Waiting for NATO: Strategic Concepts and Force Structure

Abstract

One of the principal activities of defence and military bureaucracies is the set of processes involved in shaping and revising military strategy, and the force structures that will implement that strategy. Each national government necessarily devises its own strategy and force structure, and almost all governments do this as part of their annual budget process. In some cases, the military takes the lead in setting forth what is called for, and a subsequent battle ensues with Treasury officials as to what can be afforded — the classic problem of how much is enough. In far more cases, the Treasury gives the Ministry of Defence a budget ceiling, and the coat of national strategy is tailored to fit the financial cloth. Inevitably, the final choices in strategy and force planning are determined by compromises between military and civilian officials. Almost always in peacetime, the decisive element in shaping that compromise is the budget.