12 January 2007
Britain should continue to engage in "hard" and "soft" power on the world stage, Tony Blair has argued.
Our Armed Forces need to be "warfighters as well as peacekeepers" to face challenges such as terrorism and poverty, the PM said.
He told an audience on board HMS Albion in Plymouth:
"The world is interdependent. That means we work in alliance with others. But it also means problems interconnect. Poverty in Africa can’t be solved simply by the presence of aid. It needs the absence of conflict. Failed states threaten us as well as their own people. Terrorism destroys progress. Terrorism can’t be defeated by military means alone. But it can’t be defeated without it."
In a wide-ranging speech which reflected on the changing picture of international relations since the end of the Second World War, the PM said the security threats facing today’s world were "qualitatively new and different".
- Watch the lecture in Real Player (opens in new window)
- Watch the lecture in Window Media (opens in new window)
- Read the speech in full
- See some images from the visit
You now have the chance to question the Defence Secretary about the PM’s lecture, or about the UK’s defence policy in general, by joining our latest webchat.
Defence Secretary Des Browne will be online from 1600 GMT on Wednesday 17 January.
The PM’s lecture came on the second day of a two-day tour of the South West.
On Thursday he visited Westland Helicopters, the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth and the Royal Marines Training Centre in Lympstone.
The Plymouth lecture was the sixth in the Our Nation’s Future series, designed to start a debate on the big issues the UK will have to deal with in the 21st century.
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