UK Ambassador says foreign aid spared budget cuts

Despite the steep budget cuts imposed by the new conservative-led government, British foreign aid is being maintained so that Britain can retain its influence in the world, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the United States, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, told a Harvard Kennedy School audience.

Sheinwald was the first speaker of 2011 hosted by the Future of Diplomacy Project in the school’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Program director R. Nicholas Burns moderated a 90-minute discussion with Sheinwald and Kennedy School students on Tuesday, Feb. 8.

Burns, professor of the practice of diplomacy and international politics, was US ambassador to NATO for four years before becoming Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005-2008. He asked Sheinwald whether the British budget cuts would undermine Britain’s ability to maintain its standing as one of the world’s principal diplomatic and military powers.

The ambassador said the British coalition government that took office last May had confronted a severe budget deficit and mounting national debt. In June, the coalition issued a budget imposing cuts averaging 19 percent across the board.

Sheinwald said the government had recognized the danger of failing to maintain economic security as a foundation for national security.

“Students of history know that the Soviet Union is an extreme example of what happens to countries that forget these truths,” Sheinwald said. “Memorably described by former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as ‘Upper Volta with missiles,’ the massive Soviet military edifice turned out to be built on economic quicksand.”

While sharply cutting spending on welfare costs and other domestic programs, the cuts to security were more modest. Sheinwald said the British government also examined its commitment to foreign development assistance and asked: “Would we just prefer to turn our back on the world, reduce our commitments and opt for a quieter life? The government has given a resounding ‘no’ to this question. It’s not where our national interests lie.”

He explained in reply to a question: “Our foreign aid program is one of few areas of government expenditure that will actually increase dramatically in the years ahead. It will reach the 0.7 percent of GDP for overseas aid, the UN target, which very few countries reach, for the first time in 2013. The fact that our aid budget is going to continue and reach that goal despite the austerity program shows a remarkable degree of commitment to the developing world.”

Sheinwald said the defense budget would be trimmed in ways that did not reduce Britain’s capacity to respond to emergencies, and the government would focus its spending on cutting-edge priorities such as cyber-security defense, special forces and intelligence.

The defense budget will decline in real terms by 7.5 percent over the next four years, in part by phasing out Britain’s deployment in Germany, reducing tank and artillery forces and reducing fast jets. The cuts would not reduce Britain’s troop commitment to Afghanistan, he said.

Sheinwald has been closely involved in British policy-making and European relations. He was the UK’s ambassador to the European Union from 2000 to 2003, and then spent four years in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office as foreign policy and defense adviser. He became ambassador to the United States in 2007.

Sheinwald said the European Union had improved its capacity to respond militarily to challenges in the region. But he called on the EU to “move away from an institutional focus that has dominated the past decade to step up on the international issues and practical issues that matter. In particular, we would like Europe to do more and better in Afghanistan and Pakistan – top priorities for our national security, just as they are for the US.”

“We want the EU to start behaving as, and be accepted as, a full partner in delivering foreign policy in the areas we both care about,” he added.

Europe needs to play a bigger role in tackling issues such as Iranian nuclear proliferation, the Mideast peace process and countering terrorist threats, Sheinwald said.

Sheinwald noted that Britain and the United States both are investing substantial energy in growing their partnerships with China, India and other emerging powers, without sacrificing their traditional special relationship.

“Our defense relationship is probably the most intimate between any countries in the world,” Sheinwald said. “This covers nuclear cooperation, the operations on which we fight together, most notably at the moment in Afghanistan, and a constant exchange between us of ideas and people in order to maintain are capabilities and our ability to act together.”

He quoted Winston Churchill: “There is at least one thing worse than fighting with allies – and that is to fight without them.”