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Britain urged to work with Europe for national security

* Defence experts advise government to reorient defence strategy taking into account growing number of failed and failing states in the world and terrorist threats they pose

LONDON: Britain must overhaul its defence strategy, strengthen alliances within Europe and cut back on major defence programmes in order to focus on new security threats, a panel of defence experts warned on Tuesday.

In a final report after a two-year review of national security strategy, experts including George Robertson and Paddy Ashdown, two of Britain’s top defence authorities, called for a sweeping overhaul of how defence is planned and implemented, including reviewing 24 billion pounds of spending. The panel, which also included Britain’s former ambassador to the United Nations and envoy in Iraq, Jeremy Greenstock, said the country needed to pursue far deeper cooperation with Europe alongside its special relationship with the United States.

“In the post 9/11, post financial crisis world, we must be smarter and more ruthless in targeting national resources at the real security risks and be more willing to make difficult national choices,” said Robertson, the former secretary general of NATO and co-chair of the panel, brought together by the Institute for Public Policy Research, a think-tank. “When it comes to security, national self-reliance is a dangerous fantasy. European cooperation is the only viable way forward in many areas. We need to make it work.” Among the proposals the panel’s 140-page report makes is the creation of a US-style national security council, a centralised security and defence budget authority, and the refocusing of defence spending on critical resources to fend off Mumbai-style terrorist attacks rather than conventional threats. The report said 24 billion pounds of planned spending, including on aircraft carriers, the US joint strike fighter, Type-45 destroyers and submarines, should be cut back, while the nuclear deterrent capability should also be reassessed. “We cannot carry on as we are,” said Ashdown, Britain’s former high representative to Bosnia. “We need to change the way we think and change not just what we do but also how we organise ourselves to do it. In a world where power is no longer the sole preserve of nation states, and where security is no longer only about defence, we need new joined-up machinery in the corridors of government.” The report comes as Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government is under pressure to concede that spending must be cut, possibly including on defence, to bring the budget deficit back into line following the economic and financial crisis.

The panel advised the government to carry out a full defence and security review, taking account of the growing number of failed and failing states in the world and the terrorist threats they pose, and how a Cold War-era deterrence such as Britain’s nuclear capability was out of step with modern trends. “The emphasis must be on responding to the shifting geopolitical landscape, and unconventional threats like climate change, energy shortages, nuclear proliferation and neo-jihadi terrorism,” the panel wrote. “Reliance on nuclear deterrence for long-term security is increasingly unsafe given concerns over proliferation to both state and non-state actors.”

The panel’s report is likely to be closely read in government departments and may exert further pressure on the defence establishment to review programme such as the Trident nuclear programme. reuters

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