David Brown (ed.), The Development of British Defence Policy: Blair,Brown and Beyond (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2010)

摘要

The editor of this book makes a plausible case that there is a need for a comprehensive account of British defence policy during the Blair and Brown years. The aim for the collection is to meet this requirement. It does not entirely succeed, in part due to the timing: the chapters were written some time before the general election of 2010, when a change of government looked likely and even a continuing Brown premiership would have been quite different after finally securing its own electoral mandate. There is therefore a rather unfinished feel to the book which might have been different had it appeared a few months later. Moreover, letting more time elapse before passing judgement would have allowed a little more perspective on the period covered (not least on the Brown years, which receive less attention in the analysis than developments under Blair). It is always difficult to write a comprehensive history so close to the events being assessed.