King's College London

Reports produced by researchers from King’s Centre for Grand Strategy in the Department of War Studies, were used to inform the UK government’s recent Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.

The reports, which have now been made available to a public audience, were commissioned by the Cabinet Office, and contributed to the development of the government’s vision for the UK’s role in the world over the next decade, as well as foreign policy decisions up to 2025.

The reports are divided into two sections. Part I examines how major strategic ‘resets’—ie significant redirections and realignments of foreign policy—are conceived and implemented across a range of historical and contemporary contexts. By examining specific instances in which countries, including the United Kingdom, have undertaken strategic realignments, the reports offered valuable insights for policymakers developing the UK’s future strategy.

The 11 case studies written by King’s academics as well as visiting researchers from other universities, include:

• Chinese Strategic Resets in 1945 and 1972 - Professor Rana Mitter OBE FBA (University of Oxford)
• India’s Strategic Resets in the 1990s and 2014 – Dr Rudra Chaudhuri (Centre for Grand Strategy, King’s College London)
• The United Kingdom after Suez: A Strategic Reset? - Gill Bennett MA, OBE, FRHistS (Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office)
• Malta’s Strategic Reset: Becoming ‘Blockchain Island’ - Dr Hillary Briffa (Centre for Grand Strategy, King’s College London)

Part II of the series builds upon the earlier theme of ‘strategic resets’ and seeks to understand how, once a new national strategy has been decided, governments can best implement it. Its six case studies examine specific historical instances in which countries, including the UK, have sought to deliver a new strategic realignment:

Contributions include:

• Strategy in the Eisenhower Administration - Dr Kori Schake (American Enterprise Institute)
• Stuck: “America First” and the Middle East - Professor Patrick Porter (University of Birmingham)
• Strategy and delivery are the key to a successful Integrated Review - Georgina Wright (Institute for Government)
• Strategy by Committee: The Birth of British Grand Strategy c. 1900-1914 - Dr David Morgan Owen (Department of Defence Studies, KCL).

The reports are available to download directly from the Centre for Grand Strategy’s Engelsberg Applied History Programme website. Funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, the Engelsberg Programme for Applied History, Grand Strategy and Geopolitics represents a unique partnership between the Centre for Grand Strategy at the War Studies Department at King’s College London and the Centre for Geopolitics at Cambridge University.