Brief Analysis
Libya, Iraq, and the Strait of Hormuz provide three test cases where greater assertiveness and transatlantic cooperation could go hand in hand, but only if European countries receive genuine U.S. support to step up their operational efforts and diplomatic engagement.
Traditionally, European countries have pursued different, if not diverging, priorities in the Middle East and North Africa. Combined with uneven military capabilities and a lack of political will to engage in risky operations, especially outside a UN mandate, this divergence has largely kept them from asserting a strong, unified position in the region. Yet given the deterioration of transatlantic relations under President Trump and the growing American fatigue toward unending crises, Europeans must now step up their collective efforts in a region whose instability is directly affecting their security interests.
Chief of Defence Staff speech RUSI Annual lecture
General Sir Nick Carter GCB CBE DSO ADC Gen, Chief of Defence Staff s speech the Annual RUSI Conference.
From:
17 December 2020 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)
It’s a great pleasure once again to be giving the annual CDS Christmas Lecture at RUSI, even if this year it feels somewhat weird doing so in an empty room and in a temporary building.
But, it has been quite a year – particularly with the announcement last month by the Prime Minister of a £24.1-billion uplift in defence spending. This is the most significant increase since the end of the Cold War, and it reverses, I think, a long period of decline. The rationale for it has been firmly established in the development of the Government’s Integrated Review of Foreign, Defence, Security and International Development Policy which will be published early next year, and we have already seen a new foreign policy posture emerging that indicates th