The British Chiefs of Staff Committee, military planning and alliance commitments, 1955-1960

Rees, Gareth Wyn Edward (1994) The British Chiefs of Staff Committee, military planning and alliance commitments, 1955-1960. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

This thesis will look at the military planning of the British Chiefs of Staff Committee in the period 1955-60. It will seek to investigate the views of the Committee about the strategic interests of Britain, the likely threats that the country faced and the economic constraints in which choices had to be made. It will look at the assumptions of the Chiefs of Staff about the different forms of conflict that could take place: global war, limited war and cold war.

The thesis will analyse the extent to which British military planning was believed to be in harmony with Britain's membership of the three major international alliances: the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Baghdad Pact (subsequently the Central Treaty Organisation) and the South East Asia Treaty Organisation. Britain retained defence obligations to states outside of these alliance systems and also sought to build up a close military relationship with the United States. Particular attention will be paid to whether British national military plans were modified by formal alliance commitments.

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