Are we heading for World War Three – and is Britain’s military ready?

If this new ‘axis of evil’ framing is correct, then the ongoing promise of dangers today and new equipment tomorrow will leave the United Kingdom vulnerable, writes Andrew Dorman. But given there are so many other calls for public expenditure, the alternative is a dramatic change in British foreign policy

Admiral Rob Bauer (centre), General Christopher Cavoli (left) and General Chris Badia prepare to address a conference at Nato HQ in Brussels (AP)

Grant Shapps, the Conservative’s seventh defence secretary since 2010, channelled his inner George W Bush to deliver his own “axis of evil” speech at Lancaster House this week. Russia, China, North Korea and Iran were named as “belligerent autocratic states” that, alongside their proxies such as the Houthis in Yemen, are currently threatening Britain and more broadly the West’s interests.

This was followed by alarming headlines on Friday that the West should prepare for all-out war with Russia within the next 20 years. Admiral Rob Bauer, a senior Nato official, said countries needed to build capacity to produce weapons to sustain a lengthy conflict. And not only that – governments should be talking to their citizens about mobilisation, more reservists and even conscription.

In Shapps’s words – as echoed by Admiral Bauer – we have moved “from a post-war world to a pre-war world.”