The British Empire crumbled before our eyes in the late forties and early fifties but our imperialistic tendencies did not stop there. We continued to feel the need to export our beliefs and ideals of liberal democracies and more importantly free markets to the world but with the coming cuts in defense spending, is this the end to our need to send troops to foreign lands for personal gain?
The British Empire was the greatest the world had seen, covering a quarter of the globe for over a hundred years! The rise of America stopped us in our tracks, after the Second World War the empire disbanded. India was the first to rise up in 1947 and others quickly followed until it was all but gone in 1997 with the hand over of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. Now the Commonwealth is our only memento from Britain's 'greatest achievement'.
After the major period of decolonisation which happened in the early fifties, America engaged with a new type of imperialism which Britain was part of. The idea was to support countries economically and make them loyal to the 'west' so that trade links could be set up. When things didn't go to plan military force was used to defend 'democracy' and 'freedom' but also to secure the trade and raw materials that country had to offer. Notable examples are Korea, Iraq (TWICE) and most recently Libya. All of which have been organised with American and British soldiers. Our special relationship with America and our fervent belief in aiding them with our army has kept us as a relatively key player on the world stage. However, the current spending cuts in the armed forces threaten our position in the world, so is it time to leave British imperialism behind us?
Yesterday 1000 jobs were cut in the Navy which will grow to 5000 by 2015. The Navy currently stands at 35,000 personnel, cutting this to 30,000 does not seem like the grandest of blows to its ranks but it will lose four ships and one of the new air craft carriers will be moth balled rather then entering active service. The Army will lose 12,000 people with 40% of tanks and 35% of heavy artillery going. The Air Force will lose 5,000 and the harrier fleet and the nimrod reconnaissance planes will be scrapped. The numbers are dropping fairly heavily and so are the capabilities that Britain has to offer, but it seems the strategy of the Ministry of Defense has not changed. We still feel the need to open up another front in Libya on top of Afghanistan even though we have only just withdrawn from Iraq. I think we need to really look at our options of how to become an effective force in the future which is able to defend the country and be economically viable. We no longer have the luxury of unlimited spending and imperialism is not at the top of my agenda, health care and education are, so is it possible to have a cheap yet effective armed forces?
Option One: The French are coming!
One option is to strengthen our links with the French and create a joint security force combining both armies to create one, more effective army. This would be cheap and the joint army would be large enough to keep both countries at the forefront of international relations. However, it has massive risks, what would happen if France and Britain turned against each other. The euro crisis has taught us when things are good everything can seem great but if there was a huge international incident, a nuclear strike from Israel on Palestine, terrorists gaining nuclear capabilities, the Chinese starting to expand, would the military integration be able to with stand the pressure. The other problem is how many military personnel, from generals to average squaddies, do you think would be pleased with joining up with the French?!
Option Two: The SAS?
What if the army was reduced to a small, select group of highly trained personnel who can carry out operations that no other country is capable of. The Special Air Service is the most recognised and specially trained group of soldiers in the world, if we utilise this capability we may still have world authority without the massive expenditure. However, the SAS recruits from the regular army, it would not get the cream of the crop but the average cream of a less average crop. How do you choose out of a bunch of civilians whose the best soldier? They have to become soldiers first! Secondly, if Britain was attacked the SAS alone would not be able to defend us in most cases, making this option fail in the most fundamental way.
Option Three: Become a Switzerland.
The Swiss army is one of the most well equipped and well trained armies in the world, but they are a completely neutral country. This to me makes a lot of sense. Firstly, by not fighting you don't make any enemies, people don't want to attack you on an ideological ground it would have to be purely practical. This also makes sense financially, using the weapons we make is highly expensive and so is replacing them, so why not have them just in case they are needed but if not we still have money to spend on health care and education. We may not be a world power but at least we would be safe and not bankrupt!
If the British armed forces continues with their imperialistic ways the money will run out, some big decisions will have to be made, sadly they probably won't be until they absolutely have to and we will continue exporting ideology for as long as possible. But at some point British imperialism will go through another permutation and this may be another hit to its role as a world power. When this degradation happens I will be smiling because it may be the end of British Imperialism for good.
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