Security Priorities in Britain - Essay Example

Name Course Tutor Date Security priorities in Britain Introduction Britain, as one of the most powerful nations in the world, has a population of 62,227,409 people, with a higher economic base, it has for long been actively involved in foreign affairs, historically linked with different nations in the world, associated with quality education, and also protected by armed forces of higher international ranking. Apart from these, it has always had a robust democracy in politics. Britain has always put a lot of emphasis on better world order, democracy, civil liberty and rule of law thereby making it considered as one of the most security-minded nations of the world and has hence increased its recognition as a major promoter of human rights as well as strengthening it and increasing its ties with other nations. Due to this there is a good reputation between it and other countries hence better trade relations. Even though it may be seen as though it is not faced with the modern challenges, Britain has been faced by a lot of challenges that have altered some of the progress .Majority of theses challenges do come as a result of security concerns both within and outside Britain, which end up affecting Britain severely. The urgency of security was ignored by the previous government which invested most of its efforts on formation of several subcommittees to discuss threat issues instead of investing the concerted as well as coherent effort in finding out the threats and putting a strong defense against them. The formation of the conservative manifesto is one of the ways through which the new government aims at addressing the issues relating to security. The manifesto has a very significant proposal in that the National Security Service is paramount, with its emphasizing that citizen safety, Armed forces’ well being, and also defence to be highly prioritized in policy- making. The council needs its influence to be real in order to gain success which depends not only on its composition but also its remit and position within whitewall, thereby making the terms of reference also a major issue in its success, noting that there is urgency for a defence review that is strategic and that will last. This aims at increasing defense and providing for people’s safety, especially considering the various threats and the Afghanistan issue which seems to be a top priority. Even for the success in Afghanistan to occur, various issues should be addressed not only at home but also abroad hence consideration on domestic terrorism, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The council should review military issues and properly examine the foreign policy so as to come up with proper decisions on the current circumstances, especially by putting emphasis on the medium as well as long-term aims of Britain (Dannatt Richard p4). According to Michael Cordner, the director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, the greatest choice that has to be made for defence review has to be between strategies of continental and maritime military, which will also determine British defence future. Now that the government is in place, several security issues that have been resolved poorly and which have received inadequate attention from the previous government should be addressed due to the deteriorating security condition in Britain. National security Terrorism This is the greatest threat with adverse effects not only to individuals but also the country at large (Webster p.5), therefore the government should increase security against threats from terrorism which has its level raised thereby being highly risky in that there is the probability that The bombing of the Detroit airliner could have been linked to it except that intelligence was not there to ascertain this. The threat has grown strong that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) has raised its level and continued reviewing it, judging it on a number of factors like the intents and also capabilities of the international terrorists both in UK and abroad. Due to the heightened level, the public has been cautioned by the government to be vigilant and have therefore remained very vigilant and active in reporting the events that seem suspicious to responsible authorities including the police so that the terrorism activities can be traced, discovered and destroyed. The JTAC has always rated the threat level in terms of the likelihood of it taking place .The ratings used include Low, which signifies that attack is not likely to occur; Moderate, signifying there is possibility of attack even though not likely; Substancial, indicating that there is a greater possibility for attack; Severe indicating that there are higher chances of attack, and finally the Critical level which indicates that the attack is imminently expected (channel 4 news). Britain’s threat level record shows that on July 2005, weeks prior to the July London attacks, the threat level was Substantial, hence the threat had to be made public. On 1st august 2006 the level changed to severe, on 10th august 2006 was raised to critical when the security services crushed the massive plan that was to destroy the transatlantic airliners using the liquid bombs that were home made hence introducing security measures in the airports. The police had also arrested three ring leaders, although it wasn’t known whether the same bombing plan was being operated elsewhere by other cells. It was lowered to the severe level when there was calm in the security situation after the arrests of the bombing-plan suspects. On 30th June 2007 the level was raised to critical when t there was a failed nightclub- bombing attempt. This was also worsened after the plan of ramming a car in to the airport of Glasgow, though one of the suspects, Bilal Abdulla was arrested. On 4th July 2007 the threat level was lowered again to severe after considerable analysis of the Glasgow and London attacks brought in to transparency the person who was behind the plot. On 20th July 2009 it was lowered to Substantial since the arrest cases due to terrorism had subsided. In the wake of a foiled plan to bomb a Detroit-heading airliner on chrismas day using more intercepted signals from Yemen-based Al-Qaida operatives, the level has since been ranked under severe level(Gardham p.4-5), indicating that international terrorism