Page 24 - 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

Notes
1. The Al-Yamamah arms deal, first agreed in September 1985, has been worth at least £40bn to the UK
defence industry, notably to BAE Systems plc and its partners, securing thousands of jobs.

UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and King Fahd, London
Source: BBC News (Tim Graham/Getty Images)
“… in September 1985, the UK and Saudi defence ministers signed a memorandum of understanding in
London for 72 Tornados, 30 Hawk training aircraft and a whole range of weapons, radar, and spares as
well as a pilot-training programme.
“It was the first instalment of the massive Al-Yamamah deal that remains so controversial more than 30
years later.” (James Robbins, BBC Diplomatic Correspondent, August, 2016)
BAE sales to Saudi Arabia totalled over £2.8 bn in 2024, approximately 10% of its total group revenue.
(BAE Systems plc)
2. See “Bargaining with Consequences: Leverage and Coercion in Negotiation”; Paul F. Kirgis, Professor of Law,
St. John's University School of Law, and Faculty Chair, Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution. Harvard
Negotiation Law Review; Spring, 2014
3. See Appendix 4 to this paper
4. See “Our enemies will vanish” Yaroslav Trofimov, Penguin Random House, 2024
5. “Big Stick Diplomacy”, William Allen Rogers; Harper’s Weekly, 1904. The cartoon refers to Roosevelt’s
diplomatic doctrine of big stick diplomacy, in which the US used its military strength and political influence
to pressurise Latin America into advancing US aims.
6. “Thales in the UK” Company website, 31 October, 2024
7. “I’m not talking about cosmetic adjustments but profound, lasting, transformational change.
“This has three main components. We need to transform: how we work; where we work, and the
expertise we bring to bear on our work
“First: how we work:
• We have to collaborate more - because citizens expect government to be joined up around what
they, the customers, want.
• What they don’t want, when they engage with us, is to get on a bureaucratic merry-go-round,
where the only options are going round in circles or bailing out.”
th
(Civil Service transformation speech: John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service: 24 January, 2018)

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