The Best National Security That (No) Money Can Buy?

Summary:

This article critiques the UK Government's 2023 integrated review of  national security and foreign policy.  It argues that the UK cannot achieve everything it aspires to in the review within existing resource constraints, and least of all if it tries to do too much on its own rather than in partnership with other powers, including the EU. The government faces a painful choice: it can either keep spending at the current level, and see its hard power questioned and its soft power eroding; or it can invest enough to be taken seriously on the world stage. Neither allies nor adversaries will be impressed, however, by a strategy that is ‘all mouth and no trousers’ – or at best, uncomfortably tight trousers.

• Primary Source

• Alternative Source

Official

Cabinet Office: Integrated Review Refresh 2023: Responding to a more contested and volatile world https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/integrated-review-refresh-2023-responding-to-a-more-contested-and-volatile-world

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