The next PM will be serious about national security – so they have to rethink the UK aid strategy
TThe next prime minister will face a very difficult process, but Keir Starmer underlines that no issue will be more important than national security at the NATO summit he will attend before leaving No 10.
The UK, alongside other alliance members, has rightly made ambitious promises to increase defense spending, but the government lacks a full analysis of the threats the UK faces and – in one crucial respect – its actions risk putting our country in greater danger.
This weakness is the silence of ministers on the national security consequences of major cuts to the foreign aid budget, despite the postponement of investment. defined It was correctly used by ancient military leaders as our first line of defense.
This silence must end under the new prime minister, who must find more money both for defense and to maintain the overseas development budget if we are to fulfill the government’s fundamental responsibility to protect the security of both its citizens and its borders.
While the resignation of defense secretary John Healey dominated the news, remember that this government had previously lost the then cabinet minister for international development, Anneliese Dodds, over a dispute over funding, and she too resigned for very good reasons.
One query MPs and colleagues who sat with me on the joint committee on National Security Strategy (NSS) heard compelling evidence about the risks to the UK’s strategic interests of removing development aid; This evidence cannot be ignored when making future spending decisions.
The HALO Trust, whose invaluable work on clearing explosives helps countries recover from conflict to prevent further instability that could threaten the UK, has warned that cuts as part of a balanced security strategy often neglect the non-military interventions that are most effective in creating peace.
Our investigation also heard from former NATO deputy secretary-general Rose Goettemoeller that China and Russia’s influence in the Global South will grow if the UK and other European powers emulate the US in shutting down conflict prevention programmes.
already exists evidence The withdrawal of US aid from conflict zones has led to armed conflict and the undermining of weak governments, leading to the rise of extremism – a mistake the UK must not repeat.
In short, the government should adopt our committee’s recommendation to conduct “a full and robust assessment of the national security risks of reducing the Official Development Assistance budget.”
It is deeply worrying that no such analysis has been carried out since the aid cuts were announced more than a year ago, and that the government is considering further cuts to the budget without knowing the impact of the first round of cuts now being implemented.
This failure epitomizes the central weakness of the past year. National Security StrategyFocused almost entirely on increasing hard power, saying little about preventing conflict and instability in the first place or the importance of soft power.
Our committee’s conclusion is that soft power is an important source of the UK’s influence and security abroad and that allowing key assets such as the BBC World Service and the British Council to disappear would have “direct security consequences”.
The NSS made no mention of the Integrated Security Fund (ISF), a program established to confront emerging crises by linking defence, diplomacy and development work, and which has now lost 45 percent of its aid money.
Projects to combat the rise of extremism have been implemented in fragile countries such as Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia and Jordan. stoppeda striking consequence of such a drastic reduction in funding. A senior civil servant at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office stated Despite obvious threats to Europe’s security, there is no longer an ISF program in Africa.
Ministers should heed expert warnings from some of our most senior former military chiefs, including Field Marshal Lord Richards, Major General James Cowan and General Sir Nick Parker, that “Britain’s security does not start at our border” but by preventing and confronting threats before they reach our shores.
The new prime minister should consider the real-world impact of taking 40 per cent of our development budget and not make further cuts until we know how much damage has been done. Our national interests depend on it.
Lord Boateng is a former workforce cabinet minister, current member of the House of Lords and part of parliament’s Joint Committee on National Security Strategy
This article was produced as part of The Independent. Rethinking Global Aid project
