Former senior civil servant warns UK must increase defense spending

Britain must increase defense and aid spending and strengthen its diplomatic and intelligence networks during its “most dangerous period” since the Cold War, a former top civil servant has warned.

write on independentFormer cabinet minister Sir Mark Sedwill has urged the government to nearly double UK defense spending to 4% of GDP and restore the international aid budget to 0.7% of national income, a level that was cut short by Boris Johnson in 2021. Johnson slashed.

Warning of threats if Vladimir Putin wins the war against Ukraine, he called on Kyiv’s allies to “raise defense industry capabilities to wartime levels” and “operate our own factories 24/7 ” and purchases weapons and ammunition for Ukraine, either or Congress does not fund the United States to do so.

The former national security adviser also suggested that European militaries should be “modernized and integrated” through the NATO military alliance and form a similar economic alliance “to jointly respond to crises or coercion.”

“With dictators advancing, delay is a luxury we cannot afford,” the crossbench wrote after NATO’s 75th anniversary. He urged European governments to “address the rupture of the Western alliance” and urged the UK to “lead “Lead by example in this effort.”

Sir Mark pointed to the “dynamism” of US President John F Kennedy’s pledge when he took office in 1961 to “do whatever it takes, bear any burden, meet any difficulty, support any friend, oppose any foe”. Contrasted with “the fatigue of his modern successors,” the “disorderly” U.S. retreat from the post-9/11 wars, the “uncertain” response to previous Russian aggression in Georgia and Ukraine, the “creeping protection of allies” Doctrine” and the weakening of NATO’s collective defense guarantees.

Facing “the most dangerous period since the end of the Cold War”, Sir Mark questioned whether NATO, 75 years after its creation, could stand the test of rediscovering “the confidence, commitment and courage of Kennedy in his positive welcome to ‘responsibility'”. Defending freedom in its most dangerous moments.”

Urging Britain and European countries to increase their defense budgets, he wrote: “As Kennedy spoke, most NATO allies were making considerable sacrifices to invest in collective security. Trump said it rudely, but, today, even The most Atlanticist Americans also warn that their taxpayers cannot be expected to subsidize a European social model they themselves dislike.”

But Britain’s former national security adviser warned that “money alone is not enough” and suggested that Europe’s armed forces should be modernized and integrated through NATO in the five domains of sea, land, air, space and cyberspace.

“This means setting aside the traditional boundaries between Army, Navy and Air Force, accepting that many of our cherished legacy manned assets will become obsolete, and adopting at scale the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) with several Nordic and A model for Baltic allies. ”

But “this goes beyond defence,” he continued. “Three years ago I met with G7 leaders in Cornwall and argued that we should reverse protectionist tendencies among our allies and bring NATO into Combining military alliances with economic alliances to jointly respond to crises or coercion and develop resilient critical supply chains.

“This is especially important as we also struggle with Xi Jinping’s increasingly assertive China.”

He called on Britain and other European leaders to make these commitments at the NATO summit in Washington in July and tasked the next NATO secretary-general with delivering on them.

In recent months, senior politicians and military figures have intervened repeatedly to demand that the UK must do more to prepare for a possible war.

In January, Defense Secretary Grant Shapps warned that Britain was facing a “pre-war world” and claimed that the “peace dividend” that allowed successive governments to ease defense spending had ended.

Days later, the British army chief insisted that Britain should be prepared to form a “citizens’ army” of tens of thousands in the event of war.

General Sir Patrick Saunders has warned that the UK’s current troops and reserves are insufficient to defend the country in the event of war and that the UK must now lay the basis for a “national mobilization”.

This was echoed by MPs on next month’s cross-party defense committee, who found in an inquiry that the UK military was not adequately prepared for a full-scale war – despite such preparation being a vital deterrent to Britain’s adversaries effect.