A new paper from Nuclear Information Service (NIS), 'What NATO needs from Britain', examines various ways in which the United Kingdom can contribute politically, economically, and strategically to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in order to sustain both the UK's national security and the collective security of NATO allies. The paper, by NIS intern Giorgio Yong, evaluates the functions of NATO in relation to the context of modern threats facing the alliance and then discusses the limitations of the UK's Trident nuclear weapons programme in addressing these threats. The paper analyses a range of approaches for sustaining security against contemporary geopolitical, technological and strategic threats along with both the main issues and arguments by which the challenges can be understood. The paper presents the argument that the UK is an important member of NATO as it is a significant contributor to the alliance politically, financially, and through its military assets. Overall, the UK’s strategic contribution to European NATO is particularly important in geopolitical and cyber domains.
This paper was presented at a seminar on 'The British bomb and NATO' hosted by the Nuclear Education Trust at Portcullis House, London, on 1 December 2015.
Download the report and the Portcullis House presentation here: