Articles by Defence Dateline Group

By Tom Wein Militaries and governments are not the only players in defence and procurement; they exist in a complex reciprocal relationship with the corporations that manufacture their equipment. Governments attempt to support their domestic arms industry as a strategic national asset (especially when the factories are in important constituencies). Yet industry, as often as not, looks globally...Full Article »

By Laurence Conneely Events surrounding the crisis in Syria are rapidly unfolding and changing amid an escalation of the violence that has swept the country since March 2011. A second United Nations Security Council resolution has fallen by the wayside following a defiant Russia-China veto; the United States has closed its embassy in Damascus, and following suit we have seen the exodus of a...Full Article »

By Robert Knapp As the 30 th anniversary of the Falklands War arrives over the horizon like a rather fearsome storm cloud, the media hysteria in both countries is slowly building to a fever pitch. The British media, going through a periodic bout of jingoism, is awash with scaremongering over the state of the island’s defences; while the Argentine media is dominated by heated debate about...Full Article »

For the past decade, Britain’s geopolitical strategy has been founded on remaining in close alliance with the United States, with a particular emphasis on keeping them involved in Europe. This strategy has now failed. The basic planks of British geopolitical strategy are determined by geography. At its simplest form, it is a choice between the US and Europe. History has made Britain wary...Full Article »

As President Barack Obama announced to the world on January 5 th , the Pentagon’s new, Pacific-focused strategic guidance for the coming decade will require a fundamental revaluation of the budget and structure of the current two-ocean U.S. Navy. As aircraft carriers are the benchmark by which naval power of all blue water navies has been judged since the end of World War II, one difficult...Full Article »

A ground-breaking resolution agreed upon by the European Parliament in the closing sessions of 2011 have raised an interesting prospect - that European Union funds could be used to plug capability gaps for the continent’s militaries. Though a long way from formal endorsement, the ideas outlined in this resolution could indicate a radical new direction for the EU, which has up till now...Full Article »

As most of Europe marked the beginning of 2012 with the usual fireworks and pageantry, in Madrid, a far less welcome New Year’s surprise was being prepared. Under the recently elected leadership of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s government rang in the new year with a €14.9 billion package of tax increases and spending cuts. Yet while in recent months, observers have...Full Article »

A note from Defence Dateline Lead Columnist, Jonathan Dowdall When Defence Dateline was formed 12 months ago, we all had a fairly clear idea of what kind of topics and themes the coming year would throw up. The controversies  surrounding the implementation of the UK’s SDSR, the head for the exit in Afghanistan and the drastically shrinking European defence budgets  enforced by...Full Article »

The final part of Defence Dateline Group's three-part review of 2011 sees Jonathan Dowdall explore the development and changing nature of Europe’s defence industry. Reporting from deep inside the ‘Brussels Bubble’, it is easy to forget how alien the workings of NATO HQ and the European Union can seem to the outside observer. At best, that generic place the UK press...Full Article »

For the second instalment of Defence Dateline Group's three-part review of 2011,  Robert Knapp   explores the events that took place this year and how they altered the naval power status quo .  2011 has been a year of contrasting fortunes for the world’s navies. There has been the increasingly damaging nature of shrinking defence budgets for European...Full Article »

In this, the first of Defence Dateline Group's three-part review of 2011, Tom Wein  discusses the role of the British military.  The turbulence of 2011 has not left the British military untouched. Here, Defence Dateline reviews an eventful year for the three services and their political masters. Of Iraqi sands and exit plans On 22 nd May, the final handful of British...Full Article »