Security pressures ‘require Whitehall reform’
Whitehall should consider fundamental reforms of the way it works to cope with changing national security pressures, Paddy Ashdown warned today.
Lord Ashdown, co-chair of the IPPR thinktank’s commission on national security which delivered its interim report today, warned the transfer of power from west to east and the growth of lawless spaces presented serious challenges to the changing international system.
He spoke most passionately about what he called “Ashdown’s law” – that “everything is connected to everything” – and the ways in which the government’s response needs to mirror that.
“The most important thing with government departments is not what they can do – but what they can do with others,” Lord Ashdown said.
He argued vertical structures created in British institutions after the Boer war were now outdated and pointed to businesses who now concentrate on networking and serving their customers.
Departments need to become “project managers” as a result, he said.
Fellow co-chair George Robertson, former Nato secretary general, told politics.co.uk he believes central governments also have a responsibility to ensure local authorities and NGOs also contribute.
“We need to bring a lot of people together who previously have never thought of themselves as part of the security establishment,” he said.
Lord Robertson even proposed transferring the principle of military exercises across to Whitehall, suggesting exercises to test the government’s response to the failure of a bank.
“It doesn’t scare the horses if you do it routinely,” he explained. “A lot of companies could take a leaf out of that example.”
And he suggested even individuals have a responsibility to contribute by preparing themselves for future disasters.
“People will be saying, ‘we’re relying on the government to deal with all of this’,” he finished. “These people are wrong – we’ve all got a role.”
