The importance of a robust and coherent process in setting
national security strategy has been underlined by the JCNSS, with
today’s publication of its first Report on the National Security
Capability Review (NSCR).
In 2017, the Government launched the NSCR as a ‘quick
refresh’ of national security capabilities in the light of
changing security challenges. The NSCR is still underway,
but the Committee’s Report offers preliminary comments on the
process and key issues that the Review should
address.
The election of the Trump administration in the United
States, the UK’s decision to leave the European Union,
intensifying threats to the UK’s security and a significant
structural hole in the defence budget all presented real reasons
to revisit the 2015 the 2015 National Security Strategy and
Strategic Defence and Security Review before the next expected
review in 2020.
But the decision to focus on capabilities, and not the
underlying strategy, does not do justice to the changes to the
wider security environment, says the Joint Committee.
The announcement in January of the Modernising Defence
Programme (MDP) puts work on defence on a different basis and
timeline from the rest of the Review. It appears that the NSCR
has inadvertently become an uncomfortable ‘halfway house’ between
a ‘quick refresh’ of national security capabilities and a full
review.
An honest conversation on defence spending is required if
the Government is to match ambitions for national security with the
realities of the UK’s capabilities and funding.
Nonetheless, the Review offers an opportunity to improve
cross-government security policy and the Joint Committee welcomes
the Government’s apparent focus on deterrence and resilience as a
way of achieving this. It particularly calls on the Government to
focus on deterring threats that fall short of an act of
war.
The Joint Committee also calls on the Government to confirm
the future of the NSS and SDSR process, including when the next
full review will be held and whether it will be run by the
Cabinet Office alongside a Spending Review.
Chair of the Committee, , said:
“There were good reasons for the Government to revisit the
2015 National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and
Security Review just two years after it was published, in the
light of changes to the security environment. Some of these were
unpredictable but others, such as the structural hole in the
defence budget, have revealed flaws in the Government’s original
document.
“However, the Joint Committee has cause for concern
about the format of this Capability Review. It has unexpectedly
grown from being a quick and contained refresh of all national
security capabilities into a lengthier process, and one that now
will consider defence and security separately. Although justified
in this case, we are concerned that this could represent a
backwards step at a time when the changing threats to the UK’s
security require much greater co-ordination between Government
Departments in response.
“The nation’s security capabilities are too important to be
allowed to evolve without proper thought or direction by
ministers.”
