Integrated Review reverses decades of progress on disarmament

The UK Government’s ‘Integrated Review’ document, due for release at noon today was leaked to the press late last night, the vision it paints of ‘Global Britain’ is very much one of military power projection. Under pressure to justify the cuts in aid particularly in regard to Yemen and Syria, the document does state that “we will return to our commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on development when the fiscal situation allows”. As we have seen in recent budget announcements military spending is one area where no such fiscal restraint is shown.

One positive aspect of the review is the broadening of the definition of ‘security’, setting out climate change and ‘preserving biodiversity’ as the UK’s number one international priorities in the next decade. While we are pleased to see these threats recognised, as raised in our budget briefing paper these quoted priorities are not reflected in the current allocation of public resources. If the main threats we face relate to environmental challenges, it is not clear how the dramatic increase in war-fighting equipment will assist us in addressing these, on the contrary such an aggressive stance can only hamper the progress of the very international cooperation needed to tackle them.

The most worrying new development is an increase in the planned nuclear stockpile for 2025 of over 40%. The UK has been gradually reducing it’s stockpile, in line with other nuclear weapons states, over the last 30 years – UK numbers peaked at 492 in 1980, reducing sharply in the 1990s to today’s stockpile of 215 warheads. The goal established in the 2010 defence review was to reduce stocks to ‘not more than 180’ by 2025 – today’s announcement will revised this up to 260 warheads.

This is in direct contravention of the UK’s commitments under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which the UK signed over 50 years ago. The NPT review conference will take place in August this year and there are clear concerns as to the impact this policy reversal will have on global progress towards disarmament. There has been growing disillusionment with the NPT processes after both the 2010 and 2015 review conferences failed to agree any progress.

This frustration on the part of the non-nuclear states spurred the development of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which was agreed by the vast majority of the world states in 2017 (despite the nuclear weapons states boycotting negotiations). The TPNW entered into force on the 22nd of January 2021 making nuclear weapons illegal under international law, in line with all other weapons of mass destruction.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) have called an Emergency Rally (online) to take place tomorrow at 6pm.