The 1981 Defence White Paper (titled "The UK Defence Programme: The Way Forward") was a major review of the United Kingdom's defence policy brought about by the Conservative government under the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The main author was the then Secretary of State for Defence, John Nott. The aim of the review was to reduce expenditure during the early 1980s recession and to focus on supporting NATO rather than out of area operations. It was ultimately judged[by whom?] however to have been extremely detrimental to the United Kingdom's defence posture, being one of the contributing factors that led to the outbreak of the Falklands War.