Breaking out of the Groundhog Day? British strategic culture and the making of the Indo-Pacific Tilt

This article analyses the making of Britain’s Indo-Pacific Tilt as an active attempt to shape British strategic culture. It contributes to strategic culture research by shifting the focus from assessing change or continuity to analysing how strategic cultural meanings are actively constructed, contested and sustained through strategy-making practice. Strategic culture is conceptualised as dynamic and inherently constructed. Empirically, the study zooms into the drafting of the 2021 Integrated Review, the first major British strategy document published after Brexit. Based on 23 original interviews with practitioners and experts, the analysis shows that the process led by No. 10 Downing Street played a decisive role in the emergence of the Tilt. In doing so, No. 10 sought to reinvigorate the idea of Britain as a country with global interests and reach, while simultaneously hitting strategic cultural nerves by questioning deep-seated liberalist views of the international system in Whitehall. While showing how strategic cultural change was attempted through practice, the study also demonstrates how such efforts were reshaped and constrained by enduring identity narratives and defence-related practices.