Charlie Edwards
Senior Researcher
Charlie Edwards writes, lectures and consults on national security, resilience, defence and intelligence. He works with international institutions, government departments, companies, and NGOs. He is a regular commentator in the national and international media.
"national_security"
Charlie Edwards has 7 items tagged with this theme. Find more on this theme : » show items from across the site
- Stop press: 'The public love the armed forces' Back in September the Chief of the Army called for greater support of the British Armed forces. He said there was a social gulf between the army (which has borne the brunt of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan) and British society. Soon Ministers began to raise the issue of public support for the armed forces, and media campaigns were ratcheted up... but this hyper-activity was based on a single major flaw - the widely held but utterly false assumption that there was a lack of public support for the armed forces to begin with. from : charlieedwards 24th April 2008
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Out of Step
Earlier this week we launched Out of Step: The case for change in the British armed forces. The crux of our argument is that the Government and senior commanders have consistently overlooked the men and women of the armed forces in pursuit of the 'big ticket, hi-tec equipment'.
I have been searching for a pithy one liner since Monday which sums this approach up and found the following quote on the US DoD website regarding their most important resource... from : charlieedwards 8th November 2007 - National Security for the Twenty-First Century from : charlieedwards 10th December 2007
- National Security for the Twenty-First Century Today we launch a new report on national security. The report argues that the government lacks a clear and coherent view of the nature and priority of risks to the UK with Whitehall structured around functions and services with separate budgets for defence, foreign affairs and intelligence. This model of government may have suited the security environment of the Cold War but today's challenges demand a fundamental review of the way departments and agencies are organised. from : charlieedwards 10th December 2007
- Sober Assessment Last night Sir Richard Mottram, the former Permanent Secretary, Security, Intelligence and Resilience at the Cabinet Office gave a lecture on Building a national security architecture for the twenty-first century. It was a sober assessment of the Government's achievements and an interesting insight into where ‘improvement’ is needed. You can read the speech here. from : charlieedwards 19th December 2007
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I've seen the future
I am at a conference on National Safety & Security in The Hague. It's only just kicking off but last night participants were invited to a dinner and I managed to sit next to Peter Schwartz, the co-founder and chairman of Global Business Network and former head of scenario planning for Shell.
We were just about to dig into the main course when Peter answers a question from across the table on climate change... He pauses and says, ‘of course climate change is a major risk but there is something bigger around the corner...’. I have to wait for his presentation this afternoon to find out what. from : charlieedwards 29th January 2008 - Winning on wicked issues Instead of discussing the global risks to Britain, recent debate on national security has focused on the roles of government institutions rather than the problems that need to be solved. Some commentators have lamented the decline of the Foreign Office, while others have questioned the increase in spending on development aid at a time when savings have to be found in the defence budget. It is a depressing cycle of claim and counter claim which smacks of short-termism and a lack of leadership across government. from : charlieedwards 30th January 2008