CHACR Commentary #17: What next for the Joint Expeditionary Force?

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A DECADE DONE WHAT NEXT FOR THE JOINT EXPEDITIONARY FORCE?

Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment exercised alongside land, sea and air units drawn from across the Joint Expeditionary Force’s participant nations in Norway earlier this year Picture: Cpl Paul Squires, UK MOD © Crown copyright 2023

CHACR COMMENTARY // NOVEMBER, 2023

BY: Professor Andrew Stewart, Research Director CHACR “We reiterate the valuable contribution of the JEF [Joint Expeditionary Force] to deterring and defending against the threats we face in our common region of the High North, North Atlantic and Baltic Sea, underscoring that Russia is the most significant and direct threat to security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area”. – JEF Leaders’ Joint Statement, Visby, Sweden, 13 October 2023

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S it approaches the tenth anniversary of its establishment, the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) struggles to attract much interest outside of defence communities – remaining largely unknown in Britain and throughout its ‘participant nations’. Last month’s leaders’

summit, held in Visby, Sweden, is testament to the coalition’s ‘grey man’ status. The event highlighted the enthusiasm which exists at the most senior political and military levels but the lack of media coverage it garnered is the latest chapter in a sparsely reported story.1 This absence of a tangible public profile is perhaps a reflection of the confused and confusing security environment and

architecture that provide the backdrop to the JEF’s activities and against which the impact of war in Ukraine has become a critical theme. Of course, attaining and maintaining a strong identity is difficult if you are operating in a crowded space2 and defence agreements which emphasise the importance to Britain of joint, expeditionary capabilities are

Oliver Moody, ‘Finnish intelligence says “state actor” may have sabotaged pipeline’, The Times, October 14, 2023.

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Brendan Flynn, ‘Knowing your CJEF from your JEF: Europe’s “Alphabet soup” of interstitial military cooperation – what relevance for cold war 2.0?’, Defence Studies (Vol.20, No.4; 2022), 1-3.

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Lucy Fisher, ‘Defence chief wants deeper military union with French’, The Times, September 24, 2018.

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Paul O’Neill, ‘CJEF: A Solution in Search of a Problem?’, RUSI Commentary, 10 March 2023; Rick Noack and Karla Adam, ‘Macron and Sunak renew ties at first France-U.K. summit in five years’, Washington Post, March 10, 2023.

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not uncommon. Perhaps the best known example is the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force, a 10,000 personnel-strong AngloFrench coalition that has enjoyed robust military endorsement and, in 2020, achieved full operational capability.3 It has, however, struggled in identifying a clear role for how it can best be used. There have also been sometimes strained political relations between London and Paris, although British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appears to attach considerable value to strengthening relations with his French counterpart President Emmanuel Macron which may have positive implications for the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force.4 Other groupings have also emerged alongside more informal arrangements; the Gulf War was


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