ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the importance of wider national society for the professional defence sector, why the relationship can be problematic, and how the government is seeking to manage the situation, not least through the mechanisms of the Military Covenant. It deals with some basic areas of challenge for defence as regards its relationship with wider society. The chapter describes the 'problem space' for the defence community within broader society, before considering employment and employability of veterans. In 2016 the government abandoned the distinction between Corporate and Community Covenants and merged them into a single group. Thus, a constant challenge for governments is to persuade taxpayers of the good sense of paying for something whose benefits they rarely experience and which anyway are difficult to demonstrate. The broadcast and print media are the main channels of communication between the governmental defence sector and British society.
