Defence cuts should trouble us all

This week, General Sir Nick Carter, Chief of the General Staff, made it quite clear how he would like to fight the Russians should they invade Eastern Europe or start a war with NATO:

We should identify Russian weaknesses and then manoeuvre asymmetrically against them. First and foremost, perhaps we should be in the business of building real institutional capacity in neighbouring states so that they have the strength and confidence to stand up to Russia and the internal resilience to withstand pressures designed to bring them down from within.

Carter went on to say that we need to reduce our energy dependency on the East, better protect our critical capabilities (communications and infrastructure) and work on improving NATO interoperability. He’d also like to develop plans for overland reinforcement to Estonia and Poland and, as has been reported widely, keep what little remains of the British troops posted in Germany. With these changes, and some others, Sir Nick thinks we’ll be alright.