Ms Caitr?ona Heinl:

Some states have a national security strategy and others do not. Some states that have a national security strategy, as the Deputy will probably be aware, do not necessarily publish them either. That said, there is an ongoing debate within a number of countries and among the academic community, as to the value of having a national security strategy. Thus, it is not set in stone. The debate surrounds the value-add and cogency of having such a strategy and the strategic guidance that can be provided by it. A second, related debate is the value in publishing this material publicly, in order to increase transparency and raise awareness. We spoke at length about the importance of making sure that everyone understand the nature of the trends and threats that are under way. This is one method to achieve that.

Whether one is talking about counter-hybrid strategy, national defence strategy or national cyber strategy - the list goes on - the value-add of a national security strategy, be it is public or not, is that it should ideally provide strategic guidance for all aspects of defence and security. From there, those sub-categories have an overarching sense of strategic guidance. That said, a precursor to that type of strategic thinking is to take a step back. If a country does not undertake regular strategic threat assessments, that would possibly undermine the product of the national security strategy, because in order to come up with that type of guidance and overarching framework, one needs to understand the state of play.

I emphasise regularity in some countries. I mentioned the United States in the submission, which conducts annual global threat assessments. That is just one example; I also alluded to the EU. The precursor, or the work conducted in order to properly inform the strategic compass for security and defence for the EU, which is the pathway for security and defence for the next five to ten years, was a classified threat analysis.

In the case of the EU, it remains classified. I will stop there. Hopefully that answers the Deputy's question.