The NATO science campus meeting at Harwell has shown that Britain remains a leader in defence technology, provided defence technology includes arranging a meeting about it and keeping the papers from escaping. The Prime Minister hosted NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the science and innovation campus. They discussed future forces, space, Ukraine and stability in the Middle East. Britain responded with its most reliable strategic asset: a folder with a closing elastic.
The official account says the UK and NATO discussed innovation and forces of the future across all domains. This is welcome news for every future force still waiting to discover which domain it belongs to. It also confirms that resilience can survive almost any sentence. The sentence does not need to know what resilience is doing there.
NATO science campus meeting turns strategy into paperwork
The Prime Minister highlighted the national space strategy. The release says it will strengthen innovation and resilience in the space domain. Britain may therefore secure space with a strategy, a satellite and a laminated visitor badge. The badge will need its own implementation framework before anyone trusts it near orbit.
Ukraine was discussed too. The Prime Minister referred to diplomatic efforts to secure further air defence. Mr Rutte thanked the UK for its £100 million PURL contribution towards defensive equipment. Those are serious matters. Yet the official prose performs the familiar British trick of placing urgent international problems beside a promise to speak again soon. Both then sound equally likely to arrive by post.
The leaders also underlined the importance of long term stability and security in the Middle East. No timetable appeared. Perhaps the meeting had spent its entire supply of future tense. The NATO science campus meeting covered several continents, multiple domains and the full concept of tomorrow. It apparently did not cover who was taking the minutes.
That is the modern miracle of strategic communication. A campus full of science can host a discussion about the future while the future waits outside with the visitors’ coats. The technology is advanced. The ambitions are global. The folder has been promoted to head of security.
It now guards the papers from the meeting that was supposed to guard everything else.
Source: Prime Ministeru2019s Office.
