Decades after quietly abandoning its comprehensive war preparation framework in the early 2000s, Britain is now racing to resurrect and modernise the Government War Book—a Cold War-era system once making the nation amongst the world’s best-prepared for potential conflict.
The Cabinet Office is spearheading cross-government efforts producing updated documentation that will coordinate military, police, hospital and industrial transitions during wartime scenarios, with Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton confirming the revival reflects growing threats to three decades of relative British peace.
The original war book system—dating to the First World War and regularly rehearsed through the Cold War—consisted of top-secret hand-typed pages bound with string detailing everything from military mobilisation to civilian rationing, school closures, hospital clearances and national treasure storage.
Britain abandoned the expensive-to-maintain framework after the Soviet Union’s collapse, with successive Conservative and Labour governments subsequently leaving Armed Forces underfunded whilst defence spending languished around two per cent of GDP.
Sir Richard emphasised the modernised version requires fundamentally different thinking about national resilience “in a modern context, with a modern society, with modern infrastructure” whilst incorporating historical lessons.
Protecting critical infrastructure including power stations, water supplies and transport networks from adversaries represents central elements of the renewed approach, with the defence chief advocating resilience considerations during infrastructure renewal projects.
“When we think about renewing our water infrastructure or electricity or transport infrastructure, to think about the threat of action from an adversary that is above the threshold of war, not just a hybrid threat,” Sir Richard explained, advocating building defensive capabilities into renewal programmes through “different choices and different priorities.”
The Government pledged increasing defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035, though a crucial 10-year Defence Investment Plan outlining Ministry of Defence weapons and capability procurement remains unpublished despite being due last autumn.
Defence Secretary John Healey declined confirming whether the plan would arrive by summer, leaving much of Britain’s defence industry awaiting promised funding whilst critics including former Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace warn of “Treasury tricks” artificially inflating budget figures.
Sir Richard indicated delays stem from the MoD seeking faster Treasury funding: “What I want is a defence investment plan that is properly funded and delivers what we want. If that takes a bit longer, I’d rather have something that works and we can deliver.”
The defence chief warned growing threats necessitate public education about national security challenges: “That requires us to educate ourselves and help the population understand some of those threats and help them understand what they can do to support the nation and potentially support the Armed Forces.”
