Luckily, the British civil service still recruits some of those of the highest intellectual quality and ability in the land. Sir Richard Mottram has just stepped down from being chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. He gained a first class degree in international relations at Keele University. I got to know him a little when he was private secretary to Michael Heseltine, when the latter was secretary of state for defense.
An expert on the nuclear weapons issues of the day, he was friendly and impressive. He became permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defense. Just before Christmas he gave the annual security lecture at Demos, a comparatively new and up-and-coming think-tank.
I thought he had some interesting and not unimportant points to make.
He questioned whether the United Kingdom is at present spending too much public money in a determined attempt to tackle the high levels of poverty in the Third World, and not enough on its own security. He also believed that some politicians were in danger of exaggerating the threat posed by Al-Qaeda, at the expense of other and highly significant issues for the future such as global warming.
Sir Richard told his audience he would not be revealing a great secret if he suggested: “Whitehall, particularly in the international sphere, has looked on enviously as extra resources have been allocated to DfID (the Department for International Development) in successive spending reviews and wondered if this represented the best use of scarce resources.
As the administrative and broader budgets of MOD (the Ministry of Defense) and the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) come under pressure, there is a risk that their contributions to wider government effort on security issues and intelligence will be squeezed at the same time as government is investing more elsewhere in related fields.” What are the figures? Britain’s defense budget is due to climb from 33.4bn pounds to 36.9bn pounds over the next three years.
This is at a moment when serious fighting is taking place in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, and 4,500 British troops remain at Basra Airport. All three services are greatly overstretched and there are numerous shortages of equipment — especially helicopters.
The Foreign Office is to get only an extra 100m pounds over the next three years. However, the Department for International Development has a budget that is rising by 11 percent each year for three years increasing from 5.4bn pounds to 7.9bn pounds.This cannot be right.
It is a fair criticism of the Labour government that it has failed to adjust suitably its spending priorities in the light of events. Prime Minister Tony Blair despatched British troops into conflict five times in his first six years and that has financial consequences.
Turning to the country’s counterterrorism strategy Sir Richard considered there was a danger of overemphasizing the specter of international terrorism:
“What we shouldn’t do is play into Al-Qaeda’s hands by exaggerating the extent and nature of the threat they present globally. This focus is not smart when it comes to dealing with people who are trying to make us think that they are the greatest threat.” He wanted people to understand there was a range of strategic risks, of which terrorism was just one. He mentioned global warming, the emergence of rogue states, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and serious and organized international crime.
I am one of those who has for long believed there is a risk of the government using the general threat of international terrorism for political reasons. For example, some years ago the armored cars of the Household Cavalry were deployed suddenly to Heathrow Airport, in a wave of publicity, without any obvious or rational reason being known.
The Labour government, as in America, likes to claim it is taking a strong stand against terrorism unlike its opponents.
The suggestion is that if you are fearful of the growth of international terrorism you have to rally behind all the measures the government is taking. He had no doubt the: “’homegrown’ terrorist threat with links to Al-Qaeda poses a very difficult and growing challenge, capable of highly damaging attacks against people and infrastructure”.
He welcomed the increased resources for the work of the intelligence agencies and also for improving “community engagement” to prevent the radicalization of young Muslims in the United Kingdom.
Sir Richard’s speech has raised the level of debate over international terrorism.
