Britain needs to know ‘the last days of peace’ are over, warns expert | UK | News

Britain may never know when the next war will begin, and the government is scrambling to prepare for it.

A new secret “War Book” is being prepared in Whitehall for the first time since 2004, with a leading defense expert warning that modern conflicts could break out with none of the visible warning signs that preceded previous wars, leaving the country dangerously unprepared.

“The way in which the enemy engages in hybrid and cognitive warfare before kinetic warfare means we may never experience the ‘last days of peace’ phase as experienced by those who activated the 1939 War Book,” warns defense expert Paul Mason. “All conflicts of the 21st century are cognitive.”

Simply put: the next war may have already begun before Britain realizes it has started.

Chief of the Defense Staff Sir Richard Knighton confirmed Whitehall was writing a new Book of War “in a modern context, with a modern society and modern infrastructure”.

The development comes after Sir Keir Starmer established a Middle East Intervention Committee to address the escalating US-Iran conflict.

Who raises the alarm?

Mason, an honorary senior fellow at the University of Exeter, called on ministers to rebuild the War Book framework and bring it under open democratic control; He insisted that the emergency powers it contained should be “fair and revocable” rather than a blank check for the state, International Business Times reported.

Mason argues that the abolition of the old War Book two decades ago created “a vacuum of public conjecture about what the state might do if the UK found itself on the brink of kinetic war”.

While the Middle East Intervention Committee focused on a specific regional flashpoint, Mason’s briefing widens the lens significantly and asks whether Britain is structurally prepared for any serious conflict with a similar rival.

Why might there be no warning before conflict?

Mason’s most striking claim is that the idea of ​​clearly marked preparation for war (the visible, tense countdown before 1939) is no longer valid.

The original War Book underpinned government planning from 1939 and provided a detailed roadmap for ministries on how to stimulate the economy, control information and protect critical infrastructure before it was quietly shelved in 2004.

Without this, the country was left without a common framework for understanding what a move towards conflict would actually look like.

In other words, knowledge, perception and morale have become the battlefield long before even a single bullet is fired.

What does Mason want the War Book to contain?

Mason’s main concern is not just military hardware but the consent of the people. “If the public does not support the state and comply with the required behavior in wartime, even if the war is won operationally, it may be lost strategically,” he argues.

Mason’s logic is that rather than immediately convincing the public of an emergency, citizens, businesses, and institutions should know in advance what may be required of them, who is responsible, and where the limits of state power lie. Without this preparation, he warns, “the greater the risk of the state ‘flying blind’ in any situation where peer-to-peer warfare is likely.”

What structural changes did wartime England need?

Mason’s brief proposes a dramatic restructuring of government in the event of conflict. He recommends reshaping Whitehall “around the goal of winning by preserving the will and means to fight longer than the enemy” – including “a Department of War Production with authority to command and control the private sector” and a dedicated “Department of Economic Warfare” that would carry out economic security functions.

These are not minor adjustments, but a suggestion that the state would have much more direct control over industry and finance in wartime.

On information, Mason calls for a “modernised wartime public information mission” that would effectively revive the BBC’s historic role as a trusted national communicator during crises. It also proposes a “Lithuanian-style hardened secure government communications system” to protect government messages from hostile interception.

What did the government say about the War Book?

The government has only confirmed that a new Battle Book is being developed. The exact powers, structures and institutional changes have not yet been announced, and no public drafts of the upcoming Defense Preparedness Bill have been released.

Mason is clear about the risks. He concludes: “Achieving maximum clarity and transparency at the design stage will be crucial to ensuring that the whole of society accepts that such an emergency provision exists, even if it is never activated.”