Conclusion

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that the British Army possessed the intellectual capacity for organizational innovation after 1945. It argues that the officer corps understood the significance of the nuclear revolution and arrived at logical conclusions as to how tactical nuclear weapons might affect land warfare. Its ability to think critically about the challenges posed by nuclear weapons calls into question the traditional narrative of the post-war British Army as an anti-intellectual organization, tied to out-of-date methods and a stagnant military doctrine. The chapter concludes that although the Army played an important role in NATO strategy, it displayed a cognitive dissonance about the logical inconsistencies of nuclear deterrence.