Britain's Brown to publish UK's first national security strategy amid growing range of threats

LONDON: Prime Minister Gordon Brown is set to outline the first major overhaul of Britain's national security plans since the end of the Cold War, aiming to protect Britain from emerging threats including extreme weather, pandemic diseases, unstable energy supplies and terrorist attacks, his office said Tuesday.

The British leader will publish Britain's first-ever national security strategy Wednesday and launch a reorganization of the county's response to a host of threats, Brown's spokesman Michael Ellam said.

It is likely to call for quick progress on expanding the number of permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and suggest a targeted use of aid money to help shore up fragile states, government officials said.

Analysts and think tanks have long expressed concern that Brown's government has placed too much emphasis on counterterrorism and ignored the risks posed by climate change, failed states and disease.

"We face different threats than we faced 10 or 20 years ago and those threats are complex and they require complex solutions to deal with," Ellam said.

He said the strategy has been drafted for the first time because of a new understanding of the potential impact of climate change and unstable energy supplies on national security, and because of increasing concern about the role of failed states.

Brown will stress the need for better coordination between the military, police, intelligence agencies and diplomats to respond to security threats, Ellam said.

But he is not expected to back demands from opposition lawmakers to establish a U.S.-style National Security Council or appoint a Homeland Security minister.

Analysts claim that efforts to promote better cooperation between government departments is an acknowledgment that poor postwar planning has blighted progress in Iraq.

"It's a bold move by Gordon Brown and his government to set out a first security strategy," said Charlie Edwards, a security analyst at the London Demos think tank.

"The national security architecture has changed little in the past two decades since the end of the Cold War and is deeply flawed in its design," he said. "Change is needed."

Key British officials have warned over recent months that both climate change and flooding could pose as serious a risk to Britain as terrorism.

Ellam said that, though he will not rank the threats in order, Brown planned to list many significant risks to security.

Richard Mottram, Brown's chief adviser on intelligence and security until last year, warned in December that risks of a global flu pandemic, the impact of mass global migration and threats from organized crime were receiving too little attention.

He said al-Qaida had made little progress toward meeting its fundamental aims and urged the government to prepare for a broader range of threats.

Terrorism minister Admiral Alan West, an ex-head of defense intelligence, said the strategy will emphasize the role of individuals in helping to protect themselves from threats, including cyber attacks.

Does Viagra give athletes an advantage?

More from sports:

• A good tennis year for traveling Spaniards
• Favre shows Titans what they lack
• Downturn brings World Cup worries

Search

Subscriptions
Sign Up  |  Manage