Britain is an off-shore island of the US and Europe, prizing independence yet maintaining the strongest possible links with both. Based on many years in Whitehall and interviews with key military personnel and civil servants, General Sir William Jackson reveals the formation of British defence policy from the Suez fiasco of 1957 through to the Falklands campaign, the shifting strategic balances of the nuclear world and the decline of the communist system today. This is an authoritative, challenging insider's view of British defence policy, its development and future role.