The report argues that the UK’s national security architecture has changed little since the Cold War and is now flawed in design, and a more integrated and strategic approach must be adopted.
It asserts that the current model, with functions, services and budgets structured around separate areas such as defence and foreign affairs, does not suit the current complex and uncertain security environment where there are multiple and unbounded threats such as energy security, pandemics and terrorism.
Concerns are also expressed that the government is becoming too focused on international terrorism, to the detriment of other threats and hazards to the UK.
Aside from adapting internal relationships, the report argues the government must also develop close relationships with its ‘strategic partners’, the private sector and the wider public.
One of the key recommendations in the report is the creation of a national security secretariat to include the Overseas and Defence Secretariat, Civil Contingencies Secretariat, and parts of the Security and Intelligence Secretariat.
Another headline-grabbing suggestion is that the government should make public an annual threat assessment of the primary security issues facing the UK.
The study is the culmination of a 12-month research project supported by the Cabinet Office, G4S Global Risks and Thales. Its findings are based on over 60 in-depth interviews with key UK politicians, senior civil servants, intelligence officials and police officers.
It also argues that the government should implement a cutting-edge intelligence-sharing programme based on the successful ‘Intellipedia’ software used in the United States. This uses ‘wiki’ technology to share information across relevant government departments, ending the culture of information silos.
The author of the report, 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.
“The forthcoming national security strategy is a step in the right direction but its aim must be to transform our outdated and compartmentalised national security architecture.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 of national security, we will be vulnerable through the cracks.”
Released alongside the report is an Ipsos MORI poll, taken in April, on public perceptions of threats to the country and the ability of political parties to deal with them.
Fifty-nine per cent of the UK population felt they were generally safe in the UK today; but 62 per cent believed that Britain was now under greater threat of violent attack than at any time since the Second World War.
Only a third (33%) of the UK population thought any political party had the best policy to deliver national security.
