Persistent engagement is the MOD’s new approach to overseas operations below the threshold of conflict, but specialist operators are needed rather than generalists to drive its design and delivery.
2021 marked a moment of strategic re-direction for the UK that will provide opportunities for change within UK armed forces. In March 2021, the UK government published Global Britain in a Competitive Age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy (Integrated Review), which set out a vision for how the UK will engage and operate across the world. A supporting defence command paper, Defence in a Competitive Age, described what the Integrated Review means for defence. In addition, the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) supporting doctrinal publication, The Integrated Operating Concept 2025, presented a new approach to the utility of armed force against state threats in an era of persistent competition, which underpins the government’s new policy. Most recently, the British Army has published Future Soldier, its transformation programme in response to the Integrated Review.
At the heart of The Integrated Operating Concept 2025 is ‘persistent engagement’. This is a new approach that aims to deliver an increased forward presence overseas as a way to compete with and campaign against state threats below the threshold of conflict, while generating understanding and shaping the global landscape. It will support foreign policy objectives in weakened and failed regions through deterrence of state competitors, conflict resolution and prevention, pre-emption of crises, building long-term stability, and post-conflict stabilization. To this end, the MOD is taking steps to create a pre-emptive capability for persistent non-combat operations as a complement to its traditional, reactive crisis role of warfighting.
To achieve this, military personnel operating in the MOD’s persistent engagement network will be required to conduct a range of non-core, non-combat tasks alongside an array of unfamiliar non-military partners. This will require a more specialist rather than a generalist capability realized through revised policies and support frameworks. The recent failure of the Afghanistan campaign serves to highlight the complexities and potential pitfalls of operating in unfamiliar, politicized and complex human terrain. It also emphasized the need for international engagement activity to be underpinned by a sophisticated understanding of the underlying history as well as political, economic and socio-cultural dynamics of target regions. The imperative for military personnel to be equipped with the right knowledge, skills and experience (KSE) for these tasks has never been higher.
The imperative for military personnel to be equipped with the right knowledge, skills and experience (KSE) for these tasks has never been higher.
This paper considers how the MOD should optimize its armed forces for persistent engagement. Specifically, the paper makes recommendations on ways to professionalize its engagement capability by developing a cohort of specialist operators who can engage effectively in weakened and failed regions, equipped with expert KSE tailored to the tasks of gaining understanding, conflict prevention, and peacebuilding for long-term stability. This is an appropriate moment for engagement roles to be filled by individuals and teams with specialist KSE rather than continuing to rely on individuals with generalist, mainstream expertise grounded in the combat and warfighting disciplines.
This paper starts by reviewing the character of the conflict environment in the 21st century, then analyses the approaches used by the UK, allies and supranational security organizations in weakened and failed states including the tasks of conflict prevention and building stability. It assesses the KSE needed in individuals to gain a sophisticated understanding leading to practical wisdom and insight. The paper makes recommendations on new systems for the selection, education, training, career management, incentivization and support of a new human capability for engagement roles. These recommendations run counter to the prevailing practices and culture, meaning that successful change will require strong and sustained advocacy from senior leaders.
