Sherard Cowpercoles

Breaking rank

Years of timidity from politicians have left our military commanders dangerously overconfident

Nearly five years ago, a friend in the diplomatic service was hovering outside the permanent under-secretary’s room in the Foreign Office. Through the open door, he overheard the senior official telling ‘Jock’ not to worry, the FO would be sending a ‘big hitter’ as ambassador to Kabul. They would make sure that the surge of British military forces into Helmand was matched by a diplomatic surge into Kabul.

‘Jock’ was the then chief of the defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, and the ‘big hitter’ was — though I didn’t yet know it — me, sitting in blissful ignorance in Riyadh, starting my final year as ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

When the call came, I enthusiastically accepted — in no small part because I had always admired our military, and had always enjoyed working with them. One of my favourite jobs in the Foreign Office had been covering defence policy as Nato tried to reinvent itself after the Berlin Wall came down. Like so many people in Britain, I had all sorts of family and personal links with our armed forces. I saw them as a cherished part of the national fabric.

But what I then saw over the next three-and-a-half years was deeply worrying. A trend has set in where an overconfident and under-managed military machine fills a vacuum left by politicians, civil servants and diplomats unable or unwilling to provide firm strategic direction. The military is not just doing the fighting, but increasingly it is allowed to decide the overall direction of the campaign. Now that Barack Obama wishes to hasten the withdrawal from Afghanistan, with obvious implications for Britain, the military is protesting. In my view, this is a sign of a deep imbalance in the relationship between the military and the state.

The British military is deeply conservative.

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