The West should not be afraid to use the military instrument to uphold the Anglo-American world order. That was the main message of Adm. Sir Tony Radakin, the outgoing Chief of the U.K. Defense Staff during a farewell appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 14, the day before the summit meeting in Alaska between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We have the financial, military, and intellectual might to buttress and defend the world order and confront those who undermine it,” Radakin claimed. “But we do need the confidence and willingness to wield the military instrument. We’ve seen this in the way Israel has neutered Hezbollah in Lebanon, through the willingness of the United States to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities, and through the extraordinary outcome of the Hague Summit. Soft power, by itself, is rarely enough. As the great U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declared, speak softly and carry a big stick.”
