The UK’s Integrated Review is a part of a large-scale shakeup of the United Kingdom’s foreign, defence and security policy. It has been described by the media as the largest shakeup of such policy since the Cold War, for dramatic effect. But really, what did it even talk about? Well, let’s have a look at the main points it brought up. Note that the Integrated Review for those that didn’t know was announced officially on Tuesday 16th March.
The Main Points
Russia remains a Threat
The Integrated Policy made to mention that Russia remains, with little surprise, the most acute threat to the United Kingdom’s security. It’s obvious that the UK Government continues to consider Russia a major regional and global threat to its interests, both internationally and internally. Such threats include cyberspace operations, disinformation campaigns that may target democratic institutions and serve to create internal instability, and physical operations conducted within the UK itself, for example the Salisbury poisonings.
Grey Zone Threats that Could Risk War
The report mentions that the United Kingdom needs to improve its ability to detect possible attacks by foreign states, terrorists, and criminals that although aren’t intended to start a war still risk causing one nonetheless in a worst-case scenario. So, for example, the Salisbury poisonings would be considered something in the Grey Zone, cyber-attacks are all considered to be in the Grey Zone, terrorist and criminal operations that are directly or indirectly backed or funded by foreign states are considered in the Grey Zone and so on.
Basically, any kind of activity in the Grey Zone is literally something that although probably won’t cause a war, could nonetheless lead to a war or cause a war to breakout under the worst-case scenario. It’s a pretty modern concept and very relevant to how foreign affairs and operations take place today. It is of note that a true definition of what the Grey Zone is varies and is highly debatable.
The Nuclear Threat and Our Stockpile
The report brings up the continued threat of nuclear weapons, the big Cold War bogeyman and in all reality is still incredibly scary when thought about. The report warns that some states are increasing and diversifying their nuclear arsenals and that in response to this the UK will be planning to reverse its nuclear stockpile reduction and instead increase the UK nuclear stockpile from 180 to 260.
This is quite disappointing news as nuclear weapons are terrible things that really do threaten extinction and is probably one of the most likely things to cause us and all other life on Earth to go extinct if something gets very much out of hand. There is an ongoing push by the United Nations for global nuclear disarmament which most countries have signed up to.
Unfortunately, though as long as distrust remains between states, as long as states such North Korea continue to develop nuclear weapons, it’s going to be extremely difficult to ever reach full nuclear disarmament globally. And the fear is understandable, as if let’s say your country disarms its nuclear weapons, but who they consider a regional or global rival does not… well that’s quite the pickle.
But I do think an increase in the UK’s existing stockpile is completely unneeded. 180 alone can pretty much level anything we’d ever consider leveling – not that we’d ever want to do that or should ever do that. So why increase to 260? Just seems pointless and a waste of money that could be used elsewhere, for example an NHS worker pay rise?
Half in and Half Out with China
One of the most controversial parts of the review includes the UK Government’s stance on China. The UK views China as a systematic competitor due to the fact that the UK views China’s political system as authoritarian and at odds with the UK and other liberal democracies.
But the UK also views China’s economic strength as a great importance to UK-China relations and that for the UK, China is a valuable trading partner. Of course, we have known the value of Chinese trade for a while, you don’t have to look too far to find something that was produced in China within your home or workplace. But now the UK views such trading relationships more important than ever following BREXIT and its ambition to expand ties within the Indo-Pacific Region.
This balance act being set out by the UK Government on China has caused a degree of controversy due to most prominently as mentioned China’s authoritarian foundations, human rights abuses most particularly against the Uighurs, and also China’s undemocratic activities within the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong that has a huge relevance to UK-China relations as Hong Kong was once administered by the British before handing it over to Chinese special administration under an agreement in 1997, an agreement that can now easily be argued China is no longer following, causing a great strain in relations.
But despite all of this China’s benefits to the global economy seem to be too good for the UK to completely pass up. In such a case it can be argued in this sense the UK has weakened towards China. The review even admits that China presents the biggest state-based threat to the UK’s economic security. Boris Johnson, while under pressure, also warned against a new cold war with China.
On Disease and Future Pandemics
For obvious reason pandemics are more relevant than ever right now as we are right in the midst of one. And it can be argued we were generally unprepared for it as was much of the world, but that there has been a success story in the vaccine distribution in the UK, at least so far, which is a win for our Research and Development sector and our supply chain infrastructure. This can be brought in comparison with the European Union situation who have been struggling with vaccine distribution.
The review warns that further disease outbreaks are likely to be more frequent as we move through the next decade, and further the threat of another novel pandemic is for obvious reason a very realistic possibility, but it is important not to sensationalize this as at any time really, a pandemic taking place can always argued to be a real possibility. The review also makes sure to mention the very daunting threat of continued antimicrobial resistance that the report warns will rise from 700k to 200 million global deaths related to such resistance by 2050.
It remains more important than ever to limit unneeded usage of antibiotic medications on both humans and animals, such as its overuse in the agricultural sector on livestock which is greatly contributing to developing antibiotic resistance. And in the long run it is important to ramp up research into new medications to find a replacement for antibiotics at the point they become obsolete, which is a very real threat to human life and wellbeing, which could send us back to a sort-of dark-age-esque era where diseases and illnesses we took for granted become a real threat again.
Terrorism in the UK
Naturally the report also makes sure to mention the continued threat of terrorism. Currently the UK’s terror threat level is on substantial, which is still not the best, but is at least better than the recent Severe level it had been on for quite a few years, due to the threat of Islamic extremist attacks from ISIS and lone-wolf followers. But with the threat of ISIS largely depleted for now, attacks have become less of a problem, more particularly large mass-casualty spectacular attacks, although lone-wolf attacks remain a great threat.
The review describes terrorism as remaining a major threat to the UK. The report specifically names Islamic extremism as remaining a threat, but also rising and continued threat from terrorism related to Northern Ireland tensions, far-right terrorism, far-left terrorism, anarchist terrorism and what it calls single-issue terrorism.
Most concerning the report warns that a terrorist group will likely successfully launch a major attack that could involve chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear type weapons over the next 9-years, basically through the rest of this decade.
One of the big plans to counter the rising threat of terrorism is increasing funding to spy agencies so as to better use intelligence to prevent future attacks more effectively.
Environmental, Global Power, Science and Technology
To round this off the report also mentions some other important things as well. One such is the report reaffirms that tackling climate change and the threats caused by the loss of biodiversity remains at the top of international priority for the United Kingdom.
The UK Government also aims to project an image of what it calls Global Britain which includes protection of British citizens and security of the Euro-Atlantic Region, this will remain a main part of the Prime Minister’s UK security policy.
Finally, the UK government has a focus and aim to make our country a science and tech superpower by the year 2030. Given success on vaccines in the science department and the relevance of tech in this current time period, the goal is a reasoned and realistic one, and it will be interesting to see how this is pursued as we move into the future, especially against countries such as China who will surely also be aiming for such a spot on the global stage with its own science and technology, as well as other countries. It is one of the battles of modern relevancy.
I hope you found this little round up of the Integrated Review interesting, it includes some of the biggest and most relevant and interesting parts of the review but there are also many things not included or that have much less detail on them, so for those interested in getting the full details and all other parts you can read the full Integrated Review here.
I will now be off for the next week, taking a little break, but I will be back by the following week so make sure to stick around for when I return as I am very excited about the path this blog is now taking and I am enjoying typing these blogposts up more than ever. Thank you and have a good one!
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