"Opting to Change? British Defence Policy and the End of the Cold War, 1986-1991"--Huw Bennett

Thursday, 29 January, 5:15pm (Humanities Research Hub, 1 University Gardens, Room 102)
Professor Huw Bennett (Cardiff), “Opting to Change?British Defence Policy and the End of the Cold War, 1986-1991”

Joint Event with the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar

"Options for Change" was British defence policy's response to the end of the Cold War, a review conducted earlier than those of most allies, in 1990-91. Like other defence reviews, Options has been portrayed as a tragic tale of brutal cuts imposed on the armed forces by the ruthless Treasury. Using newly available archival sources, this paper presents a more multi-dimensional interpretation of a review that would shape Britain's military throughout the 1990s and into the twenty-first century. The paper makes an anti-declinist argument, challenging the myth of Treasury power and Defence victimhood. Retrenchment in defence spending was a logical response to the tremendous changes sweeping eastern Europe in the early 1990s. Defence planning was based on intelligence assessments about the likely future threat from Russia and elsewhere. The government aimed to reduce spending at a time when key allies were planning to do the same; Britain sought to spend a fair share within NATO. The government also wished to retain the ability to influence allies by maintaining powerful armed forces. The Ministry of Defence deftly negotiated limited cuts to the armed forces and protected its bottom line, of sustaining balanced forces able to fight wars at the operational level. With support from the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence successfully deployed numerous negotiating tactics to resist the Treasury's intention to impose much deeper cuts. This paper evaluates the interplay between economic pressures, perceptions of enemies and allies in the international system, and service politics in determining the outcome of the Options for Change defence review.

Huw Bennett is Professor of International Relations at Cardiff University, where he teaches strategy and intelligence. He previously taught at Aberystwyth University and for King's College London at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. His research focuses on British defence and strategy since 1945. He is the author of Fighting the Mau Mau: The British Army and Counter-Insurgency in Kenya (2013) and Uncivil War: The British Army and the Troubles, 1966-75 (2023), both published by Cambridge University Press.