Preparing to Fight the ‘Wrong War’? Why the UK Defence Budget Must Focus More on ‘National Resilience’

Abstract This article argues that the current debate over defence spending in the United Kingdom is fundamentally flawed. Too much emphasis is being placed on preparing for a form of warfare with Russia that is unlikely to occur. As this article points out, the Russians actually want to avoid a traditional battlefield confrontation with NATO. But what the Russian military does want is to bring ‘war’ to the UK homeland. The UK is poorly prepared for such an eventuality. Defence spending needs to reflect this by significantly strengthening UK national resilience capacity.