Lancaster Lecture
From deterrence to intervention and back again: the strategic drift of UK defence policy since the Cold War
On Thursday 29 October 2026 at 5pm, Dr Andrew Curtis will present a critical analysis of UK defence policy from the end of the Cold War to the present. This lecture will be hosted in-person at Lancaster University, and will be co-hosted with the Centre for War and Diplomacy.
Talk Outline
This lecture will present a critical analysis of UK defence policy from the end of the Cold War to the present, arguing that it has been defined by the systematic avoidance of strategic choice. The collapse of the Soviet Union removed the predominant threat that had dictated the structure of UK defence policy for four decades. However, instead of replacing that threat with a clear hierarchy of priorities, successive British governments have sought to preserve the language and posture of global military power while progressively reducing the material, industrial, and political foundations required to sustain it. Post–Cold War defence policy has been marked by a continual disparity between declared ambitions and actual capabilities. Defence reviews served more as political tools to balance fiscal constraints and domestic expectations than as drivers of genuine strategy, frequently postponing critical decisions regarding force structures, capacity, and risk. Operational adaptability and professionalism regularly masked deeper structural erosion, particularly during the prolonged interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rather than strategic shocks, the return of state-driven threats and the war in Ukraine are seen as moments of reckoning, exposing longstanding weaknesses embedded through years of austerity, reliance on coalition warfare, and assumptions about warning time and escalation control. Situated within critical security and strategic studies, the lecture will integrate military operations, defence management, and political decision-making into a single longitudinal analysis of the previous 35-years, offering actionable insights to reconcile the UK’s strategic ambition with available resources in an era of renewed geopolitical competition.
Location
Location This hybrid lecture will be hosted in-person on Lancaster University’s Bailrigg campus (Furness Lecture Theatre 1, Lancaster, LA1 4YG). Attendance in-person at Lancaster is free and no registration is required. Further details are available on from the Centre for War and Diplomacy.
Livestream
To attend virtually, register via Crowdcast.