Julian Lindley-French | Britain’s Strategic Reckoning

Britain’s Defence Secretary has resigned. NATO is transforming. Europe is rearming.
So is Britain 🇬🇧 still a serious power?

Against this backdrop, the recent resignation of Defence Secretary John Healey over the Defence Investment Plan has reignited debate over whether Britain is matching its ambitions with the resources needed to achieve them.

Show notes:

Professor Julian Lindley-French is one of Europe’s leading strategic thinkers and defence analysts. He is the founder of The Alphen Group, a Distinguished Fellow at the Europe Center of the Atlantic Council, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Statecraft, and a strategic adviser to governments, military institutions, and international organisations. A prolific author and commentator on NATO, European security, transatlantic relations, and defence policy, Professor Lindley-French is widely recognised for his expertise on the future of Western security and the evolving global strategic environment.

Selected Publications: Future War and the Defence of Europe; The North Atlantic Treaty Organization: The Enduring Alliance; Little Britain? Twenty-First Century Strategy for a Middling European Power; The New Geopolitics of Terror; The Oxford Handbook of War; and, most recently, The Retreat from Strategy: Britain’s Dangerous Confusion of Interests with Values.

Julian’s article Critical Defence Theory -
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/critical-defence-theory-professor-dr-julian-lindley-french-urjde/

UK Defence Secretary John Healey resigned on 11 June 2026, warning that Britain’s Defence Investment Plan lacked the funding needed to meet growing threats from Russia, the Middle East, and wider global instability.

UK Strategic Defence Review -
The UK’s 2025 Strategic Defence Review is the most ambitious defence overhaul in a generation, committing Britain to a “NATO First” strategy and a return to warfighting readiness” in response to what it describes as a new era of global threats.

The Defence Investment Plan -
This is the financial blueprint intended to turn Britain’s Strategic Defence Review from strategy into capability over the next decade.

Overton Window -
The Overton Window describes the boundaries of acceptable political debate. Successful politicians often don’t change public opinion directly—they shift the window of what the public considers possible.

Mixed Economy -
A mixed economy combines free markets with government intervention in key sectors such as healthcare, infrastructure, education, and national security. By contrast, neoliberalism generally favours lower regulation, privatisation, free trade, and a reduced role for the state in economic activity.

Telstra Sale -
In the 1997-98 financial year, shortly after the first share sale, Telstra recorded revenue of AUD17.3 bilion & after tax profits of more than AUD 3 billion. Before its sale, Telstra was a government entity.

Qantas -
At the time of sale, Qantas had an operational profit of AUD 250 million. It had debt based on the fact that airlines require expensive aircraft, complex logistics, maintenance regimes and infrastructure. But it was operating profitably under government ownership.

In March 2025 -
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) sent a small naval task force to the Tasman Sea and conducted live fire exercises, forcing trans-Tasman airlines to re-route. It then went on to circumnavigate Australia. This deployment demonstrated the PLAN’s capability to conduct long-range operations.

Structurally -
The People’s Liberation Army, while improving its external war-fighting capabilities, has its primary mission as regime survival - the defence of the CCP.

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