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute.

Clarke, who has seen an advance copy of the Green Paper, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the paper was asking "what sort of country does the UK want to be in the world? How do we adapt to all the very new challenges?"

While the paper does not talk in financial terms about the future of the UK's armed forces, it does call for greater adaptability, as well as partnering between nations.

"The battle is different these days. Wars are different," said Clarke. "The war of 2003 in Iraq was very different to the war in 1991 and the war in Afghanistan is different again. So it's an attempt to say 'how do we adapt to these things?' and what are we trying to do?

"We want forces which will be much more agile, much more able to transform themselves if necessary. And we want forces that can collaborate with allies because clearly the United Kingdom is not going to be acting alone in almost any scenario we can think of."

"The analysis behind this is not explicitly talking about the money because that is something a future government will have to determine," said Clarke. "But the implicit idea of course is that we to do more with less."

Regarding cooperation, the paper, released later, is understood to recommend greater links with European countries, particularly France.

"The implicit idea behind a lot of this analysis is that of course we need to work with our partners – not just in Europe, but elsewhere - but within Europe, the obvious partner is France," said Clarke. "Although the analysis doesn't mention France very much, the implication is that this is reaching out to the French and to be honest the French are reaching out to us."

The paper is expected to set the tone of the next Strategic Defence Review, due after this year's general election. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has suggested that the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers and Joint Strike Fighter programme will be excluded from the review under a Labour government.

"The two aircraft carriers were committed to anyway," said Clarke. "The money is committed. It would cost more to cancel them now than to have them. When the Prime Minister commits himself to the carriers he's making a commitment which he now can't get out of anyway. It sounds fairly good in electoral terms but actually we've got to spend £3bn on the two ships. What you put on the ships is still up for grabs, whether they'll carry certain sorts of aircraft or helicopters – that's still a big issue."