For Julian Lindley-French, a defense analyst and senior fellow at the Institute of Statecraft in London, austerity-shrunken Britain is “retreating behind a nuclear shield, no longer with the popular will or the capacity to defend the Continent.” The British, he added, “want the symbols of power — the nuclear deterrent and the ensign on the aircraft carrier.”In an interview, the British defense minister, Gavin Williamson, spoke proudly of securing another £1 billion or $1.3 billion over the next two years for a military budget that would total £38.4 billion in fiscal year 2019-20, or about $50 billion. That represents 2.1 percent of gross domestic product, just over NATO’s guideline of 2 percent, although since 2015 it includes spending for military pensions and intelligence. Britain cannot have “the scale or the mass” of the United States, he said. “But we are the only other country in NATO that can lead the way the U.S. can lead, the only country in Europe that has the full range of capabilities.”

Source: International New York Times April 27, 2019 07:07 UTC