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The Chiefs of Staff and the Higher Organisation for Defence in Britain, 1904–1984

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Maritime Strategy and the Balance of Power

Part of the book series: St Antony's ((STANTS))

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Abstract

The British chiefs of staff system first came into existence as part of a package of reforms designed to create a higher organisation for defence. Governments of the late nineteenth century increasingly felt the need to provide their service ministers with a spectrum of expert professional advice. As the Great Powers jockeyed with one another around the globe, they also grew aware of the need for specialised government machinery with which to consider defence policy. In Britain the customary solution to problems of coordination and of providing information across departmental boundaries was to create a committee of the Cabinet.1 Thus, after some experimentation, the Committee of Imperial Defence (CID) was born in 1902: a cabinet committee presided over by the Prime Minister, with flexible membership, which could discuss pressing defence issues of the day.

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Notes

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Authors
  1. John Gooch
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, USA

    John B. Hattendorf (Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History) (Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History)

  2. University of New Orleans, USA

    Robert S. Jordan (Research Professor of International Institutions and Professor of Political Science) (Research Professor of International Institutions and Professor of Political Science)

Copyright information

© 1989 John B. Hattendorf and Robert S. Jordan

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Gooch, J. (1989). The Chiefs of Staff and the Higher Organisation for Defence in Britain, 1904–1984. In: Hattendorf, J.B., Jordan, R.S. (eds) Maritime Strategy and the Balance of Power. St Antony's. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09392-2_3

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