Was Britain’s implementation of NATO strategy credible? After the adoption of Flexible Response in 1967, NATO focused on using conventional forces to defend the West. Britain played a central role in NATO’s plans, but was its defence planning sufficient for the task? How did the government plan to utilize the conventional Armed Forces for the range of operations it was committed to? Additionally, how were the Armed Forces to be mobilized, and what were the details of the planning for this mobilization?
In 1967, NATO adopted MC14/3 as its overall strategic concept, which relied on an escalatory deterrence strategy that ranged from conventional forces to tactical nuclear strikes and ultimately to strategic nuclear attacks. This approach is commonly referred to as Flexible Response and replaced NATO’s previous trip-wire strategy. The primary goal of this strategic concept was to reduce the likelihood of accidentally starting a nuclear war by matching force with equal force and raising the nuclear threshold in the event of an actual conflict.
However, using newly available documents from British and other archives, this book demonstrates that, rather than being flexible, the strategy was likely to fail in the event of war. One critical issue was the inability of Alliance members to provide a key component of the conventional deterrent: sustainability. The book analyzes the paradox between the public perception of defence policy and its practical implementation. It assesses whether the planning would have been effective and what might have happened in Europe if war had broken out.
To address these questions, the research examines the conflicts in the Falklands and the Gulf to evaluate the feasibility of the strategies that were in place at the time. Furthermore, components essential to British defence were still under development more than twenty years after the new strategy was adopted. British defence policy focused less on the threats the country faced and more on minimizing defence expenditures.
Never Ready is extensively illustrated with contemporary photographs, many of which are in colour, along with specially commissioned diagrams, colour artwork, and maps.
Author: Kenton White | Publisher: Helion & Company | Published: 15 December 2021 | Pages: 102 | ISBN: 9781914377082 | Publisher’s page
