Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre

Following the launch of Strategic Command's Integration Design Authority on 1 July 2024, the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) has evolved into a new organisation – Defence Futures.

Important notice:

Programme SOLARIUM – Strategic Command’s transformation programme – launched the new Integration Design Authority (IDA) on 1 July 2024. The IDA, as the cornerstone of the future Strategic Command operating model, will enhance how we collectively conduct conceptual, capability and warfare development to deliver more effective campaigns for Defence in the future.

From this transformation the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) has evolved into a new organisation – Defence Futures, part of the IDA.

This new organisation, bolstered by colleagues formerly working within the capability area, has the purpose of ‘integrating Defence concepts, futures and force design’. This will see our Strategic Foresight and Concepts Teams continue to deliver their core outputs within Defence Futures.

The DCDC Doctrine Team have moved under the command of the Integrated Warfare Centre (formerly Joint Warfare) within the IDA with the purpose of ‘integrating support to campaigns’. The Doctrine Team will continue collaboration with the Defence Futures teams.

All DCDC publications and associated products will remain accessible via the existing digital platforms (defnet, GOV.UK and Defence Gateway).

Announcements

What we do

The Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) is the Ministry of Defence’s think tank. The organisation was created as a result of the 1998 Strategic Defence Review which took the view that Defence needed a clear long-term, truly joint vision of how our Armed Forces should operate.

Our mission is to challenge the status quo, inspire debate, and provide world-class futures, concepts, doctrine and legal products. This is achieved through producing strategic foresight, concepts and doctrine, underpinned by evidence-based research and experimentation.

Doctrine

The Doctrine Team write authoritative threat-informed NATO and UK strategic- and operational-level doctrine to inform professional military education and guide operations.

Watch our video on ‘what is joint doctrine’ to find out more.

The Doctrine Team work with a range of cross government and international organisations including: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

By putting ‘NATO at the heart of UK Defence’ the Team are able to achieve maximum coherence and interoperability with, and between, the UK’s closest allies and partners.

Where possible, NATO doctrine is adopted rather than producing national doctrine.

Publications include:

Concepts

The Concepts Team develop and assure threat-informed concepts to inform and influence the evolution of policy, force design and capability development.

Working closely across MOD and wider government, engaging with academia, industry and multinational allies and partners, the Team write exploratory and operating concepts that look beyond current policy and financial horizons at the likely ways Defence might operate over the next 20 years.

Publications include:

Strategic foresight

The Strategic Foresight Team provide the threat-informed, long-term global strategic context for policy, strategy and capability development.

In collaboration with their global network the Team consider what the future might look like in the coming decades and publishes its thoughts and findings through its Global Strategic Trends Programme. Beyond this work within MOD, the Strategic Foresight Team contribute to cross-government thinking about the future and work closely with international partners and allies.

Publications include:

Insights, analysis, research and challenge

The Insights, Analysis, Research and Challenge Team provide analysis and research to inform and support the continuous development of policy and strategy within Defence.

They employ critical thinkers, seek alternative perspectives and perform rigorous analysis and research via a range of tools and resources augmented by the Global Strategic Partnership contract.

As the owner of Defence’s Red Teaming Handbook, they offer red teaming techniques and applications to Defence and other government departments in the form of workshops to assist them in making better-informed decisions or to produce a more robust product.

Publications include:

DCDC Internship Programme

DCDC runs a paid internship programme open to any Masters-level (post-graduate) students. This is designed to bring recent academic research and practice to support DCDC outputs and to give interns the experience of working in government on major strategic issues.

Read more on the DCDC Internship Programme page.

The Legal Team support the development of DCDC outputs through the provision of legal advice and undertake legal reviews of new weapons and means of warfare.

They are custodians of Joint Service Publication 383, The Joint Service Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, support the assurance of operational law training to Service personnel, and participate in national and international legal debates, particularly regarding emerging technology.

Publications include:

Contact details

dcdc-doceds@mod.gov.uk

Contents