Theme : national_security
- 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
- Al-Qaeda 'only one of many' major security threats to UK Instead Mottram, who will deliver the annual security lecture at the think-tank Demos on Tuesday, said there was a need to understand the potential impact of a range of strategic risks, of which terrorism was just one. He identified global warming, flu pandemics, the emergence of rogue states, globalisation and its impact on power balances, global poverty and its impact on population movement, energy security, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and serious and organised crime as similarly significant problems. from : charlieedwards 16th 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
- Security agenda is out of date, thinktank says Whitehall's notions of what constitutes national security are out of date, incoherent and need a radical shake-up, a report by the thinktank Demos will say today. Top officials have failed to appreciate that there is more to security than simply protecting the country against the threat of terrorism, and that Whitehall cannot solve problems on its own. "The common, unifying, external threat of nuclear war has been replaced by a plethora of security challenges such as trafficking and organised crime, international terrorism, energy security, pandemics, and illegal immigration," says the report, National Security for the 21st Century. from : charlieedwards 10th December 2007
- UK security policy 'out of date' Britain's national security framework is "incoherent" and "outdated", research by a think tank has warned. The Demos pamphlet calls for a national security secretariat to tackle threats to the UK in a "joined-up" manner. Author Charlie Edwards said that the government's approach was rooted in the Cold War era and focused on terrorism to the exclusion of other dangers. from : charlieedwards 10th December 2007
- Fixation with terrorism ‘exposes Britain to other security risks’ The national security effort focuses too heavily on terrorism at the expense of fighting organised crime, securing energy supplies and tackling other international threats, a report states today. The document by the think-tank Demos gives warning that the country’s security apparatus is bogged down in turf wars, obsessive secrecy and outdated notions of the nation state. National Security for the Twenty-first Century, the result of 12 months of research funded in part by the Cabinet Office, recommends the creation of a National Security Secretariat. from : charlieedwards 10th December 2007
- National Security for the Twenty-First Century from : charlieedwards 10th December 2007
- A new civil defence force would defeat the politics of fear A book from Demos I'm helping launch tomorrow - National Security for the 21st Century - exposes a bizarre paradox: 59 per cent of people feel they are safe in Britain, but 62 per cent say Britain is under greater threat of violent attack than at any time since the Second World War. There is an undercurrent of fear that pervades our lives, even when we feel safe. from : charlieedwards 9th December 2007
- National Security for the Twenty-first Century Demos is launching a new pamphlet, National Security for the Twenty-first Century, on 10th December 2007. Nick Clegg MP, Liberal Democrats Shadow Home Secretary, will give a key-note speech followed by a response from Sir David Omand, Visiting Professor, King’s College London and former Security and Intelligence Coordinator, Cabinet Office. from : charlieedwards 28th November 2007
- A force for change As the military veers ever closer to crisis, it is time for an honest debate about the future of British defence policy from : charlieedwards 21st November 2007