Strategy as a Balancing Act: The UK's Dilemma
Jun 2008, Vol. 153, No. 3
By Hew Strachan
Current circumstances are compelling the UK’s armed services to abandon the notion of balanced capabilities – balance between each other, balance within each of them and balance in terms of the sorts of wars which they are able to fight. What was for long implicit has become explicit: reality has hit abstraction. If the UK continues to unbalance its forces to better fight today’s wars, it risks losing the wars of the future. But if it does not do so, it will probably lose today’s. Which is the greater priority?
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By Hew Strachan
Current circumstances are compelling the UK’s armed services to abandon the notion of balanced capabilities – balance between each other, balance within each of them and balance in terms of the sorts of wars which they are able to fight. What was for long implicit has become explicit: reality has hit abstraction. If the UK continues to unbalance its forces to better fight today’s wars, it risks losing the wars of the future. But if it does not do so, it will probably lose today’s. Which is the greater priority?
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