Performance on this policy goal is assessed by PSA 1 (Weapons of mass destruction) and PSA 2 (International terrorism) – please see part 3 of this report.
“I congratulate the work of the United Kingdom and Canada here at Shchuch’ye. London and Ottawa are indispensable partners in our efforts to destroy this dangerous stockpile.”
Former US Senator Richard G Lugar on a visit to the Shchuch’ye chemical weapons destruction facility in August 2007
When FCO ministers and the FCO Board reviewed our strategic priorities, it was clear to us that terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were not just two of the biggest challenges to the UK’s national security, as the new National Security Strategy makes clear, but were two areas where the FCO and its network of posts could play a key role in meeting those challenges.
Our aim is to:
- reduce the risk to the UK and our interests overseas from international terrorism
- counter the proliferation of WMD materials and their means of delivery and
- ensure effective controls on all weapons, and pursue disarmament, to reduce the risk of conflict.
Travelling around the world over the last year – whether to Indonesia, Afghanistan or the Middle East – I have seen at first hand what our staff are achieving, often in difficult and dangerous circumstances. Whether strengthening the multilateral institutions that tackle proliferation or working at home and overseas to expose terrorists for the criminals that they are, we are committed to working with our partners across and outside Government to defend our national security.
Dr Kim Howells
Minister of State
Counter-terrorism
The aim of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST (Countering International Terrorism: the United Kingdom’s Strategy, July 2006) [pdf, 691kb, new window] is to reduce the risk from international terrorism so that British people can go about their lives freely and with confidence. The strategy’s major aims are to:
- prevent people becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremism
- pursue terrorists and those that sponsor them
- protect the public, key national services and UK interests overseas and
- prepare for the consequences of terrorist acts.
The FCO leads the development of strategy for the Government’s work overseas, and co-ordinates its implementation through our network of posts and spending on programmes. We target our efforts where the threat to the UK and its interests is most acute, and on the key issues that drive radicalisation. We aim to:
- build political will to counter terrorism
- deepen security and police relationships and
- help reduce the factors that can lead to violent extremism.
Prevent
The FCO works with a wide variety of partners across and outside the Government, at home and overseas, and was allocated an additional £80 million over the three-year period from 2008 to 2011 in additional programme money to tackle extremism.
The FCO works in the UK to support CONTEST overseas. For example, in August 2007 the FCO organised a visit by a delegation of British Muslims to Sudan, to help raise the profile of the Darfur issue and refute the claim that the issue marked a dividing line between Islam and the West. As a result, Islamic Relief, one of the largest British Muslim charities, organised a fund-raising concert for the victims of Darfur, supported by the FCO, which was dubbed by the press the ‘Muslim Live 8 for Darfur’. We also support the work of the Radical Middle Way, which is a Muslim grassroots initiative aimed at promoting a mainstream understanding of Islam that is dynamic and relevant, particularly for young British Muslims. The FCO is funding an expansion of the website to include Arabic and Urdu and more interactive elements and we are looking at ways of extending this concept internationally.
The FCO funds a variety of projects in priority countries. For example, the Morocco Women’s Empowerment and the New Family Code project has enabled marginalised women in Morocco to increase their understanding of their legal and civil rights and how they can contribute to the democratic process and promote the mainstream principles of Islam. More than 165,000 family code and electoral awareness booklets have been printed and distributed across Morocco through a network of more than 200 NGOs. Four-fifths of the women involved saw their knowledge of the new family rights enhanced. That knowledge of their rights increased their resilience as a community and made them less vulnerable to extremism.
Pursue
The FCO works with partners across Government to disrupt terrorist networks overseas. In 2007/08 we led the EU’s efforts to reform EU asset-freezing procedures to create a stronger and more effective system of tackling the funds raised for terrorism.
The FCO and its posts took forward negotiations with foreign countries which led to agreements permitting the deportation of anyone judged to threaten our national security to their country of origin.
We also help our partners overseas to improve their capabilities to detect and disrupt terrorist networks. Examples of projects we have carried out include training in crime scene management and investigative and analytical development, and specialised training to improve the military’s counter-terrorist capability. We also funded a five-person team from the Metropolitan Police to help the Pakistani Police with their investigation into the death of Benazir Bhutto.
