Official sounding commission to review UK security

[TonyGosling]

IPPR is another private club that likes to dabble in deciding Britain's foreign policy. Looks a bit heavy on masons (and Bilderbergers) though as you might expect from people trying to dismantle the state.


New commission to review UK security policy
http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200705/c511ddfd-dde5-403b-aaf8-d281c5b 8abaf.htm

The Institute for Public Policy Research has set up a heavyweight new commission to review the future of Britain's national security policy.

Chaired by former UN high representative to Bosnia Lord Ashdown and former NATO general secretary Lord Robertson, the body will examine issues including terrorism, climate change and regional conflicts.

Other members include former British ambassador to the UN Sir Jeremy Greenstock, former Cabinet Office intelligence chief Sir David Omand and former chief of the defence staff Lord Guthrie.

And seeking to draw on a wider pool of experience, it also includes Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti, Royal Society president Lord Rees and former police chief Sir Chris Fox.

Other issues on the agenda of the 'Commission on national security for the 21st century' include the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, energy security and global poverty.

It will also look at how Britain can work through global co-operation and global institutions to achieve its policy aims.

Lord Robertson said the UK faces "complex and diverse" threats.

"Issues of state failure, organised crime, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and energy security have combined to provide a new strategic context," he said.

"While the challenges are real however, there is much we can and should do to meet them more effectively.

"This commission, and the wide range of expertise it draws upon, will provide a unique opportunity to examine Britain’s long-term security needs."

Lord Ashdown said: "It is clear that we are approaching the end game in Iraq and that we need to think through, carefully and strategically, what the post-Iraq world will look like.

"It would be disastrous if the outcome of recent experience was a greater reluctance to intervene in conflict situations around the world.

"But lessons must be learned, and this means a willingness to contemplate radical reform of our security institutions both at home and internationally."

Over the next 18 months the commission will conduct a "detailed assessment of the changing global security environment and the specific challenges and opportunities this poses for Britain".

It will also examine the values and interests that should shape British policy and make specific policy recommendations.

The body is also set to publish its own national security strategy for the UK.

[Mark Gobell]

All that's missing is Douglas Hurd and it could be termed the RIIA begets Chatham House begets the UK Commission on National Security for the 21st century.

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, you know the obscure Labour backbencher who threatend to sue a Scottish newspaper for publishing a story about his alleged Masonic connections to the Dunblane "lone nut" Thomas Hamilton.

The same Lord Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen, The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, UK Defence Secretary in Tony's first cabinet and who mysteriously and miraculously became the General Secretary of NATO.

The same Lord Robertson who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the global village idiot in 2003.

The same Lord Robertson who is :

President of the rebranded RIIA, Chatham House, Governor of the Ditchley Foundation, Member of the Pilgrims Society.

Paddy Ashdown is also a President of Chatham House.

This new UK Masonic policy quango mirrors the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century.

[TonyGosling]

ever excellent - The Register........

Big brains gather to ponder future of UK security
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/24/ippr_brain_trust_for_uk_securi ty/

Ashdown, Robertson, to head panel of cops, spooks, peaceniks
By Lewis Page → More by this authorPublished Thursday 24th May 2007 10:34 GMT

The Legal Risks of Uncontrolled Web Use and Email Content - Free whitepaper A group of high-profile political, academic, and military heavyweights will come together over the next 18 months to ponder the future direction of UK security strategy.

The independent Commission on National Security in the 21st Century will be co-chaired by two well-known peers of the realm. First up is former special-forces officer, MI6 spy, liberal politico, and UN satrap of Bosnia-Herzegovina Paddy Ashdown.

Lord Ashdown's co-chairman will be George Robertson (now Lord Robertson), ex-Labour defence minister and former-secretary-general of NATO. The two men will preside over a selection of fellow lords, professors, and assorted policy wonks, including ex-US Senator and majority leader Tom Daschle. Former head of the UK armed forces (and ex-SAS man) Charles Guthrie will also be on board, as will Chris Fox, one-time chief constable of Northamptonshire.

The commission is organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a noted thinktank which has advocated baccy-style climate-health warnings on airline advertising. The body has also suggested that all illegal huddled masses in the UK should be allowed to breathe free - but then made to register for ID cards. The IPPR has also taken the position that other criminals - to wit, iPod users - should be let off.

The new grouping reckon to take an integrated approach to UK security. As well as pondering on terrorist threats, WMD proliferation, energy security, public order worries, regional conflicts and so on, the security brain trust will look to root causes. Climate change, poverty, and better global cooperation are all on the agenda.

Two former special forces men, a top cop, an ex-NATO chief, more than one spook and a US Senator would seem to argue for a muscular set of recommendations emerging when the commission packs up in 2009. We might expect to see lots of expensive hardware advocated, more surveillance, more foreigners dealt with severely by the UK military and immigration authorities in future.

"It would be disastrous if the outcome of recent experience was a greater reluctance to intervene in conflict situations around the world," said Lord Ashdown.

That said, there are doves among the hawks. Mary Kaldor of the LSE and Prof Michael Clarke of King's are definitely in this camp, both being advocates of UK nuclear disarmament (though Clarke is much less obvious about this). There are other mellow peace-and-goodwill-to-all academics to counterbalance the fist-pounding cops and soldiers. And the government minister speaking at the launch last night was Hilary Benn, in charge of foreign aid, not the minister for spooks'n'cops or the defence minister (although that might be because it's easier to book the aid minister).

And there's an individuals' rights spokesman on the panel to resist the corridors-of-power mob and the academic action-through-government types. Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, said:

"This is a golden opportunity to address serious security challenges...without sacrificing hard-won liberties."

You could be on your own in a group like that, Shami.

There's no doubt that the incoming Brown government will be watching the commission carefully and will take heed of its eventual recommendations. If, that is, such a diverse group can actually establish much common ground. There's one thing the assembled brains apparently agree on, though, which some might dispute.

"Britain has never faced so many risks," they say in their inaugural release.

Hmmm. ®

[Mark Gobell]

The IPPR's unimaginatively named Commission on National Security in the 21st Century, a direct copy of it's US predecessor has a home page here:

http://www.ippr.org/ipprcommissions/index.asp?id=2656

Full details of the Security Commission, including detailed research streams, can be found in this document http://www.ippr.org/uploadedFiles/ipprcommissions/National_Security_Co mmission.pdf (184Kb PDF)

9/11 is mentioned a couple of times as is homegrown terrorism from some disaffected Muslims, bird flu, SARS , Global, Globalisation, transnationalism, you get the picture

Yawn.

I don't recall voting for any of these "influential think tanks" that inform the decisions of government.