Changing Defense Concepts

Report Outline
Revision of Britain's Defense Strategy
Adjustments in American Defense Policies
Strategic Doctrines and National Security

Revision of Britain's Defense Strategy

The free world's increasing reliance on nuclear weapons to prevent or combat aggression was signalized last month by Great Britain's clear-cut decision to concentrate on atomic arms at the expense of conventional military force. The shift in military concepts was emphasized again early in May when the North Atlantic Council firmly adhered, in the face of Russian threats, to its plan to utilize nuclear weapons in the defense of Western Europe. Both actions bore out changes in military thinking that have been going on in the world since advent of the atomic age.

Startling advances in military technology, existence of a nuclear stalemate between East and West, and the astronomical costs of simultaneously maintaining both conventional and air-atomic defenses have combined to force modification of traditional approaches to military planning. The United Kingdom's realistic reappraisal of its strategic and economic position led it into the most drastic step yet taken by a first-class military power. That action highlighted the whole complex of questions confronting defense planners in other countries: What kind of wars should they prepare for? What kind of forces should they maintain? What kind of strategy should they devise?

Reliance on Nuclear Weapons to Ward Off Attack

A White Paper presented to Parliament on Apr, 4 gave the reasons for the London government's decision to base defense primarily on nuclear weapons. Asserting that dramatic strides in military technology necessitated fundamental changes in the whole basis of planning, the paper said the time had come to “revise not merely the size but the whole character of the defense plan” and effect the “biggest change in military policy ever made in normal times.”