Strategic Defence Review 2025

Lord Bishop of Bristol Excerpts

Friday 18th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Bristol]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, for bringing the SDR to debate to this House, and I look forward to continuing to hear this House’s wide-ranging expertise. I also look forward to the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord McCabe.

George Bell, formerly the Bishop of Chichester, thought deeply about the ethics of international relations and spoke, on occasions controversially, in this House about his conclusions. Speaking more generally of the Church in wartime—and I too believe that we are in a time of considerable risk of war—he asserted that the task of the Church, in its service and witness, was to be the Church, and often, that would be in practical endeavour within a whole-society response.

Last weekend the General Synod of the Church of England in York responded to the current international threat level very practically by providing new legislative arrangements to hold the records of military chaplains centrally, not locally. That will allow chaplains, regular or reservists, to be licensed to move much more rapidly into operation. I commend this new legislation to members of the Ecclesiastical Committee and to the whole House, as the Church seeks to support the aim of increasing agility in deployment.

Back in Bristol this week, I pondered the experience of the bombing of the city of Bristol in the Second World War and its remarkable resilience in the face of what felt like total war. The glass of the north aisle of the cathedral depicts volunteers: ambulance drivers, search teams, first responders and first aiders, as well as the WRVS providing not just tea and reassurance but hope. That volunteering spirit showed itself again in Bristol’s response to Covid and the whole community’s stand last summer against unrest.

Individualism may seem to be prevalent but care for neighbours, however different from us, is still strong in our cities. I believe there is scope for a new volunteer civil reserve of the sort frequently found across European states—in Poland, the Baltic states and Italy—of those recruited, trained and supported to provide an emergency response, not least in war. So alongside investment in weapons, I urge investment in the provision of civil resilience.

As your Lordships might expect, alongside a war readiness strategy I would welcome a conflict prevention and peacebuilding strategy, not least as overseas aid is depleted. If a crisis does lead to the brink of war, the UK must contribute to capability through development and diplomacy, in order to cool tensions and reduce the inevitability of armed conflict. This is both a moral and an economic argument.

Here is one small example: the Church, through its lead on the Global Investor Commission on Mining—working with the Anglican partnership for peacebuilding, based in Cape Town—is enabling local communities to be trained in dialogue work at the nexus of friction around extraction and armed groups, where conflict is fuelled by the demand for critical materials. This is an active development opportunity. Further north, the UN is working with Anglican leaders trained in dialogue skills to be peacemakers and social and civic builders in places where civil society has completely broken down.

So, while I welcome the strategic defence review, not least in its honesty and courage—though I too am concerned about the financial plans alongside it—I also yearn for a companion strategic peacebuilding review, and the Church, being the Church, stands ready to be a partner in that task.