Labour’s new Strategic Defence Review was finally announced this week after numerous leaks. Keir Starmer was keen to present it as new thinking in facing up to new threats, but the message was hardly radical.
Britain must be ready for war and rebuild its armed forces accordingly, the prime minister said, echoing Tory prime ministers and ministers before him. The review was not only rehashed and uninspired, it also completely overlooked by far the biggest threat to UK security.
Until a few months ago, the aim was for the UK to be a truly global military power, with two hugely expensive aircraft carriers able to deploy anywhere in the world, especially the Indo-Pacific where China was the coming threat. Elements of that plan remain in the review, but it makes clear that the primary challenge is now Russia, with subsidiary threats from the likes of Iran and North Korea. China, meanwhile, lurks somewhere in the background, and non-state actors get minimal attention in the paper.
