UK Defence Forum

The UK Defence Forum exists to enable politicians, industrialists, members of the armed forces, academics and others with an interest in defence and security issues to exchange information and views on the future needs of Britain's defence and security.

Put at its simplest, the Forum looks at where future conflicts may occur or threats evolve, why, what the UK should do about it, and how the nation and its defence industrial base would be affected. The Forum represents an opportunity for politicians, including those in Government and from Opposition parties, to meet people from relevant diverse backgrounds and to exchange information with them and others interested in defence and security.

The UK Defence Forum possesses no corporate view of its own, meetings are strictly conducted under the Chatham House Rule, and there is a strong "no lobbying" policy. Papers are delivered by academics, military, diplomats, politicians, civil servants or industrialists. From the perspective of politicians, the unique value of the UK Defence Forum is that they are able to obtain insights into matters of concern to them and to question a wide range of experts privately. The UK Defence Forum was urged by former Prime Minister Blair to "think the unthinkable". Some papers following moderating are placed on the UK Defence Forum website and made available to the public domain. Additional papers are published in writing and on the website (with a policy of general public domain release some three years after initial publication).

The website also hosts the Tim Garden Archives and EURODEFENSE UK archives. The U K Defence Forum conducts an annual Tim Garden Essay Competition. The UKDF produces Defence Viewpoints, with articles, opinion pieces and news with a national and international perspective which is updated daily, and which has a comment and contribution facility. Defence Viewpoints also contains links to blogs in USA, Russia, China, India and others. It contains a feed from Twitter Defence Red Box

The UK Defence Forum meets on a regular basis in London: meetings are attended by invited politicians, academics, senior industrialists, and others. The Forum is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organisation, based in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Forum's patrons include The Rt Hon Dr David Clark, Baron Clark of Windermere, The Rt Hon Menzies Campbell CBE QC MP, The Rt Hon Tom King, Baron King of Bridgwater, and Field Marshal Charles Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank GCB OBE.

  • UK Defence Forum Home of the U K Defence Forum featuring papers and meetings programme
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