CCW is pleased to announce that the Director, Dr Rob Johnson, has been appointed as Director of the Secretary of State for Defence’s Office of Net Assessment and Challenge.
Net assessment was developed in the United States and was associated for decades with Andrew Marshall where it focussed on the relative strengths of competitive powers, but it was in 2018 that the UK Ministry of Defence set up its own experimental Strategic Net Assessment unit. In December 2020, the current Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Ben Wallace, developed the idea with a specific ‘challenge’ function, and the office was more firmly established with the assistance of Air Marshal Edward Stringer who was Director General of the Defence Academy and Joint Force Development. The Integrated Review of 2021 further endorsed the requirement for a SONAC, not only for Defence, but to facilitate cross-government working. One of the tasks of the new organisation is to bring challenging, external voices to bear on strategic thinking and to ‘speak truth to power’. Dr Johnson has been regarded as a ‘critical friend’ of defence personnel for some years, offering robust analyses and hard truths. He has specialised in ensuring that there is a thorough consideration of the perspective of the ‘Other Side of the Hill’, to quote the Duke of Wellington, and he has championed rigorous research in the study of conflict in international relations. He has been a strong advocate of red teaming and policy simulation, to expose the weaknesses in assumptions and approaches, under- and overestimations of competitors, and failures to appreciate valid external perspectives. He will lead the Office of Net Assessment using this experience.
Dr Johnson’s appointment is for 2 years. He will remain a Senior Research Fellow of Pembroke College and Director of CCW.
The Changing Character of War Centre at Pembroke College will continue. Indeed, it will be a vital academic reach-back facility for the SONAC, along with a collection of other research centres across the UK and overseas.
