Sir Nick must add art of diplomacy to skill set

The appointment of General Sir Nick Carter as the next head of Britain’s Armed Forces will send a reassuring message to the military as it faces up to emerging threats like Russia while also having to cope with drastic cuts to the defence budget.

Sir Nick, 59, who takes up his position in June, has enjoyed a distinguished military career during his 40 years in the Army, seeing active service in trouble-spots from Northern Ireland in the Seventies to more recently serving as deputy commander to the Nato mission in Afghanistan.

My own first encounter with Sir Nick was a decade or so ago in southern Afghanistan at the height of the British military campaign to defeat the Taliban, where he earned a reputation as a thoughtful commander with natural leadership skills.

Sir Nick will need to draw heavily upon both these attributes when he takes up his position as the next Chief of the Defence Staff at the Ministry of Defence, where he will find a full in-tray containing numerous issues, ranging from the growing threat posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia to the parlous state of the defence budget.

In terms of dealing with threats to Britain’s national security, Sir Nick’s forthright leadership style will be regarded as a breath of fresh air in Whitehall following the rather anonymous tenure of Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, his predecessor. An RAF navigator by training, Sir Stuart preferred to keep a low profile on key policy discussions.

Sir Nick, a far more accomplished performer in public, can be expected to take a more prominent role, where his firm views on how Britain should deal with its enemies should make for some lively debates.

Military chiefs are undertaking a radical appraisal of the threats facing Britain and its allies. In recent years the main focus of military activity has been in tackling Islamist-inspired terror groups such as the Taliban, al-qaeda and, more recently, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

But with the campaign to defeat Isil in Iraq and Syria now winding down, Sir Nick is said to view Russia as posing a more serious, existential threat to Britain’s security than a rag-tag bunch of terrorists.

The Salisbury poisoning, where the Russians are believed to have used a military grade nerve agent in an assassination attempt on a former Russian spy and his daughter, is seen by most military chiefs as a gamechanger, one that requires the Government to rethink radically its military response to the Russian threat, and how it intends to pay for it.

Small numbers of British troops have already been deployed to eastern Europe as part of a Nato force to deter further acts of Russian aggression, while RAF Eurofighters face a similar mission in the Baltic states.

But while Russia, and rogue states such as North Korea and Iran, occupy much of the attention of military planners, serious questions remain about whether the MOD budget can fund the capabilities Britain will need to defend itself in the years to come.

The National Security Council, chaired by Theresa May, is undertaking a review of the Mod’s ambitious equipment programme, with particular reference to finding adequate financial provision to cover the cost of the two new, 70,000-ton Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.

Most military experts agree the Treasury will need to find an extra £2billion a year to fill the Mod’s funding gap, and Sir Nick will need to add the art of diplomacy to his formidable skill set if he is to succeed in winning this vital Whitehall battle.