- That is both welcome and absolutely necessary. The question is how effective that work will be. A number of new initiatives are cross-government and there is the potential for there to be significant change in the approach towards national security systems and processes. It is also worth noting that everything may change following the Integrated Review, which said:
The National Security Adviser will therefore review national security systems and processes to ensure that Integrated Review objectives and priority actions, as well as future policy decisions, are implemented swiftly and effectively, and to establish systems that better support the NSC.[1]
Only time will tell whether the Government will be able to tackle the "systemic challenge"[2] of China but we have concerns that, at present, it is still doing so at far too slow a pace.
Z. As at 2021, the Government had a plethora of plans that laid out its China policies. The interaction between these documents has required a great deal of unpicking, and we have been surprised at the fact that changes in one document do not always lead to consequent changes in others. The slow speed at which strategies, and policies, are developed and implemented also leaves a lot to be desired—at the time of writing we await to see what impact the National Security Adviser's review of processes will have on the China policy area, but we would certainly hope it will become more coherent.
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