Guantanamo Bay
The FCO successfully negotiated and assisted the return to the UK of three former UK residents who had been held at Guantanamo Bay. This involved:
- agreeing the policy to arrange for their release
- negotiating with the US for their return and
- planning and running the operation to bring them back to the UK.
Each of these steps required close collaboration with a range of colleagues across Government and in our embassy in Washington.
Protect and prepare
The FCO is investing in increasing the protection of UK interests overseas. This has included improvements to our own embassies, which are potential targets for terrorists. We have also worked to make sure that FCO travel advice accurately informs those who may travel or live abroad of the terrorist threat they face in particular countries. We also work closely with British business.
The FCO leads the Government’s response when British nationals are kidnapped abroad, and we aim to make sure that our efforts support and complement those of the authorities of the country where the crime took place. One of our highest profile cases in 2007 was the kidnap in Gaza of the BBC’s correspondent, Alan Johnston. The FCO worked closely with the BBC, the Palestinian authorities and others to help secure Alan’s safety and achieve his release. Alan was released safely after 114 days in captivity. The FCO continues to work intensively on the case of five British nationals kidnapped in Baghdad in May 2007, which currently remains unresolved.
Counter-proliferation
The FCO plays a key role in formulating and implementing the Government’s counter-proliferation strategy. This presents both immediate and long-term challenges, some of which are outlined below.
Iran and North Korea
The most pressing and high-profile issue during 2007/08 was Iran’s nuclear programme, which continued to be a matter of serious concern. It has involved intensive diplomacy by ministers and senior officials from the E3+3 countries (UK, France and Germany, plus the USA, Russia and China). We have continued to search for a diplomatic solution that would allow Iran to address the international community’s concerns about its nuclear programme. We worked closely with the E3+3 and the UN Security Council to agree three sanctions resolutions on Iran. Most recently, UNSCR 1803 was adopted on 3 March 2008. The FCO has also offered political support for the Six Party Talks process, with the aim of removing nuclear weapons from North Korea.
International conventions and treaties
Beyond the immediate challenges, we aim to strengthen the multilateral conventions and treaties that form the core of international efforts against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference will be an important opportunity to strengthen these efforts. The NPT Preparatory Committee in May 2007 was an important first step.
Throughout 2007 our ambassador in The Hague, Lyn Parker, chaired the preparations for the next Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The FCO also led the Government’s efforts to strengthen the ban on biological weapons, and worked with the EU to encourage all countries still outside the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention to join.
We have also worked hard with key international allies to strengthen the three main regimes controlling exports:
- the Nuclear Suppliers Group (which controls supplies of all nuclear material related to civilian nuclear programmes)
- the Australia Group (which counters chemical and biological weapons proliferation) and
- the Missile Technology Control Regime.
Export licensing
The FCO works with BERR, MoD and DfID to make sure that UK export controls are rigorously maintained in line with our international obligations. During 2007/08 our licensing team handled over 10,000 licence recommendations, exceeding their target of returning 80% of these to the commissioning departments within ten working days. In September 2007 a new IT system, SPIRE, was introduced, which helped to speed up processing times by allowing exporters to make licensing enquiries and submit applications online.
Arms Trade Treaty
In 2006 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which was aimed at curbing the irresponsible trade in conventional weapons. Following that resolution and intensive lobbying on our part, an unprecedented number of countries responded to the UN’s call for comments on an ATT. In February 2008 the first of three ‘Government Expert’ meetings was held in New York to take forward this work.
The FCO maintains close contact with NGOs and the UK defence industry to reflect their views in overall UK policy on an ATT. NGOs and industry have wholeheartedly supported the ATT. The FCO worked in partnership with industry to hold an ATT seminar at a major arms export exhibition in London, and we supported Oxfam events to promote an ATT in the margins of UN meetings.
