This month’s election result timestamps an awakened Fifth Kingdom in England, a resurgent SNP in Scotland, and yet, perhaps the most strange and important underlying shift lay elsewhere, as traditional identity politics in Northern Ireland appeared to go into retreat. This may turn out to be the real ticking time-bomb under the union of the …
Continue reading NI Unionism: bulwark of the Union breaking down? by Helen Ramscar
Michael Clarke discusses on Radio 4 the purchase of defence and aerospace company, Cobham, by US equity group, Advent International. Listen to the discussion here from 11 minutes and 25 seconds into Radio 4 PM programme, 5pm, Saturday 21st December.
Presented by Kate Gerbeau with BFBS Defence Analyst Christopher Lee, guest speakers include: Professor Michael Clarke, Professor Paul Rogers, Lucy Fisher and Simon Marks. Issued discussed by the panel of experts include: The state of British defence at the end of 2019 - With a newly-elected government and a UK Prime Minister with a new mandate, we’ll be asking …
Continue reading BFBS Radio Sitrep: Review of the Year 2019 podcast
Professor Michael Clarke, Associate Director of the Strategy and Security Institute at the University of Exeter, told the BFBS Radio Sitrep podcast about his concerns over how the military retains staff. "Some of them just leave before they qualify as pilots - because they're fed up of being told it'll be 'another six months'... before they can move from their …
Continue reading ‘Ben Wallace Admits Defence Funding Shortfall’, Forces News.
'Prof Michael Clarke, a former director of the Royal United Services Institute and previously a defence adviser to the government, said the funding gap was causing increasing competition between the services, which are each vying for greater shares of the budget. “It’s been an open secret for some time that the army feels like it’s …
Continue reading ‘Funding crisis raises concerns on armed forces readiness’, Financial Times.
Extract from the article published on 16 December 2019: 'The defence review was welcomed by Michael Clarke, a former director of the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank. “A review of MoD procurement processes is long overdue,” he said. “Nobody in the government, the MoD or the armed forces thinks the present arrangements …
By Professor Michael Clarke, Distinguished Fellow, RUSI, and Forces News election analyst. See here for the full article. Election campaigns are always characterised by promises to hold a defence review; it is the best way to avoid having to answer awkward questions about conflicts, costs and defence contracts. The Labour and Liberal Democrats manifestos in this campaign made …
Continue reading Why It’s Now Time To Begin Thinking About Defence Reviews
'General Sir Nick Carter Avoids Party Politics, But Issues Challenge To Future Governments', by Michael Clarke, published in Forces News. The Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) at his annual Christmas lecture has been widely reported as giving a sobering view of the security challenges that Britain faces in the coming decade. A resurgence of great …
NATO's 'Non-Summit': What Can We Expect?', by Michael Clarke, published in Forces News. The NATO summit, or "leaders meeting" as it chooses to be known in an effort to manage expectations, will be dominated by all the big names attending. There will be no shortage of them - some 29 leaders attending, and a 30th, representing North Macedonia, which is expected to …
"Nato is indeed the greatest alliance the world has ever seen," says Michael Clarke, but "today with some thirty members, it is less than half as strong as it was when it was half this size." See here for full article by BBC Defence Correspondent, Jonathan Marcus.
Tipping Point 
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