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
- Global Strategic Trends: Out to 2055 has been published
- Nordic Synthesis: Implications from Global Strategic Trends 7 has been published
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:
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Joint Concept Notes (JCNs) explain how the military instrument can be employed against future challenges to achieve policy aims.
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The command and control in the future project explores a new approach to command and control.
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The Multinational Capability Development Campaign (MCDC) enables multinational cooperation in addressing shared capability challenges.
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:
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The Global Strategic Trends Programme is a collection of publications that develop, challenge and inform Defence strategy, policy and capability development through a broad range of strategic and foresight analysis.
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:
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Global Strategic Partnership research papers bring expertise from think tanks, academia and industry to support Defence thinking, and policy and strategy development.
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.
Legal
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.