The relationship between the businesses that contribute to the defence and security of the nation state – that is, the defence industry – and government is critical if citizens are to be kept safe and secure. It is, naturally, a relationship that also often underscores a modern state's foreign-policy stance and sense of place in the world. Yet, despite its clear importance, this subject is seldom properly explored or analysed in a rigorous, clear-eyed manner. Not surprisingly, and perhaps as a consequence, government policies relating to defence industry (if they exist at all) can seem somewhat contrived, ill-considered and contradictory.
This Whitehall Paper seeks to capture in a systematic manner the key components and drivers of the relationships that bind a government to its defence industrial base. It is a bold ambition and one that is singularly important as the United Kingdom approaches the next Strategic Defence and Security Review. By looking at the subject through the specific lenses of the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, the authors have constructed a cat's cradle of insights, lessons and conclusions that will not only help policy-makers and industrialists but, more importantly, inform taxpayers of what they should demand from their politicians and industrialists if democracy's arsenal is to stay healthy and engaged.
In recent years, the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) has published a range of significant research papers under the banner of its Defence, Industries and Society programme, not all of them welcomed by government or certain business executives. However, it is clear that the work of understanding industry's role in defence and national security is not just a policy imperative but, in an uncertain and dangerous world, it may also be an existential one. Indeed, the authors report that 45 per cent of the British effort on the front line in Afghanistan was provided by members of the private sector, working shoulder-to-shoulder with their military colleagues. The inevitable conclusion is that without a thriving defence industry, the UK's military commitments and operations (and, indeed, those of many other Western nations) in the twenty-first century do not seem viable.
Dr Heidenkamp, Dr Louth and Professor Taylor have been researching this subject in a nuanced, reflective and balanced manner for a number of years. This monograph demonstrates that extensive learning and, in my view, is a major contribution to our understanding of defence, national security, and the interdependencies and challenges of the defence economy in the new millennium.
The Right Honourable James Arbuthnot MP Chairman of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee
November 2013