Brown unveils national security strategy

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

For the first time, all potential threats to the UK will be looked at together in a new national security strategy unveiled by Gordon Brown in Parliament on Wednesday.

Criticised by some as nothing more than a list, a compilation of problems, the strategy will underline how (in no particular order) terrorism, climate change, immigration, floods and pandemics are the main challenges facing the UK in the 21st century. One stated aim is that the document will make citizens more aware of the issues they face. However, the biggest challenge would seem to be how to tackle such issues.

"Our new approach to security also means improved local resilience against emergencies, building and strengthening local capacity to respond effectively in a range of circumstances from floods to possible terrorism incidents," Brown said.

At the same time, the White Paper will propose that MI5, MI6 and GCHQ become more open, including members of the security and intelligence services being asked to appear before Parliament. Brown has also said that he wants the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) to hold some of its meetings in public.

To Brown's credit, he did move past the common criticism that the government is still running the nation's security on a Cold War strategy.

He called for a "new form of civil protection that combines expert preparedness for potential emergencies."

Also included in the new strategy will be a review of the Territorial Army's role and new efforts by the government to help retain armed forces personnel through a series of retention bonuses.

Absent from Brown's statement however was the creation of a national security council similar to the one the US has. It had been rumored that Brown would create such a council to deal with national emergencies. Its membership would include key cabinet ministers and department officials from Defence, the Home Office, Environmental Affairs, the Foreign Office and leaders of the opposition. No mention was made in Brown's speech however, leading some to think the plan may be scrapped since the government already has two security like councils.

Security minister Lord West denied that drawing up a list of threats was a pointless exercise, saying: "There are some areas which we have got very well under control; there are other areas where a lot of work is needed and what this is doing is identifying that and giving us a focus as a way to move forward."

He told the BBC: "If there was an easy answer to all of this we would not have had to go down this route. It is highly complicated and it is very difficult, but we are leading the world on this. Rather than anything in the past which was produced - very much defence, foreign policy, a bit of Home Office, the threat to the state - we are now much more looking at the citizen and tying the citizen into this. Let's think of their vigilance, how does this involve them."

The long-awaited strategy document follows comments last year by the think-tank Demos that the government ‘lacked a clear and coherent view’ of security risks to UK. At the time Demos’ Charlie Edwards said: "Successive British governments have rarely taken a strategic approach to national security. Decisions remain focused on short-term initiatives. Worryingly, the overall approach is becoming less – not more – coherent. Governments lurch from one crisis to the next, neither protecting people nor empowering them."

He added that the national security strategy was "a step in the right direction but its aim must be to transform our outdated and compartmentalised national security architecture. Unless we have joined-up government on national security, we will be vulnerable through the cracks."

Conservative leader David Cameron called the strategy more of a 'list' than a strategy. He said that while the strategy was overdue, it was time for the government to announce what they will actually change.