Lowering defence spending around the world has always been a utopian dream for idealists. Yet growing numbers of mainstream politicians from around the world believe they have finally come up with a way of making it possible.

The argument is a simple one – with money, unsurprisingly, at its heart. Defence spending is a huge commitment to the public purse; recent military interventionists in Iraq and Afghanistan are cases in point. It would be much more attractive not having to spend the money in the first place.