My generation has experienced a rarity in British history. We’ve never really faced the prospect of a European or World War. You could argue the nuclear arms race in the 1980s was the closest we came to it, but it was never really a serious prospect. And when the cold war ended in 1990 we all assumed that we could all enjoy the peace dividend. We should have known better.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine four years ago made us all understand that nothing has changed. There will always be a brutal dictator who cares little for the value of human life and who seeks to conquer other countries, and in Putin’s case rebuild the Soviet empire. But it’s not just Russia. There are many other flashpoints throughout the world which could blow up at any minute. President Xi has made no secret of his desire to take over Taiwan. Then there’s the powder-keg of the India/Pakistan conflict. Or the various ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. And, of course, the undermining of NATO by an American president who claims to have brought peace to at least eight conflicts, but seems perfectly at ease to threaten to invade Greenland.

This is the background to a truly excellent new book by Peter Apps. It’s a fine and worthy successor to his last book on the history of NATO. It carried the somewhat frightening title of THE NEXT WORLD WAR: THE NEW AGE OF GLOBAL CONFLICT AND THE FIGHT TO STOP IT. It really is a gripping tour de force, and is a book that every politician, whatever their party allegiance, needs to read. If anyone ever doubted the urgent need to dramatically increase defence spending, Apps destroys their argument.

The trouble with our debates about defence nowadays is that it is too easy to characterise anyone who advocates an increase in defence spending as a warmonger. No sane person wants their country to go to war, but the more sensible citizens recognise that the best way to avoid war, is to prepare it. And the arguments to achieve that permeate every page of this book.

Anyone who listened to the Sky News podcast THE WAR GAME will have an understanding of just how precarious our air defences are. When I say precarious, I mean more or less non-existent. We are extremely vulnerable to a Russian missile attack and it’s criminal that successive governments have allowed this state of affairs to persist.

Peter Apps looks at various scenarios in which a world conflict could take place and skilfully details how modern warfare means that any future world conflict would be nothing like we’ve ever seen before. Drone and cyberwarfare would in many cases be more important than traditional land based or air battles. The ability to fire long range missiles over and between continents is a game-changing development.

The main take-away from this book is that we need to up our game on defence spending, just like we did in the late 1930s. By then it was almost too late. We should not be pussyfooting around setting arbitrary targets of spending 2.5%, 3% or even 5% on defence. We need to identify the equipment and arms we need, coming up with an annual figure, and start the procurement process. This should be done in concert with NATO allies, with each country playing to its strengths. And we must also shame countries like Ireland, which have for too long sheltered under the NATO defensive umbrella, to step up to the plate, just like Sweden and Finland have done. Italy too, is an outlier, and is spending a ridiculously low amount on defence.

These decisions cannot be put off. In Britain, we have a welfare budge, where we have spending plans outlined until 2031. In defence, we only have spending commitments until 2027. That says it all about the priorities of this government, which professes to recognise the dangers we face, yet is doing bugger all of practical purpose to fight them.

The defence and security of the realm ought to be the first priority of every responsible government. It’s about time this government showed it means business, and Peter Apps’s book demonstrates why.

The Next World War by Peter Apps is published by Wildfire in hardback at £25 can be ordered HERE.