The author of the following DefenceSynergia (DS) opinion piece covering the United Kingdom Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) post Brexit is a founder member of DS. In an earlier life, David Graham was an officer in the Royal Navy who was involved in three Cod Wars and served in three RN Island Class OPVs. Subsequently, he has gained over twenty years of EEZ surveillance experience operating in West and Southern Africa, the South Atlantic, the Far East and the Middle East. (more…)

DefenceSynergia (DS) is grateful to Prof Dr Julian Lindley-French for permission to publish his recent commentary entitled ‘Leangkollen 2020 Europe’s China Challenge’.

The Strategic aspects of the West’s relationship with China have been largely ignored outside the USA mainly for fear of financial disadvantage. As Dr Lindley-French says towards the end of his commentary: ‘Respect’ should be the mantra Europeans should adopt in dealing with China…Equally, Europeans must also ‘respect’ the nature of the Chinese state, the dark sides of its growing influence and power, and the threat it could pose, and develop the resilience needed to resist Chinese coercion, both implied and actual, overt and covert.’ (more…)

DefenceSynergia (DS) is indebted to Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon, former Chief of the Air Staff, Vice Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham, lately Deputy Chief of Defence Staff and former RUSI Vice-President, Major General Jonathan Shaw, previously Director Special Forces and, subsequently, Assistant Chief of Defence Staff, Antony Hichens, lately Chairman of DS Smith PLC and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) (where it was originally published) for permission to reproduce professional advice for Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) in respect of the much trailed 2020 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). (more…)

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