The Committee of Imperial Defence was an important ad hoc part of the government of the United Kingdom and the British Empire from just after the Second Boer War until the start of World War II. It was responsible for research, and some co-ordination, on issues of military strategy.
Typically, a temporary sub-committee would be set up to investigate and report at length on a specific issue. A large number of such sub-committees were engered over the decades, on topics such as foreign spies (a Committee report in 1909 led to the founding of MI5 and MI6), food rationing, and aerial defence.
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It was established in 1902 by Arthur Balfour, then British Prime Minister, following the recommendations of the Elgin Committee, chaired by Lord Elgin.[1] It was intended as an advisory committee for the Prime Minister, one that would be small and flexible; it replaced the Cabinet's decrepit Defence Committee, which had usually only met during periods of crisis.
The original concept was to create a strategic vision defining the future roles of the two military services after the military reductions in the wake of the Boer War. However, no arrangements were made for it to formally pass on its conclusions to those with the ability to translate them into actions.
This lack soon became obvious enough that a Secretariat was appointed, under Sir George Clarke. However, far from simply acting as a communicator, he expected to actually make policy, and see it implemented. With the fall of the Balfour Government in 1906, and with the military services determined to control their own futures, Clarke's plans fell through, and with no support from the incoming Prime Minister, he left in 1907.
The Secretariat carried on, largely as a forum for communication on lesser matters between those service members who would speak to each other, and with civil servants.
The Committee slowly gained in importance under the leadership of Maurice Hankey. He was appointed Naval Assistant Secretary to the Committee in 1908, and became Secretary to the Committee in 1912; he would hold that position for the next twenty-six years.
By 1914, the Committee had begun to act as a defence planning agency for the British Empire, consequently providing advice to the Dominion on occasion. It continued to perform these roles into the 1920s. It was effectively a peacetime defence planning system, one which only provided advice; formal authority remained with Ministers and service chiefs (which helped ensure its acceptability to the existing bureaucracy).
Chaired by the Prime Minister, members were usually cabinet ministers, the heads of the military services, and key civil servants; Prime Ministers from Dominion countries were de facto members of the Committee in peacetime as well.
It was shut down on the outbreak of World War II.