UK identifies terrorism, cyber-attack as main threats
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The British government outlined its future defense and security strategy on Monday, identifying the main threat as international terrorism.
The government paper identified four top risks, which the military should be funded to combat -- international terrorism, cyber-attacks via the Internet, a pandemic like a killer flu, and conventional warfare as an obligation of treaty or alliance.
The paper, called the National Security Strategy (NSS), was published by the National Security Council, a body set up by Prime Minister David Cameron in May, which performs the new function of coordinating defense and security across all government departments.
Cameron and his Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said in the paper, entitled "A Strong Britain in an Age of Uncertainty," that Britain is "both more secure and more vulnerable than at any time in its long history." They said that a conventional attack by a hostile power was no longer a threat but that terrorism and a cyber-attack posed dangers "because we are one of the most open societies, in a world that is more networked than ever before."
They added: "All of this calls for a radical transformation in the way in which we think about national security and organize ourselves to protect it. We are entering an age of uncertainty. The strategy is about gearing Britain up for this new age of uncertainty."
The NSS comes at a critical moment in the new coalition government's life. The government has been in power since May 11, when the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrat party agreed to form a coalition, in the wake of the inconclusive May 6 general election which saw the Labor party's 13 years of power ended.
The government has set as its principal task the reduction of the record public spending deficit of 156 billion pounds (about 242 billion U.S. dollars) this year, by 83 billion (about 128 billion U.S. dollars) pounds within four years. The most drastic set of cuts in public spending have been planned and will be unveiled on Wednesday.
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