Conservative Manifesto 2010 Promote Our National Interest Introduction

Conservative Manifesto 2010 Promote Our National Interest Introduction

A stronger britain in a safer world

A Conservative government will defend our national security and support our brave Armed Forces in everything they do. We will promote our national interest with an active foreign policy. We will work constructively with the EU, but we will not hand over any more areas of power and we will never join the Euro. We will honour our aid commitments and make sure this money works for the poorest nations.

this country possesses great assets and advantages – a permanent seat on the Un Security Council, a leading role in nato, a strong relationship with the United States, a major role in the affairs of the eU, and armed forces that are the envy of the world. We are a global trading nation and home to the world’s pre-eminent language.

but, looking a decade or two ahead, powerful forces of economics and demography elsewhere in the world will make it harder for us to maintain our influence. All this in a world that is becoming more dangerous, where threats as diverse as state failure, international terrorism and new forms of warfare are being amplified by the impact of climate change and the spread of nuclear weapons technology. In a world of shifting economic power and increased threats, the UK stands to lose a great deal of its ability to shape world affairs unless we act to reverse our declining status.

We no longer inhabit a world in which foreign and defence issues can be separated from domestically-generated threats. instead, we live in a world in which dangers, events and actions abroad are inter-dependent with threats to our security at home. We must meet the threats we face with a concerted response from the state. that response cannot just come from how we conduct our foreign affairs, or organise our defence and internal security – it must cut across energy, education, community cohesion, health, technology, international development and the environment too.