London calls for regular defense review

LONDON, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- British Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth has called for following the U.S. procedure of conducting regular defense reviews, at a time when Britain's own strategy update is long overdue.

"In planning for defense we in the U.K. should move toward the U.S. system of regular defense reviews, say, once every Parliament," Ainsworth said in a speech to the Center for Defense Studies and the War Studies Department at King's College this week.

Britain's last strategic defense review was done more than a decade ago -- years before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, where Britain has some 9,000 troops. London earlier this year said it would conduct a defense strategy update early in the next parliamentary cycle -- a step long overdue, Ainsworth said.

"The pace of change since 1998 has been considerable," Ainsworth said. "The complexities involved in even limited operations abroad to tackle threats at source have proven more difficult than predicted."

He said a strategy update needed to deal with the challenge of confronting terrorism, unstable or failing states and nuclear proliferation.

"War will be fought in new theaters -- such as in cyberspace," Ainsworth said. "Over the past 10 years we have seen civilian aircraft used as suicide bombs. Multimillion-pound warships attacked from inflatable dinghies."

He said a 2010 conference reviewing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was key to counter the nuclear threat.

"If we can deliver an invigorated regime on nuclear power as a whole it will make a fundamental contribution to security in the decades to come," he said.

Ainsworth identified wars over diminishing natural resources and social tensions because of globalization as defining conflicts of the future. Strong international organizations such as the United Nations or NATO should try to defuse those tensions, he said.

"The system of alliances, treaties and international agreements will be more important than ever," he said.

All those rapidly changing threats require more regular defense strategy updates, Ainsworth said.

"We need to stay ahead of the game, keep learning, and do all we can to protect our people."

The minister warned, however, that any defense review would have to work with reduced defense spending. The British defense budget is due to be downsized because of the economic crisis.

"We cannot exclude major shifts in the way we use our defense spending to refocus on our priorities," Ainsworth said. "There will be tough choices ahead."

In a bid to finalize its defense strategy update, London will table a Defense Green Paper, early next year, followed by what Ainsworth called "full public consultation."

"We hope this will lead to a serious and wide-ranging national defense debate," he said.