British Defence reviews – a handy guide for the staff officer

By Lt Cdr Andrew Ward RN

Message from the Editor

The author, a Hudson Fellow at Oxford, answers the Chairman’s call from NR 111/4 to engage with the defence review process, spanning 70 years of history and with Integrated Review 2025 already looming. He contextualises post-1945 defence reviews from the RN’s perspective. A 15 minute read.

Until I arrived at Shrivenham for the Intermediate Command and Staff Course, my only experience of defence reviews was my commanding officer reading the 2015 official communique at a clear lower deck. At staff college, defence reviews form the backdrop to much of the curriculum. Defence reviews are essential chapter demarcations in the recent history of the Royal Navy, and therefore a topic we should all be familiar with before being confronted with the study of strategy-making in Defence. The aim of this article is to provide the budding staff officer with an understanding of historical defen…

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