Page 27 - 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
1. The global security framework
Synopsis

Within an increasingly insecure environment, nations across the world, from the Global South to
Europe and beyond, from BRICS and the CSTO to the EU and NATO, share an appetite to maintain
national autonomy whilst joining together both to achieve peaceful co-existence and to establish a
secure position in the world economy. But the new US government indicates a desire to stand apart;
to act independently of its western allies, adopting America First as its guiding principle.

In adapting to an increasingly insecure world, the international framework of military alliances and
economic and security structures is being reworked and re-evaluated in a way not seen since the end
of World War II. As has been the case for nearly a century, America continues, for now, to be the major
influence, its policy decisions and pronouncements provoking action across the world, even though
they currently appear likely to isolate America and undermine its influence on global affairs.

Whilst the foundations of this framework have endured for over eighty years, forty years ago they
served to inform the post-Cold War consolidation of the world’s defence industry. From the end of the
1980s, a new, interdependent network of numerous cross-border mergers, acquisitions and joint
corporate ventures emerged. The configuration of this network, whilst informed by the events of the
1940s, was defined by a wider combination of factors. Not just by national and international security
and diplomacy but also by the trade in arms and military equipment, the influence of global financial
markets and a developing business culture attuned to shorter timescales and personal financial
reward. The fact that these factors are not always in alignment has created a complex web of
interconnections between nation across the world.
Hence, in addition to corporate mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances, new international
partnerships have also been formed to develop and bring into service new defence systems and
capabilities (eg: the F-35, AUKUS, European Typhoon and South Korean KF-21). These, and their
subsequent expanded versions as further nations join, have evolved into closer, long-term associations.
Stimulated by reciprocal trade and both direct and indirect offset arrangements, these associations
have evolved to address both security and economic objectives.
Eight Balkan states await entry to the EU via its “stabilisation and association” process. The seven
member countries that the EU views as “Central Europe” (Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) do not feature in the European defence industry’s network of cross-
border alliances and mergers. Yet together, these 15 countries could become critical to the EU’s ability
to sustain both a genuinely cohesive DIB as well as a practical deterrent to further Russian expansion
in Europe: an exemplar of modern peacekeeping and delivering prosperity through collectivism.
The emergence of a radically different US foreign policy has challenged the founding principles upon
which such alliances are based. It has more clearly defined the notion of “pragmatism” in
peacemaking. It is no longer simply the use or threat of military power to be used alongside peaceful
diplomacy but is now the open acceptance of war as a tool in facilitating trade and commercial gain.

In doing so, whilst dismissing the notion of American idealism stressed by George W Bush and by US
Presidents before and after him, it has illustrated the link between the health of a nation’s economy,
its trade with other countries and its national defence. It is noteworthy that President Trump’s
emphasis on dealmaking reflects much of what has emerged from BRICS: achieving the right balance
between trade, defence capability and diplomacy is a vital area of policy for every nation.

“.. the nature of American foreign policy is crucial for all of us. Whichever way we look at the
problems of the world, the question stays fundamental. What do the Americans mean by
leadership? In US foreign policy more than that of any other country, the tension between
idealism and realism is continuous and striking.”
(“The Search for Peace” Douglas Hurd, 1997)
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07/07/2025 Richard Hooke 2025