Dynamic security threats and the British Army: Chief of the General Staff General Sir Nicholas Carter

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Dynamic security threats and the British Army: Chief of the General Staff General Sir Nicholas Carter KCB CBE DSO ADC Gen

 

Speech given at The Royal United Services Institute Monday 22 January 2018

 

Malcolm, thank you for those kind words of introduction and good evening everybody, it’s good to be with you and it’s particularly good to see so many friendly faces in the audience.

 

In Parliament last week the Defence Secretary explained that the analysis of threats in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review remained sound, but he did observe that these threats have diversified and become more serious, and at a faster pace than we expected.

 

Hence the Government initiated the National Security Capability Review last July - which for Defence, remains ongoing, and contrary to speculation, no decisions have yet been made.

 

I am very grateful, therefore, to be given the chance this evening to elaborate on the threats and what I believe we should be doing about it, and hopefully to create some debate. And a particular thanks to RUSI for hosting us this evening.

 

Now in terms of threats, I shall start with international terrorism. It seems to me that significant progress has been made against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, and the prospects of a Caliphate on the ground have been defeated. The threat from international terrorism though has diversified and is more dispersed, and we see the phenomenon that Daesh represents emerging in other parts of the world. And of course we’ve learned, sadly, over the last few years, that anyone can become a terrorist these days simply by renting a vehicle or wielding a machete.

 

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