The Trident Commission, spearheaded by BASIC, launched its concluding report on July 1st, and it is expected to add significant value to the debate on whether or not to keep Britain’s nuclear deterrent. An article by Danny Alexander in The Guardian largely agrees with the findings of the Commission, but argues that Continuous at Sea Deterrence should be scaled back by cutting the number of Successor submarines from four to three. Alexander argues his position in reference to the Liberal-Democrat Party’s stance that the UK’s nuclear deterrent should be kept but that cuts must be made and the money spent elsewhere, perhaps in modernizing conventional military forces. Fundamentally, Alexander’s argument is predicated on the fact that the international climate has shifted massively since the end of the Cold War, and the UK’s defense policy must reflect that fact.
Read the full article by Danny Alexander in The Guardian here.