I am grateful to all those military officers, politicians, defence officials and advisers who have given their time so generously to engage in detailed discussions and to speak to us privately on numerous occasions about the matters covered in this volume, and in some cases for detailed comments on draft papers. Thanks, too, to those who felt able to contribute perspective papers to this collection on what is a sensitive and difficult subject. I am also grateful to Professor Malcolm Chalmers, General Editor of the Whitehall Paper series, for his overall guidance and his detailed and very helpful comments on the material. Great thanks also to Adrian Johnson and Ashlee Godwin in the RUSI Publications department for excellent editing under pressure. I also owe a special gratitude to my research colleague Valentina Soria, who has worked with me throughout this study both as a co-writer and project director and with whom I co-authored the earlier study on this issue in the RUSI Journal. My sincere thanks to them all.
Professor Michael Clarke