![\"Prince](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/california_post_772\/ece19825b74c53f33bd7905d803946cc.jpeg\"\/)
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Prince Harry currently resides in California. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The rift between\u00a0Harry\u00a0and his family and country opened in 2018, when he married American actress Meghan Markle, followed by the couple’s dramatic “Megxit<\/a>” to Southern California.<\/p>\n The couple subsequently made controversial public claims about the royal family, and attracted considerable invective in the media and influencer worlds.\u00a0Harry\u00a0is now said to be living a “rather pointless existence<\/a>” and is “desperately lonely<\/a>” and “not really doing anything in America<\/a>.”<\/p>\n While\u00a0their\u00a0name recognition<\/a>\u00a0remains high, public approval toward both has\u00a0tanked in Britain<\/a>. Aside from King Charles’ disgraced brother Andrew, they are the\u00a0most disliked<\/a>\u00a0members of the royal family.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Britain is struggling to adjust to a new and dangerous world with a “hollowed out<\/a>”\u00a0military and a\u00a0shaky<\/a>\u00a0“special relationship” with the United States. The US-Iran conflict has further\u00a0exposed<\/a>\u00a0Britain’s military incapacities for the world to see.<\/p>\n King Charles III rides in a Challenger 3 Main Battle Tank during The Royal Tank Regiment’s Families’ Day at the Tank Museum on July 6, 2026 in Bovington, Dorset. via REUTERS<\/p>\n Yet the UK is not facing up to the challenge. Spending money on anything beyond the National Health Service, social welfare programs and pensions has become deeply fraught politically. While the Labour government has\u00a0promised<\/a>\u00a0to increase defense spending, any new money could prove\u00a0too little and too late<\/a>. Britain needs to\u00a0rearm now<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 not in the next parliament or some other fantasy future in which difficult choices will finally be made.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump may not be “right about everything<\/a>,” but he was unquestionably correct when he argued from the start of his first term that NATO nations needed to spend more on defense. While Britain would subsequently claim it met the NATO obligation to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defense, this was achieved through\u00a0accounting tricks<\/a>\u00a0such as including pensions and peacekeeping operations. The nation’s total military personnel\u00a0has declined<\/a>\u00a0over the past decade, and its ability to\u00a0exert force<\/a>\u00a0and engage in sustained operations is\u00a0questionable<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Enter\u00a0Harry. Charles’ younger son graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and served in the army for a decade, where he earned the rank of captain, participated in two combat tours of Afghanistan, and earned the respect of his follow soldiers. As he recounts in his controversial autobiography, “Spare<\/a>,” he killed 25 enemy fighters from his Apache helicopter, giving him a skin-in-the-game perspective on national defense that few policymakers can claim. He also co-founded the\u00a0Invictus Games<\/a>\u00a0for wounded veterans.<\/p>\n Prince Harry sits on his camp bed in his accommodation at FOB Delhi (forward operating base), on January 2, 2008 in Helmand province, Southern Afghanistan. Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images<\/p>\n Harry\u00a0has the credibility to lead a national campaign to restore Britain’s military capabilities. This can begin by returning his\u00a0lost honorary military titles,<\/a>\u00a0and adding some more.<\/p>\n Harry\u00a0could also take on roles in the policy world. He might convene discussions about how to find more funding for the armed forces, and how to spend it; bring together experts to study which capacities the military actually has, and which it must have; and lead a campaign to inspire more young people to enlist.<\/p>\n While the royals must avoid political entanglements, they need not remain silent on all topics. In fact, by drawing attention to problems that too many are ignoring,\u00a0Harry\u00a0would follow in the footsteps of his father, who was ahead of his time on issues such as\u00a0ugly modern architecture<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0sustainable agriculture<\/a>. It would not make sense for\u00a0Harry\u00a0to push for specific defense plans. But helping the nation to understand clear and present dangers is a constitutionally appropriate undertaking for a royal unlikely to ever be king. He would also be well positioned to lead a UK\u00a0war bonds<\/a>\u00a0campaign.<\/p>\n Prince Harry salutes as the Last Post is played as he joins British troops and service personal remaining in Afghanistan and also International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) personnel and civilians as they gather for a Remembrance Sunday service at Kandahar Airfield November 9, 2014 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Getty Images<\/p>\n While the tensions among King Charles, Prince\u00a0Harry\u00a0and Prince William are often portrayed as insurmountable, there are reports that Charles and\u00a0Harry\u00a0are working \u2014 in an effort termed\u00a0Project Thaw<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 to\u00a0ease<\/a>\u00a0the strain. This suggests that royal relationships are not yet beyond repair.<\/p>\n After six years in California,\u00a0Harry’s transition would take time. But it could represent a rare opportunity to strengthen the nation.<\/p>\n Furthermore,\u00a0Harry\u00a0and Meghan’s recent\u00a0visit to Australia<\/a>, which proved more successful than many predicted, as well as their\u00a0visit to the UK<\/a> this week, shows that the couple will not simply disappear over time.<\/p>\n If Charles,\u00a0Harry and William can set aside past difficulties and develop new working relationships,\u00a0Harry\u00a0could prove a valuable complement to the royal family, rather than a\u00a0thorn<\/a>\u00a0in its\u00a0side<\/a>.<\/p>\n A warrior prince is just what Britain needs, and nobody can fill this role but\u00a0Harry.<\/p>\n David L. Leal is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince Harry evidently enjoys life in California, but the United Kingdom and its wayward royal\u00a0son need each other.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,12167,151829,6370,156770,7764,6371,151831,1009,156771,156772],"class_list":["post-388955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-getty-images","tag-king-charles","tag-meghan-markle","tag-military-capabilities","tag-military-personnel","tag-prince-harry","tag-prince-william","tag-southern-california","tag-the-royal-family","tag-the-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"King](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/california_post_772\/c4fb9fdc52aff9f1839405b394195154.jpeg\"\/)
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