Arms control and disarmament
Nuclear disarmament
The UK has decided to maintain its nuclear deterrent, but is committed to pursuing multilateral nuclear disarmament in the interests of a safer world for everyone. For this reason, we worked hard to revive the global commitment to a world free from nuclear weapons. This included a major policy speech by the then Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, in June 2007 (see the feature box below). At the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, we continued to press for the start of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, which would impose a worldwide ban on the further production of fissile material (highly enriched uranium or plutonium) for use in nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
Missile defence
We welcomed US plans for missile defence in Europe, and worked with NATO allies to reassure Russia that missile defence plans for Europe are intended only to counter the growing ballistic missile threat from the Middle East.
Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE)
The UK (FCO and MoD) continued to work closely with NATO allies to resolve Russia’s concerns about the CFE treaty regime and encourage Russia back to full involvement. The Government’s objective is to bring into force the adapted CFE Treaty as soon as possible, as this would modernise the way European countries together limit key conventional ground and air weapons such as tanks, artillery and combat aircraft.
Cluster munitions
There is no internationally agreed definition of a ‘cluster munition’. Agreeing a definition is the key element in ongoing negotiations in the Oslo Process and the framework of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).
The UK (FCO, MoD and DfID) is addressing the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions, both through the framework of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and through the Oslo Process. It was due to slow progress on reaching agreement to negotiate a further protocol to the CCW that some countries, led by Norway, decided to launch an alternative process in February 2007. This was called the Oslo Process. The Oslo Conference on cluster munitions (22–23 February 2007) ended with the Oslo Declaration, which expressed the aim to introduce, by 2008, a legally-binding instrument to ban those cluster munitions, which cause ‘unacceptable harm to civilians’.
Small arms and light weapons
The FCO continues to support multilateral efforts to stop the proliferation and illegal spread of small arms and light weapons. In 2007 the UK provided funding worth £3.25 million to more than 20 projects, including the collection and destruction of weapons and ammunition, and the implementation of regional control agreements.
Policy on nuclear disarmament
“What we need is both vision – a scenario for a world free of nuclear weapons. And action – progressive steps to reduce warhead numbers and to limit the role of nuclear weapons in security policy. These two strands are separate but they are mutually reinforcing. Both are necessary, both at the moment are too weak.”
Former Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, speaking in Washington in June 2007.
Mrs Beckett announced plans to give new momentum to global nuclear disarmament, which would act as a ‘disarmament laboratory’ for both the thinking and the technical work needed to prepare for a world without nuclear weapons.
The speech helped set a new tone for international debate on disarmament and reinforced the vital Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. US statesman Sam Nunn, a leading international supporter of action on nuclear threats, described the speech as a ‘game-changer’.
Lessons learned: benefits of stakeholder consultation
“By consulting widely with the higher education sector and other organisations the FCO has been able to introduce an important new vetting system, which fits well with existing university systems and minimises the impact on their activities.”
Dr Rodney Day, head of science and technology research degree programmes, University of Hertfordshire
In November 2007 the FCO successfully launched the Academic Technology Approval Scheme, a mandatory online scheme designed to make sure that individuals who are applying to study certain sensitive subjects in the UK do not have links to WMD programmes (see www.fco.gov.uk/atas). These individuals will be assessed if they need leave to enter or remain to study in the UK. Since introducing the scheme in November 2007, we have issued over 3,500 certificates to prospective and existing students.
We were only able to successfully introduce the scheme because of extensive consultation with stakeholders across the Government and the academic community during the design phase. All those involved contributed a great deal and universities in particular were key as they are usually the first point of contact for students.
The early involvement of stakeholders was essential, both to inform and to educate. It was the first time we had carried out such intensive consultation with diverse stakeholders on this kind of an initiative, and it will serve as a template for our future work.
Cost benefit analysis: the Amman Message docudrama
Details: The Amman Message is an initiative led by King Abdullah of Jordan and endorsed by Islamic scholars, both Sunni and Shia, to promote the true meaning of Islam. Building on an earlier FCO-funded radio programme, we helped fund the production of a TV programme in Arabic about the message. A pilot television episode has recently been produced and we hope its success will help persuade regional satellite stations to produce a further 29 episodes.
Cost: £120,000.
Benefits: Feedback from regional radio stations on the quality and impact of the earlier radio programme was very positive. The TV programme should receive wide coverage among Arabic-speaking audiences. In doing so, we hope it will undermine the messages of violent extremism.