Page 16 - Five Forces of Americanisation Richard Hooke 04072025 final post SDR1

The UK Defence Industry in the 21 Century
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The Five Forces of Americanisation

In the last twenty years, five forces have intensified the influence of the USA on the UK’s ability to
defend itself and to influence foreign affairs. Whilst stimulated by a form of US leadership
characterised by its belief in freedom, justice and democracy, these have undermined the UK’s ability
to support its domestic industry in generating jobs and technology, to take an active role in foreign
trade, to act unilaterally in providing support to allies and, working together with several government
departments, to play an important role in British foreign policy and diplomacy.

The Five Forces of Americanisation

Right across the UK, the process of “Americanisation” has been relentless. It now requires transparent,
assiduous and disciplined management, particularly in the areas of technology transfer and defence
company mergers & acquisitions. For the UK defence industry, the tide of a century’s history of war
has gained momentum over the last 20 years. Reinforced by government policy and given added
impetus by the influence of capital markets, a series of major global crises and fair amount of political
and practical miscalculation, the tide has swept Britain closer to the USA. Militarily, from the Second
World War, through the Cold War and to George W Bush’s “war on terror” in Iraq and beyond, the UK
has worked closely with the USA. Even when, as in Iraq, its European allies did not participate, this has
remained explicit UK government policy. Some might describe it as a partnership. If so, it appears an
unequal one. And not just in America’s intransigence in sharing technology with its “special” partner.
Recent statements by US Vice President JD Vance suggest just how unequal this relationship has
become.
And yet, the SDR is being led by a Senior Counsellor of The Cohen Group, a Washington DC-based
consultancy that brings “centuries of experience at the White House, the State Department, the
Defense Department, and Congress”. One of his team’s Reviewers is a former Deputy Assistant to the
President of the United States. A US private equity firm partner is the SDR team’s defence “industry
expert”.

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07/07/2025 Richard Hooke 2025