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Innovation in the Age of Austerity
If this is genuinely going to be a 'once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way that government works,' then the Comprehensive Spending Review will need to leave room for risk and innovation
"...The Defence budget could face cuts in the region of 20%. With this kind of pressure on getting value for money, resources will be spent on things with provable outcomes. I am not suggesting that resources be diverted away from frontline troops, leaving them under-equipped or vulnerable. But what if current strategy - armored vehicles, drones and well-equipped foot patrols - is not the answer in Afghanistan? What if fully committed investment in blue-sky thinking about the war in Afghanistan could pay off in a way that continued spending under a strategy that has seen UK forces fighting there for close to a decade cannot?.."
Party Posturing on Trident
No tactical gains to be made from playing politics with defence
"...A fully costed Strategic Defence and Security Review that looks critically at all significant planned defence spending is crucial to achieving efficient allocation of resources and obtaining the best outcomes for the military..."
The insidious dangers of defence cuts
On the culture war in Afghanistan
"...As I argued in a previous blog,
the failure to appreciate the urgent need for the fullest knowledge of native custom, or for taking account of its influence, was a striking absence from military policy in Afghanistan..."
Empire vs. Colossus
Would the development strategies of the British Empire be more suited to twenty-first century Afghanistan than contemporary US policy?
"...Consider as an example the highway from Kabul to Kandahar that was completed in less than a year. To achieve this “quick win”, contractors placed such a thin layer of asphalt in some places that it washed away when snows melted the following spring. Or consider the cobblestone roads requiring extensive manual labour to build, and seen as a source of employment for locals who might otherwise find their way into the poppy-cultivating business. Sadly what local Afghan leaders really wanted was gravel and asphalt roads because the cobblestones hurt their camels' hooves..."
Little Platoons For Peace
How ResPublica's commitment to the associative society can foster transformative approaches to security studies
"...It is interesting that representatives of the military... realise that this is as much about wielding “soft power” as it is about destroying the Taliban. What form does soft power take? Consider, more than 80% of working-age males in Afghanistan are small-scale farmers. Consider, drug traders are often able to exploit the negative choice architecture which confronts these farmers, by frequently providing cash advances for poppies at the beginning of planting season, routinely committing to buy the crop at a set price, and on occasion even offering technical assistance to farmers. This is soft power as realised through civil society..."
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