threat is real and very serious. There is actually a great need for measures to be put against terrorism. Terrorism has great implications in the country both in terms of health as well as financial and social implications, considering that it could the most threatening single source of destruction of properties, massive loss of lives, economic drawback, and also significant health problems.Alqaeda is the most threatening terrorist group to Britain and its overseas interests, with the most threatening terrorist being Osama bin laden. The National Security Council is among the most influential bodies trying to deal with terrorism but has been widely blamed because of coming up with a strategy to provide protection to the security of Britain by adoption of policies which caused Islamic terrorism in the beginning. The plan of increasing the ethnic integration has been one of the most shocking and arrogant moves since it is among the main reasons for Britain’s terrorism by Islamic groups currently .The other reason has been the mass immigration to Britain enabling population of the immigrants to be very expansive hence giving terrorist groups ample opportunities of recruiting followers. Defences for Britain should be more internal than external, since majority of British forces are involved in international interventions like war on Iraq, while overlooking the domestic security. Defence and its cost Defence has core functions of general protection from international aggressions and has to be addressed properly in order to meet the expectations from the citizens. The British defence involves marine, airforce and also land army. On top of the terrorist threats, Britain has had a lot of challenges due to the financial implications resulting from the provision of the security services. It is currently a big defence spender ranking fourth in the whole world, while its economic strength is ranked the ninth in the whole world. Its expenditure on war is far much more than can be justified by its economic position. This means for the nation to be able to maintain its world status, the taxpayers have to pay according to the current level (2.3% GDP) for defence .There are ways through which it could reduce these costs, for example by cutting spending on the defence to be 1.65% (NATO European average).The government should be able to reduce the expenditure on defence while effectively providing ample security (Royal United Services Institute). The threat from espionage Even with the collapse of soviet communism in 1990s, the espionage threat has not ended and has been progressing from several quarters. The government should consider this a serious issue since it has been involved with massive secrets outflow. Formerly the main objective of espionage was for acquiring the political as well as military intelligenge, however currently it does not only require these, but on addition requires the technological information. Currently, many countries have intelligence requirements ranging from latest communications technology ,aviation, IT, optics, genetics, lasers to electronics which commercially target enterprises,however,Britain seems to be the most privileged in terms of these technological advancements, hence becoming an espionage target of a higher priority with different countries actively seeking its materials as well as information to make greater advances in their political,military,technological and economic programmes (Security Service M15 p.9). There is currently an estimated twenty foreign intelligence services who are working against the interests of Britain, especially the Russians and Chinese, with Russian intelligent officers maintaining their number in London since soviet times. These threats are not confined to Britain itself since the foreign intelligence services operate best in their own countries hence it has been easier for them to target the interests of Britain by easy control of the environment as well as make the British guard drop. This poses a serious threat to the national security hence should be highly prioritized. There have been previous cases of espionage in Britain by an officer from the German navy as well as German’s spy, Carl Hans Lody, who was spying on the royal navy as well as the Defence system of Britain. After his capture he was executed in the Tower of London in 1914.Another was the German born scientist Klaus Fuchs who fled from Nazis to be a refugee in Britain, he was instrumental in Manhattan project which enabled the atomic bomb to be developed for the first time. Since he was a communist as well as Soviet Union supporter, he spied for the Soviets in 1940s and gave them information that helped them make their atomic bomb. Currently, the counter-intelligent agents from Britain are doing all they can to avoid another assassination in Britain. China has a great agent base in Britain mainly involved with targets relate to industrial espionage .The M15 is also worried over Britain’s spy concentration due to bad relation with Russia which came as a result of poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko who was a KGB officer. Both China and Russia pose a great threat but Russia seems to be the greatest threat, after Al-Qaida and Iran. Weapons of mass destruction The weapons of mass destruction are currently on increase across the globe with countries like Iraq and Iran developing sophisticated weapons. Several countries have increased their development of the weapons of mass destruction programmes for the interests which pose a great threat to Britain hence makes this a great concern. The weapons are always deployed through ballistic missiles, which have capabilities of causing massive destruction to Britain’s assets as well as resulting in a major economic and social setback, which simply implies that it can cripple the economy of Britain. There have been several measures taken to combat the spread of the WMD like co-operation with the departments as well as agencies, not only internally but also overseas, to deter the acquisition of relevant information and data by the nations of proliferation by preventing the transfer of intangible technology for instance knowledge, monitoring threats and potentials of international terrorists and their ability to acquire the information on weapons of mass destruction, and also monitoring of Britain’s activities. The new government should aim at