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Putting People First: The Way Forward for the UK Armed Services

Dr. John Sloboda, James Kemp and Chris Abbott, July 2004

The UK's Armed Forces are facing overstretch and under-resourcing as a result of current policy trends in government. These trends have the capacity to seriously undermine the morale and the capability of the UK Armed Forces. Increasing concern is being voiced from both military and civilian sources.

This briefing argues that many of these concerns could be positively addressed if the UK government were to:

• Pull back from expensive, high-tech major war-fighting projects.
• Concentrate on properly resourcing its serving personnel.
• Invest in the UK's exceptional skills for conflict prevention, peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction.