TOKYO -- The U.K. has adopted a new national security strategy to defend itself from various threats, including those from extremists. At the same time, it is moving economically closer to China.
With 2015 drawing to a close, it has become clearer that the international community is being shaken by the growing influence of China, other authoritarian states and Islamic militant groups.
Many countries have come under increased pressure to review how they deal with these influences. The U.K. is among them. It has recently moved to beef up its defense capabilities and forge closer relations with China.
On Nov. 23, the U.K. government revised its national security strategy document, the "Strategic Defense and Security Review," for the first time in five years.
The revised strategy calls for boosting the U.K.'s defense capabilities by leveraging the country's economic power, which has been gradually recovering from the 2008 global financial crisis.
The new strategy document specifically calls for creating two new "Strike Brigades" of up to 5,000 personnel and expanding the expeditionary force from around 30,000 troops to 50,000 troops to help prevent further instability in the world, as well as reviving an aircraft carrier task force.
The document also calls for intelligence agencies, the foreign ministry and diplomatic missions abroad to become more active. In addition, it describes Japan as one of the U.K.'s most important worldwide "allies," other than the U.S. and some European nations such as France and Germany.
The latest security review also focuses on the U.K.'s economy. It talks of creating a virtuous cycle in which a greater contribution to global stability comes back to benefit the country in the form of a stronger domestic economy.
The document uses expressions such as "protect our people" and "expect the unexpected" to make very clear what the U.K. government should seek to achieve and keep in mind.
These are not only words. The U.K. recently decided to use air strikes against the Islamic State militant group in Syria. It had been carrying out these strikes only in Iraq.