preventing the spread of WMD. The government needs to address the issues of acquisition of British materials, expertise and even the technology that could be used in the programmes of weapons of mass destruction by the nations involved with the proliferation. The Afghanistan war Britain has been greatly involved with Afghanistan issues and has therefore spent a substantial amount to sustain the British troops. The impacts of the task on the troops are so severe with increase in loss of lives and psychological problems. Although the government has been somehow ignorant on the fact that the troop do have immense pressure due to several difficult activities involved as well as received inadequate care and support, the government should consider providing adequately for the British troop as they are on assignment, they should be given adequate care as well as the provisions should be made ample. Considering that the task is so demanding, they should also have an increase in their remunerations and other packages. Their morale should be boosted using small incentives that may boost their team work. Most of the time the troops have been treated as subjects who are supposed to obey and not ask, however they should be provided with the right kind of psychological care and treatment with better medical care. Since the job is more tedious the government should consider sending more troops to reinforce the other troops already there. The government should also view ways of reducing expenses which are very high (The British National Party p.21). Serious crimes The level of serious crime has been a major issue since it has taken root and has had adverse effects on the social lives of the citizens as well as the investors .illegal drug importation is one of the major concerns that should be greatly monitored to reduce problems due to drug related cases (Security Service M15 p.3). The issue of possession of illegal firearms and also arms trafficking is a great concern since the country is currently experiencing higher criminal rates due to these. The security within streets has dwindled with various cases of shootings, rape, theft and also fraudulence on increase. This is a major concern since the criminal gangs are on the increase and without proper control they might grow stronger and be a part of the most devastating groups in Britain, the terrorist groups. The government should consider ways of abolishing the already existing groups that have been linked to car- jacking as well as kidnappings which are also responsible for loss of lives, properties as well discouraging the potential investors. The level of theft cases has gone so high that it has penetrated the military camps hence causing loss of fire arms, military vehicles and grenades. Hence Michael Cordner addressed this saying that there is need for a person to know the difference between theft of military significance and the theft of security significance, stating that the latter theft is more serious and therefore needs special provision for its prevention (Stewart p.7-9). Immigration Even though the immigration has enriched the culture of Britain, there should be restrictions enough to protect Britain against the risks associated with the increase in the number of immigrants to Britain. This is due to the fact that the British citizens should be confident in the system .the immigrants have different reasons for being in Britain, some with good motives and some with bad motives. They are often used by the terrorist groups to carry out terrorism actions .Immigration increase has often been associated with increase in criminal cases, drug trafficking as well as arms trafficking among people as well as destabilization and sometimes destructions of properties and loss of lives due to the fact that the enemy nations do send their spies and activists to bring down the security situation. As a result airport security should be strengthened, abuse of the system of immigration be minimized, human trafficking be dealt with severely, and also border to have dedicated police (SPECTRE p.12-6). Justice An effective justice system is very important since it determines the way offences are handled hence an effective and efficient justice system is very instrumental in deterring criminal activities from expanding as well as protecting the innocent people from being harmed by criminal activities, by issuing penalties that completely prevent re-occurrence of such behaviours. The government should expand on the existing justice system so that people who are involved in criminal activities get dealt with in a manner that is very effective and that will deter future occurance of such activities. This should also extend to drug trafficking, and illegal use of firearms. The government should also invest in support services for the criminals to ensure there is no reoffending. The victims of criminal activities need to be protected from further criminal activities. Conclusion Britain, as one of the super power nations in the world, has been very influential in fight against terrororism attacks, facilitating peace process among nations and also has been involved in funding the activities related to world safety.However, despite its economic standing and world reputation, Britain has been having deteriorating security situation with increase in reported cases of criminal acts which extend to include terrorism. There have been various reasons that have justified the occurrence of such actions, with some extending to include parties searching for fame in the political field, deteriorating relations between Britain and some nations and also voluntary Islamic attacks. Despite all these justifications the new government should be able to deliver on the promise of a better security for all as well as protect the now-threatened nation from its agressors.even though it is clearly evident that the new government has a manifesto favouring the wishes of all the people, with great plans for the security of the nation at large, its capability to deliver can only be tested practically and not theoretically. Works cited Stewart, Stephen (2010). 376 thefts from UK military bases in just two years. Retrieved May28, 2010from Webster, Philip (2010). Al-Qaeda still biggest threat to British security, says Gordon Brown. Retrieved May 28, 2010 Gardham, Duncan. (2010). 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