Originally Posted by
etudiant
That is exactly the issue, the people doing the review are in an ongoing process, which makes it very difficult to recognize that the world has changed fundamentally.
Reality today is that managing China is the key issue and that Russia is a potential ally and asset in that task, rather than a liability. That is not the existing paradigm, so the ongoing strategy reviews are not very useful, as they still run on mindsets dating back to Soviet days.
You’re talking about higher levels: national security strategy (Cabinet Office) and foreign policy (FCO). The MOD and especially the services have little influence in those circles, but FWIW I agree that our grand strategy leaves much to be desired. SDSRs are about how the higher-level stuff is actually implemented. Trouble is, when the higher-level objectives are so woolly (eg “project our influence”) it leaves plenty of scope for factional wrangling lower down the food chain.