Britain's "70 year holiday from history" is over and the UK's enemies now threaten to overcome us, the new chief of defence staff has warned.

Increasingly assertive and aggressive states are using techniques below the threshold of conventional battle and have shown they are the masters of exploiting the seams between peace and war, General Sir Nick Carter has said in a speech.

“What constitutes a weapon in this grey area, no longer has to go bang.”

The “global playing field” of international relations was now one of constant competition and confrontation where “energy, cash, corrupt business practices, assassination, fake news and good old fashioned military intimidation,” are all being used as weapons.

“There are no longer two clearly distinct states of peace and war,” he said. If we do not recognise this and act accordingly the threat will creep up on us “like a chronic contagious disease,” he warned. “We will fail if we see these as a series of crises.”