Defence under Thatcher Andrew M. Dorman Foreword by Michael Clarke Southampton Studies in International Policy Published in association with the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies, University of Southampton General Editor: Dilys M. Hill Other academic members of the editorial board: Ralph Beddard, John Oldfield, Kendrick Oliver, John Simpson This series was established in 1986 to encourage the publication of multi- disciplinary studies of those public policies with significant international com- ponents or implications. Areas of special interest include arms control and defence policies, environmental policies, human rights, maritime and space issues, Third World development questions and the European Union. Selected titles: Lisbeth Aggestam and Arian Hyde-Price (editors) SECURITY AND IDENTITY IN EUROPE Exploring the New Agenda Wyn Q. Bowen THE POLITICS OF BALLISTIC MISSILE NONPROLIFERATION Andrew Dorman DEFENCE UNDER THATCHER David H. Dunn THE POLITICS OF THREAT Minutemen Vulnerability in American National Security Policy Tony Evans US HEGEMONY AND THE PROJECT OF UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS Paul S. Herrnson and Dilys M. Hill (editors) THE CLINTON PRESIDENCY The First Term, 1992–96 Dilys M. Hill, Raymond A. Moore and Phil Williams (editors) THE REAGAN PRESIDENCY An Incomplete Revolution? Dilys M. Hill and Phil Williams (editors) THE BUSH PRESIDENCY Triumphs and Adversities Mark F. Imber THE USA, ILO, UNESCO AND IAEA Politicization and Withdrawal in the Specialized Agencies John Simpson and Darryl Howlett (editors) THE FUTURE OF THE NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY Joanna Spear CARTER AND ARMS SALES Antonio Varsori (editor) EUROPE, 1945–1990s The End of an Era? Southampton Studies in International Policy Series Standing Order ISBN 0–333–71493–8 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Defence under Thatcher Andrew M. Dorman Lecturer in Defence Studies Department of Defence Studies King’s College London Foreword by Michael Clarke © Andrew M. Dorman 2002 Foreword © Michael Clarke 2002 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 0-333-94709-6 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dorman, Andrew M., 1966- Defence under Thatcher / Andrew M. Dorman ; foreword by Michael Clarke. p. cm. – (Southampton studies in international policy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-333-94709-6 1. Great Britain–Military policy. 2. Great Britain–Defenses. 3. Thatcher, Margaret–Military leadership. 4. Great Britain–Politics and government–1979- I. Title. II. Series. UA647.D736 2001 355’.033541’09048–dc21 2001054890 10987654321 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire Contents Foreword vi Acknowledgements xi Glossary xii 1 Introduction 1 2 British Defence Policy in May 1979 16 3 Defence under Pym, May 1979–January 1981 32 4 John Nott, January 1981–January 1983 63 5 Michael Heseltine, January 1983–January 1986 100 6 George Younger, January 1986–July 1989 129 7 Conclusions 155 Notes 164 Select Bibliography 198 Index 214 v Foreword It is commonplace to say that UK defence policy now exists in a context that was barely imaginable 10 or 15 years ago; commonplace, but not quite true. In fact, Western policy-makers constantly imagined the present circumstances, but no one quite believed it could ever happen. The Cold War came to an end in a way that seems to have granted all our dearest wishes simultaneously and in full. The superior- ity of the liberal capitalist model of social and economic organization over the socialist bloc economies eventually communicated itself to the peoples of the East, and the legitimacy of their own governments simply withered away in a very short time. The Cold War was ‘won’ by the West without a shot being fired; the authorities in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and then East Germany simply stood by while people manufactured their own transformation in travelling to the West, reuniting families, opening up businesses and in 1989 literally pulling down the Berlin Wall. The Soviet Union collapsed from within and dis- solved itself in a way that was remarkable for its very peacefulness. In the immediate aftermath of the Cold War three European states went out of business – East Germany, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union itself – to be replaced by some 17 other states made up of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Baltic States and the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Within months of the disap- pearance of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia began to fragment in what has proved to be a decade of violent dissolution. But this violence – though extreme in itself – has been largely contained; it has not proved to be structurally important to the security of the rest of Europe. Five states have replaced the former Yugoslavia and it may still split into two more again, depending upon the final outcomes in Kosovo and Montenegro. So at the end of the Cold War four European states col- lapsed and, so far, 22 states have replaced them. Almost all of the new states, one way or another, want integration into the Western, liberal capitalist camp. We have witnessed an essentially peaceful transition from one era to the next of quite remarkable proportions. What greater triumph could there be for the policy of containment, first articulated in 1947? The Cold War is over, the West unambiguously won it without making concessions, the West’s defence forces did their job by preparing for a war they never had to fight, and the considerable vi Foreword vii adjustment problems they now face – downsizing defence forces, re- orienting policy, enlarging NATO and the European Union – are all the symptoms of success. As structural problems go, they are greatly prefer- able to those we might have faced in different circumstances. If the picture has changed so much for defence forces in Western countries then it is not surprising that some major adjustments were undertaken during the 1990s. A more key question, which is less often asked is why our defence forces have not changed a great deal more since the end of the Cold War? Why are we in the process of making marginal readjustments to military machines, which are essentially still Cold War armed forces? This problem is more manifest for some European allies than others. Germany is in a crisis of reform and its armed forces, so potent during the Cold War, are languishing expen- sively within a political and organizational framework, which bears little relation to Germany’s current security concerns. The UK comes out better than most in any consideration of reform, and the Strategic Defence Review of 1998 tidied up a number of ad hoc rationalizations of the previous years and established a thoughtful and imaginative framework for future defence policy evolution. Nevertheless, the UK still finds itself with formations and weapon systems – and inherited numbers of certain systems – which owe a great deal more to the Cold War legacy than the ambiguous security environment in which we now find ourselves, or that which was articulated in the Strategic Defence Review itself. The critics have a good point when they ask why UK defence policy has not changed even more over the last decade, but there are sensible and compelling answers to this question even though there is validity in the criticism. Defence is not only driven by external factors but inter- nal ones as well. Like any major department of government, or sector of industry, ‘defence’ is something of an abstraction – a convenient short- hand to express a complex aggregation of interests and policies. The internal dynamics of any defence policy are at least as important as its external environment and cannot simply be written off as bureaucratic politics or vested interests at play. True, such elements certainly exist, sometimes in large measure, but the drivers of defence policy are almost always more complex than simple characterizations such as this. Defence is relatively unique in the business of government in having two distinct faces. In peacetime it has to manage itself efficiently and accountably and plan for a prudent future in the manner of any other government department. In war, it must operate quite differently, act to mobilize national resources and win, even at high cost. And in condi- viii Foreword tions that exist between war and peace, such as in operations in the former Yugoslavia, where ‘peace support’ and ‘enforcement’ are required, the defence establishment must do both simultaneously.