Understanding the UK’s Transition to Warfighting Readiness
Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, Derek Twigg MP and Chris Donnelly CMG, January 2026
The rules-based global order which the United Kingdom and other democracies drove to establish after 1945, and which we believed had been permanently assured after 1990, is fast disappearing. The West now faces a truly existential threat from a loose but strengthening alliance of autocracies which the war in Ukraine has exposed. This is an urgent and drastic threat which requires an immediate, far-reaching and radical response.
Report authors, Sir Bernard Jenkin, Derek Twigg and Chris Donnelly argue that if we wish to preserve and protect a vision for the democratic world, we need a serious and collective effort to reassert that vision, to acknowledge the magnitude of the threat, and to consider how we can restructure our national and international tools to help us to tackle it. There is a general understanding that the UK is not as ready for conflict as it should be in the current situation of global instability and uncertainty. Ministers and officials have set out ambitious defence, security and industrial strategies as to how the UK might move towards ‘warfighting readiness’. So, we appear to have an idea of where we need to go, but not necessarily the vision of how to get there.
It is already clear that the cost of not making the journey of transformation could be even more painful and difficult, and that the sooner we start moving to a position of readiness, the easier life might be for British society, government and economy in the long run. This report resets the narrative by carefully setting out the imperative for moving to warfighting readiness in a rapidly changing geopolitical and geostrategic environment, drawing on observations from Russia’s war on Ukraine, President Trump’s revolution and its impact on the international rules-based order, reform of NATO and the EU, while asking what the UK’s warfighting structure should look like and what we might learn from past experiences.
This state of readiness, the authors argue, requires politicians and defence experts to acknowledge that ‘war is war, not a crisis’ and to develop and implement a concept of war fighting which ultimately prepares the country to win the wars forced upon it. The UK must consider how both our adversaries and allies see war, exploring the ‘culmination point’, the need for adaptability, and how preparation itself becomes a deterrent for war. New forms of governance and the development of a war-capable political process are well overdue. The report also focuses on the role of education and civil society in preparing the country, given both state and society require resilience. There are practical steps that should be taken to ensure that government has the necessary bandwidth, a strategic mindset, a process for making and implementing strategy and can ensure we properly finance our defence.
Setting out strategy also means staying abreast of military, economic and technological change, which has strong implications for military organisation, training and equipment. The authors argue for recognising the crucial importance of mass in war and call for a reorganisation of nation-wide functions and structures that war will in any event necessitate – we must not only rethink manpower and skills but the design, manufacture and supply of equipment. Fundamentally, to preserve the democracy which we cherish and which is at the basis of our Western way of life, we now need to modernise and upgrade the practices and procedures of governance which sustain that democracy.
About the authors
Sir Bernard Jenkin MP is a former Shadow Secretary of State for Defence and member of the Defence Select Committee. He is an executive member of the 1922 Committee and Chairman of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.
Derek Twigg MP has been a Labour MP since 1997. He has held several ministerial positions, and is a member of the Defence Select Committee, Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, and the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy. He is Leader of the UK’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Chris Donnelly CMG is a former British Army Reserve Officer, Special Advisor to four NATO Secretaries General and Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee. He is currently Principal Counsellor at Earendel Associates Ltd.
Media Coverage:
The Times: ‘Britain ‘cannot rely on US and must prepare for war’‘
The Independent: ‘Britain must get ‘war ready’ and can no longer rely on the US, MPs say‘
GB News: ‘Britain told to prepare for war as US’ 70-year security guarantee ‘no longer valid’‘
London Loves Business: ‘UK told to prepare for war as the country is ‘under-prepared’‘
Westminster Pimlico Times: ‘Is Britain Truly Prepared for War‘
Commentary:
Lord Robertson and Larisa Brown on Times Radio: ‘Times Radio Drive with John Pienaar‘ (from 04:50 to 20:30)
Sir Bernard Jenkin MP on Times Radio: ‘The Evening Edition with Kait Borsay‘ (from 1:06:08 to 1:19:50)
Daniel Dieppe in The Critic: ‘It’s time Britain moved to warfighting readiness‘
Civitas video on X: ‘Are you confident the UK is war-ready?‘
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