4 Conclusions
120. Intervention
policy and decisions have the potential to be controversial and
to polarise opinion. This Report is intended to assist the articulation
of the rationale foran intervention strategy in the next National
Security Strategy and the next Defence and Security Review which
mightmake for better decision making by Government and assist
in alleviating some of the controversy on decisions to intervene.
121. As
a starting point the Government must articulate a realistic vision
of the UK's place in the world, its level of strategic influence
and the way the world is changing as well as the identification
and prioritisation of the risks to it. The next Defence and Security
Review should then translate this vision into defence planning
assumptions and the development of the appropriate force structure.
This would assist more strategic decisions on why, when and how
to intervene.
122. The
next National Security Strategy (NSS) and the Defence and Security
Review (DSR) should define and communicate the circumstances in
which the UK might intervene and the role of interventions, and
set out the legal basis for the UK's interventions. The NSS andthe
DSR should also set out what interventions the Government regards
as non-discretionary and those which are discretionary. The Government
should also outline the different approaches it might use such
as defence engagement, conflict prevention and the projection
of military force and how it ensures coordination and unity of
purpose between the different Government departments and agencies
and ensures that appropriate lessons are learned from previous
interventions. This will lead to more effective intervention operations
in the future.
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