Upload
thavam
View
140
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
U.K.s shrinking military clout worries U.S.Washingtons wing-man in Europe is losing clout on the world stage as its military forces shrink. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)ByGriff Witte-March 12 at 8:59 PM
LONDON With Europe facing its shakiest security environment in a generation, Britain has slipped into a familiar role: Washingtons tough-talking wingman.British leaders have led the rhetorical charge against the twin menaces of Russia and the Islamic State while browbeating reluctant European governments to wake up to the reality of a newly unstable continent.But behind the flinty facade lies an unmistakable erosion in British power, one that has reduced Washingtons indispensable ally to a position that U.K. officials, military leaders and analysts acknowledge could leave the United States without a credible partner in taking on the greatest threats to global security.[U.S. to realign forces in Britain and other European nations]If the U.K. cant do it, who else is the U.S. going to turn to in Europe? said Gen. Richard Dannatt, a retired British army chief. Theres no one else.
Britains diminished military capacity is a product of years of
stringent austerity policies that show no sign of easing.Despite a
too-close-to-call election in less than two months, neither major
party has stepped up to shield the military from further cuts,
reflecting a public weary of foreign interventions after campaigns
in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya that are widely seen as
failures.[Read: Are Europes security forces going too far?]In the
two conflicts that most directly imperil Europe today, Britain has
been largely invisible.Its contribution to the U.S.-led air
campaign against the Islamic State is strikingly modest, according
to a recent parliamentary report. And as Russia has eviscerated
Ukraine over the past year, Britain has often been a bystander
whileothers have triedto stanch the bleeding.The British withdrawal
from world affairs could soon accelerate, with budget cuts likely
to take an even greater bite out of an already withered military.A
report issued this week by a respected British think tank, the
Royal United Services Institute, found that Britains regular army
could shrink to just 50,000 troops by 2019 about half the number of
the amount when the decade began andjust a fractionof the figure
from the height of the Cold War.The concern is that were going to
fall from being a significant player to a bit-part player, Dannatt
said. The U.K. isnt of much use to the U.S. if we dont have a
worthwhile military force behind us. Anybody can talk tough. But if
you dont back it up, everyone just laughs at you.U.S. officials,
normally unwilling to criticize their most stalwart ally, have been
unusually open about their apprehension in recent days.Last week,
Gen. Ray Odierno, the U.S. Army chief of staff, said that he was
very concerned about U.K. defense cuts and that they could result
in British troops fighting within American ranks rather than
alongside them in any future conflict.On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador
to the United Nations Samantha Power told the BBC that she was
alarmed by the gap between the collective security needs that we
all have and the resources we are bringing to bear.Although Power
did not single out Britain for criticism, taking aim instead at
Europe as awhole, she focused her comments on a NATO target for
members to spend at least2 percent of gross domestic producton
defense.The long-standing goal is met by only four members from the
28-nation alliance: the United States, Estonia, Greece and
Britain.But looming defense cuts coupled with a recovering economy
mean that Britain is on the verge of missing the mark. Prime
Minister David Cameron has resisted calls from within his own
Conservative Party to pledge to continue spending at that level,
despite his governments efforts to compel other NATO members to hit
the target during an alliance summit that Britain hosted just six
months ago.Britain is not the only NATO country to cut military
spending even as the apparent threat to European security grows.A
study by the London-based European Leadership Network recently
found that at least six countries aretrimming their military
budgetsthis year, despite a promise at last years summit to halt a
decline that has been felt across much of the West while military
spending in Russia and China surges ahead.Ian Kearns, the networks
director, said the cuts reflect the reality of a recession-scarred
continent constrained by economic needs at home. Politicians, he
said, assume that there are few votes to be won in amping up
defense spending
at the expense of domestic programs.And unless we come to the brink
of direct conflict with Russia, that political calculus is not
going to change, he said.By any measure, Britain remains a potent
military force. It has the fifth- or sixth-largest defense budget
in the world rankings vary depending on the source as well as a
submarine-mounted nuclear arsenal that can canvass the globe and a
permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.Responding to Odiernos
comments last week, Cameron asserted that Britain continues to be
formidable.I know when I spend time with President Obama and others
how much they appreciate the fact Britain is a strong and capable
partner, he said.But Camerons military advisers have questioned how
long that can continue given the trajectory of the cuts.Writing in
Britains Daily Telegraph on Tuesday,Gen. Peter Wall, who until
September was Britains top military officer, asserted that Britain
had assumed a lower level of ambition for U.K. involvement in
global security than ever before.With British defense spending down
by 10 percent over the past five years, Britain lacks maritime
patrols to hunt for submarines and faces a projected decade-long
gap incarrier-strike capability.The cuts, Wall wrote, have left
British policymakers with few options for deterring Moscow.We can
now see those consequences playing out in our reticence to counter
Russian expansionism, and her interference in our airspace and
offshore waters, Wall wrote.In the Middle East, as well, Britain
has been reluctant to engage.A report released last month by
Parliaments defense committee found that just 6 percent ofcoalition
airstrikesagainst the Islamic State had been carried out by
Britain, and that Australia, Germany, Spain and Italy had all been
more actively engaged in the fight.Britains Labor Party, which is
running neck-and-neck with the Conservatives in pre-election polls,
has vowed to halt Camerons retreat from the world but has been
vague about how.More troubling for the prime minister may be a
revolt from members of his own party who think he has given the
countrys defenses short shrift.Among them is John Baron, a Tory
backbencher and military veteran who led a push Thursday in
Parliament to request that the government spend at least 2 percent
of GDP on defense. Though only a small number of members voted, the
measure received backing from a majority of those who did,
including leading Conservative voices on national security.Im not
an interventionist. What I see is a need to talk softly and carry a
big stick, said Baron, who opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and
the scuttled 2013 bombing campaign in Syria. These are challenging
times. Hostile nation states are rearming and becoming more
aggressive. But what we seem to be doing is hollowing out our armed
forces.Karla Adam contributed to this report.