Edited by Dr Paul Cornish.
Published 2007 (ISBN: 1 905370 19 9) Price £9.95
While the classic menace of invasion no longer represents a key threat to the UK, an ever-widening range of dangers – international and domestic terrorism; energy insecurity; organised crime; infectious disease; and the consequences of conflicts and instability elsewhere in the world – represent new and complex threats to the country. Britain, therefore, will need to develop a diverse range of instruments to respond to these threats. In our increasingly diverse society it is clear that foreign, security, and national policy responses must be rooted in shared values. But they must also offer practical means by which the integrity of our crucial infrastructure and our civil society structures can be maintained in the face of new threats. This collection of essays by key experts in the field offers a wide-ranging and thought-provoking account of security policy in today’s world. They address both the core values that must guide policy makers in the coming years, alongside hard-edged analysis of the complexity and nuance that must be taken into account if measures to safeguard the British public are truly to offer robust safeguards against the range of threats that we may face over the coming decades. In the context of an increasingly “contracted out” public sector, how can we best ensure that the vital mechanisms hold fast under the extreme pressure represented by any of these threats? How can partnership working be strengthened to provide this security? And how can we expand these structures to take in the international and multilateral understandings so essential for our daily lives and positively crucial in times of crisis? What can be done to ensure that promoting our security is not confined solely to the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the security services but instead becomes the focus of each and every government department?