......a response to the UK STRATEGIC DEFENCE REVIEW

The government must recognise that technological hazards will present far greater threats to the UK in the future and it must see that natural crises and technological failures are intrinsically linked in a complex society such as the UK.

“The vulnerability of our society goes well beyond the threat of natural hazards,” says the Director of the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King’s College London, Dr. Randolph Kent, commenting on the Strategic Defence Review which identifies terrorism, cyber attacks and natural hazards as “among the top threats” to the UK.

“Solutions to natural hazards, technological failure and cyber security have to be seen as integrated and must be approached coherently,” says Dr. Kent .

“Emphasis on natural hazards ignores the far more complex relationship between technological and natural threats – be it issues involving the storage of toxic waste, or nano-technology and bio-technology related causes. ”

Dr. Kent argues that a key lesson emerging from the SDR must be that the UK should engage in a far more coherent and consistent way with its European neighbours who he believes will be the conduits of greater hazards as well as potential solutions -  “ the recent red sludge in Hungary is but one case in point.”

He believes the UK has rarely demonstrated the institutional coherence needed to identify and address the sort of threats which the review indicates.

 “From the October 1977 hurricane disaster which whipped through England, to the 2003 heatwave that caused 2,000 deaths, to the Cumbrian floods of 2009, the good intentions of the authorities have not been matched by equal commitment to integrated operations and a coherent approach to dealing with potential high-impact hazards.”