The Times: Harnessing the power of armed forces and aid
Penny Mordaunt, U.K. secretary of state for international development

“…[T]he connection between U.K. aid and our armed forces is deep and strong. Defense depends on diplomacy and development to reduce the crises it’s dealing with. … The Ministry of Defense and my own department, the Department for International Development (DFID), are both operationally focused departments. We are experts at getting the job done, often in difficult environments. … Together we have acted and continue to act swiftly and decisively. … It is my ambition to get defense and development working much more closely together in [the] future: to save lives, boost prosperity, and create much needed stability around the world, to support our veterans. By funding work that will support the British people or causes that they care passionately about, we do not dilute the good aid does, we will double it. We will seek a win for the developing world and a win for the U.K. in all we do” (6/28).