Reorganising the Infantry: Drivers of Change and What This Tells Us about the State of the Defence Debate Today

Abstract

This article uses the case study of the reorganisation of the infantry announced in December 2004 to argue that the government undertook reforms that were in the army's interest rather than its own and that the existing schools of thinking within defence fail to explain this behaviour. The article goes on to make three conclusions. Firstly, our traditional assumptions about structure-agency within defence are incorrect and that agency has a far greater role to play. Secondly, that the battle of the Scottish Regiments raises questions about the balance between local, regional and ethnic identity. Thirdly, that the army reorganisation highlights the weakness of the current defence debate in the United Kingdom with much of the existing literature left over from the Cold War period.