Doing so has the double advantage of permitting the damage increased taxes and a deeper recession would inflict upon the economy to be avoided while maintaining a relatively robust defense establishment -- a national asset that should be adjusted, if at all, with care so long as the international environment remains as uncertain and potentially explosive as it is at present.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

The explosive growth in green buildings over the past decade is flattening the built environment.

FORBES: Green Building Sparks Battle for the Built Environment

He said security in Helmand was improving, with Afghan forces now responsible for the bulk of the province - but that the environment in which UK troops operated remained "risky and dangerous including the threat of improvised explosive devices and insurgent attack".

BBC: Afghanistan roadside bomb kills three British soldiers