Foreign Affairs

The Intelligence and Security Committee has helped to foster the intelligence agencies' arrival on the public stage. Now, its new chairman Malcolm Rifkind tells Matt Ross, his committee should be handed control of the spotlights.

The new National Security Council will draw a range of departments into crucial decisions on security. Matt Ross reports on the coalition’s attempt to win cross-government consensus in a complex and unpredictable world.

No-one now doubts that Britain faces an era of public spending cuts – but we won’t be the first country to have dealt with them. Matthew O’Toole finds some encouraging examples of how other nations have coped in tough times.

Matthew Rycroft, who heads up EU policy at the foreign office, hopes to move the union on from a decade of institutional wrangling to tackle strategic issues. He tells Matthew O’Toole why it’s time to focus on the big picture

Without a coordinated approach to intervention in conflicts, both nations and departments can end up working at cross-purposes. Matt Ross meets Richard Teuten, who fosters over-arching UK strategies on armed struggles

Paddy Ashdown, former Lib Dem leader and co-chair of the IPPR’s Commission on National Security, tells Matt Ross that we are ill-prepared for the challenges of a new era of globalised, decentralised power