ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the emergence of the Ministry of Defence in Britain. The account traces the key developments in a protracted battle between the champions of the so-called ‘Mountbatten model’ pressing for a unified and centralised structure organised on functional lines, and advocates of the ‘Hankey model’ in which the real power continues to reside with the individual Service Chiefs of Staff. The analysis begins with a discussion of the Duncan Sandys reforms in 1957-58 moving through Mountbatten’s influence on the 1963-64 innovations and Denis Healey’s contribution to this development. It then analyses the impact of Thatcher upon the operation of the MoD into the 21st century – and in particular it focuses upon the dramatic shift in the boundaries of the public-private divide since the 1980s. Central to this process has been the advance of privatisation in the provision of the defence product. The chapter concludes with an overview of the Ministry of Defence today in terms of income, expenditure, capital assets and resources.
