Page 25 - 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

The Five Forces of Americanisation

“For more than 70 years, the presidents of both (US) parties believed that American security and
prosperity were directly tied to the success of freedom in the world. And they knew that the
success depended, in large part, on U.S. leadership. This mission came naturally, because it
expressed the DNA of American idealism.”
(Remarks by President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush at the “Spirit of Liberty: At Home, In
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The World” George W. Bush Presidential Center; 17 October, 2017)

Winston Churchill, Harry S Truman, and Joseph Stalin
at the Potsdam Conference, July 1945
(Bridgeman Images)

The “Thinking American” of 20 years ago remains a dominant feature of contemporary Britain’s
defence industry, from policy formulation to procurement and from financing to ownership and
control of defence assets and technology.
The Levene Reforms that shaped the behaviour of the Ministry of Defence (“MoD”) for most of the
last 20 years were devised and led (even “independently” reviewed) by the Chairman of a major US
defence contractor’s British subsidiary. In common with many of his successors, when formerly head
of the MoD’s Defence Procurement organisation, he was advised by one of the USA’s most eminent
consulting practices, led by its American sector leader. This year’s SDR Chair has suspended his
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influential transatlantic role as a Senior Counsellor to Washington-based The Cohen Group , in order
to lead the Review. One of his two other Reviewers is a distinguished Anglo-American academic and
former Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States. Specialising in business and financial
services, the Review’s “industry expert” and a non-executive director on the MoD’s Defence Board is
a partner in a US Private Equity firm.

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07/07/2025 Richard Hooke 2025