MPs question UK’s approach to threats

The first report from the House of Commons Defence Select Committee on the imminent government Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) provides a checklist of 11 potential threats and general vulnerabilities which ought to be addressed, and points to weaknesses in the UK response. It questions the government’s “tiered” approach to mapping the threat picture – which is soon to be set out in a new National Security Strategy – arguing that “it is flawed in assuming that the probability of potential threats becoming actual ones can reliably be predicted”. Greater emphasis should be given to military flexibility, the MPs said.