Beyond the rhetoric, two concrete policy developments stand out from the Integrated Review: a more aggressive nuclear posture, and a more confrontational stance toward China. Neither serve the interests of the British public. Both will make Britain and the world less safe.
The new, expansionary nuclear policy contributes to a twenty-first century arms race at a time when the danger of nuclear conflict is at its most acute since the height of the Cold War. The cap on the number of warheads in Britain’s stockpile is to be raised by 40%. Each carries 100 kilotons of explosive power, compared to the 15 kilotons of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the US in 1945.