Defence Futures

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.

Announcements

What we do

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

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:

Internship Programme

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

Read more on the Defence Futures Internship Programme page.

The Legal Team support the development of Defence Futures 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:

Joint Doctrine

As a team previously within the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre and now part of the Integrated Warfare Centre, the Joint Doctrine Team write authoritative threat-informed NATO and UK strategic- and operational-level doctrine to inform professional military education and guide operations.

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:

Contact details

UKStratCom-DFutures-Pubs@mod.gov.uk

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