UK Preparing New 'War Book' as Modern Threats Eliminate 'Last Days of Peace'

UK Defence Preparedness and the New ‘War Book’

The United Kingdom is actively preparing for potential future conflicts, with a new report warning that the nation “may never enjoy a ‘last days of peace’ phase” due to the changing nature of modern warfare. According to a University of Exeter briefing by honorary senior fellow Paul Mason, a proposed government “War Book” must be subject to democratic accountability to ensure emergency powers are “just and reversible.” Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Richard Knighton confirmed the government is writing a new War Book “in a modern context, with modern society and modern infrastructure.”

Context: The 2004 Scrapping and Current Vacuum

The UK’s previous War Book was scrapped in 2004, creating what Mason describes as a “vacuum of public assumptions about what the state might do if the UK found itself on the brink of kinetic war.” This absence has prompted the call for a comprehensive new framework to address modern security challenges.

Modern Warfare and the Loss of Warning Time

Mason argues that contemporary adversaries fundamentally differ from those of the past. “The modus operandi of the enemy - to engage in hybrid and cognitive warfare in advance of kinetic - means we may never enjoy a ‘last days of peace’ phase such as those activating the 1939 War Book did. All 21st century conflicts are cognitive,” Mason stated.

He also emphasizes domestic vulnerabilities: “If the population does not support the state in wartime, and conform to the behaviours required, the war could be lost strategically even if it could be won operationally.”

Proposed Defence Readiness Bill and Emergency Powers

The report recommends that a forthcoming Defence Readiness Bill establish new emergency powers. Without them, “the more the state risks ‘flying blind’ in any situation where peer-vs-peer war becomes likely,” according to Mason’s briefing.

Recommended Government Restructuring

The report calls for a comprehensive overhaul of government machinery for wartime operations. Key recommendations include:

• Creating a “Ministry of War Production, with powers to command and control the private sector”
• Merging economic security units into a “Ministry of Economic Warfare”
• Reintroducing a modernised wartime public information duty for the BBC
• Implementing a “Lithuanian-style hardened secure state communications system”

The report states: “In wartime, government must be reshaped around the overriding aim: to win by maintaining the will and the means to fight for longer than the adversary.”

Democratic Accountability and Public Transparency

Mason concluded that achieving transparency during the design phase is essential: “Achieving maximum clarity and transparency at the design stage will be crucial for whole-of-society acceptance that such emergency provision exists, even if it is never activated.”

Context: Middle East Response Committee

These preparations are occurring alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer forming a Middle East Response Committee following the USA’s conflict with Iran.