NATO and Europe first: Britain’s new Strategic Defence Review

NATO and Europe first: Britain’s new Strategic Defence Review

This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general at the Royal United Services Institute and former Labour government advisor, for an Emergency Room episode dissecting the UK’s newly unveiled Strategic Defence Review (SDR). Prime minister Keir Starmer has committed to increasing defence spending to 3% GDP by 2030, expanding the UK’s military capabilities with 12 attack submarines, boosting munitions production, and possibly reviving an air-launched nuclear capability.

Together Mark and Malcolm discuss how—amid Russia’s war in Ukraine and America’s talk of reducing its European presence—the SDR focuses on leveraging AI and uncrewed systems, as well as a “NATO first, Europe first” approach. They also consider how to balance transatlantic relations with closer EU defence cooperation. Can Britain drive a technological and geopolitical shift? Or will fiscal and industrial constraints limit its ambitions?


The podcast was recorded on June 2nd, 2025.

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Episoder(633)

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4 Feb 20157min

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Susi Dennison, Senior Policy Fellow and expert on the MENA region, explains the EU's performance in the Middle East and North Africa in 2014, and the need for a new strategy. Hosted on Acast. See acas...

3 Feb 20155min

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