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by Charlie Edwards

What do Lord Patten of Barnes, Professor Christopher Hill, Lord May of Oxford, Dr Sushil Wadhwani, Lord Paul of Marylebone, Sir Emyr Jones-Parry, General Sir Rupert Smith, Sir David Veness, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, Professor Paul Collier, Sir Michael Pitt, and Dr Robin Niblett, all have in common? They are our nominations for the national security forum. The purpose of the forum will be to provide expert advice to the Cabinet Committee on National Security, International Relations and Development (NSID for short). I wonder who Chatham House, IPPR, IISS, Centre for Defence Studies and RUSI nominated?

Short background: Last month the Prime Minister's security adviser sent a letter to academic institutuions and the think tank community asking us to nominate 12 individuals who we thought had the right 'range of experience and expertise' to sit on the NSF board. The following postions were up for grabs (so to speak):

1.  Chair: a senior figure with a background in international affairs or security:
2.  A member drawn from an academic body with a specialism in international/ security affairs:
3.  A scientist:
4.  An economist:
5.  An industrialist:
6.  A retired senior diplomat:
7.  A retired senior military officer:
8.  A retired senior police officer:
9.  A member with an intelligence/ security background:
10. An international development expert
11. A current or former member of local government:
12. At least one 'lay' member without specific portfolio:

We chose Lord Patten to sit as chair and then follow the names and list in order. I personally think the we've got the mix about right - though I would have liked to have somebody with more experience in international law and/or a human rights lawyer. I also think it would have been wise to have a technologist.

Lilly Evans

Just a token woman again! Now the national security ceiling as well. Why not Prof Mary Caldor? How about Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, Baroness Jay of Paddington, Baroness Hogg, Baroness Neville-Jones, Baroness Neuberger, Baroness Williams of Crosby, Baroness Greenfield, to name just a few?My verdict - could do much, much better. Go on, redo.

Charlie Edwards

Well, Neville-Jones is shadow Security Minister so that rules her out; I'm not sure (given the positions availble) where Julia Neuberger would go?; I rate Chris Hill over Mary Kaldor; Helena Kennedy would be a good choice ditto Sarah Hogg for the economist but it would be hard to beat Sushil Wadhwani? I think Shirley Williams is a great call and I'm not sure why I didn't think of her - especially given her very recent work on nuclear proliferation for the Prime Minister. Given her experience perhaps SW would be best placed to take up the 'without portfolio position? Let's hope the PM takes this into consideration. 

Daniel Philpott

I'd argue that the list is missing an element of increasing importance to national security, media expertise.  There are a few reasons for this being important, such as the increasing amount of open source information available and the importance of public perception in achieving security goals.  Also, the lack of a security technologist seems archaic.It may be a historic bias from this side of the pond but I can't help but think someone named Walsingham should be involved in a British national security forum.

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