The Importance of Strategic Thinking

The Importance of Strategic Thinking

Strategic thinking is important. In the 1980s, despite an existential threat to the United Kingdom of greater magnitude than at any previous moment in its long history, this country navigated and concluded successfully the Cold War and managed the changes that were wrought to international relations thereafter. In the 1990s, Britain’s strategic success continued as it embraced the rehabilitation of two pariah states of the Cold War era, namely Russia and the People’s Republic of China. Moreover, Britain participated in the defeat of the naked aggression of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 1990-91, bolstering the hopes for a new world order based on global co-operation. Yet, in the early 2000s, a string of errors based on faulty assumptions, and an absence of strategy, became manifest in the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. We had apparently forgotten how to think strategically.

Megateo, the armed groups and the future of the people of Colombia’s Catatumbo

Megateo was one of the most wanted drug traffickers in Colombia. His death on October 2, 2015 was a major blow, but the people of Catatumbo have little reason to celebrate.

Colombia’s deal with the FARC could bring peace – or create a power vacuum

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo Londoño – alias Timochenko, the leader of Latin America’s longest-running insurgency, the FARC – have signed a historic deal which sets out a process of transitional justice for Colombia. They have committed to signing the final peace agreement within six months.

After more than five decades of armed conflict, six months is the blink of an eye, and both Colombia and the wider world must think fast to work out what comes next.

A British Cyber Defence League?

It has previously been suggested that the UK should follow Estonia's lead in creating a comprehensive cyber reserve force. However, whilst the Estonian cyber reserve may be the envy of many developed states, it is a model that cannot necessarily be duplicated elsewhere.