The London School of Economics runs a blog on British politics to which I contribute occasionally; this week I’ve posted on the British Government’s defence review, and I thought I’d share this with the Duck readership. A little bit of context: the new British government is simultaneously engaging in developing a National Security Strategy, while conducting a Comprehensive Spending Review and a Defence Review. The previous government made a number of rather bizarre defence procurement decisions without much sense of how they would be paid for so there is a problem here not entirely of the present government’s making. The majority Conservative Party in the governmental coalition is traditionally in favour of a strong defence, and in particular wishes to replace the existing Trident submarines – Britain’s nuclear deterrent – when they become obsolete. The Liberal Democrats, minority party in the coalition are less gung-ho generally and want an alternative to a submarine based deterrent. Liam Fox, the Conservative Defence Secretary is on the right-wing of the party, and stood for the leadership against the current Prime Minister, David Cameron. Cameron and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, are rather more firmly based in the 21st century and I suspect are less pro-defence spending than Fox, but the latter has out-manoeuvred them in the short term at least… now read on!
Chris Brown is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
An LSE graduate (BSc (Econ) International Relations, 1968), he returned to the Department of International Relations at the School as Professor in 1998 and ‘retired’ in 2014. He held the Chair of Politics at Southampton University from 1994-98, and before that was a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the University of Kent at Canterbury.
He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on international political theory and of International Society, Global Politics (2015), Practical Judgement in International Political Theory (2010), Sovereignty, Rights and Justice (2002), International Relations Theory: New Normative Approaches (1992), editor of Political Restructuring in Europe: Ethical Perspectives (1994) and co-editor (with Terry Nardin and N.J. Rengger) of International Relations in Political Thought (2002) and (with Robyn Eckersley) of The Oxford Handbook of International Political Theory (2018).
His textbook Understanding International Relations (2009) is now in its 5th edition and has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Turkish and Basque. The Politics of International Political Theory: Reflections on the Work of Chris Brown (2018) edited by Mathias Albert and Anthony F Lang Jr examines his work.
He was Chair of the British International Studies Association 1998 – 2000, and, at LSE, Head of the Department of International Relations 2004 – 2007 and Vice-Chair of the Academic Board 2007 - 2010.
We call it a helicopter carrier :D
With 65,000tons and a 13,000 square Meter flight deck, better be big helicopters….