Rethinking Security

Thought-provoking as ever from Richard R @rethinkingsecurity.bsky.social on the codependency of the ‘special relationship’ and the UK’s strategic national security options

Puppetry of the Heinous: Dependence and delusion in UK defence strategy As US strategic bombers and special forces deploy at British air bases, the UK is yet again getting sucked into a major war in the Middle East. Richard Reeve examines how London’s delusions of stat…

As US bombers & special forces deploy at British bases, the UK is getting sucked into another major war in the Middle East.
Richard Reeve analyses how delusions of status & influence condemn the UK to repeating past mistakes & exacerbating dangerous crises.
rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2026/03/09/p...

Why This Is the Most Dangerous War In Decades - Prof. Paul Rogers' Must Watch Interview YouTube video by Owen Jones

Paul Rogers spoke at the Northern Friends Peace Board meeting last weekend just as the bombing of Iran began. His analysis was that we are at the most dangerous moment for decades.

This weekend he spoke to @owenjones.bsky.social and his insights are, as always, very helpful youtu.be/VT-mk2HOsNo?...

This may be stating the obvious, but nonetheless it needs saying and repeating.

What does just and sustainable security look like?

Why do we need to rethink security?

Excellent statement on the US/Israeli attacks on Iran from @una-uk.bsky.social.

Nature, Peace and Security: Too important to leave to governments As governments turn their attention to the intersections between nature, peace and security, civil society needs to speak up if we’re to avoid the dead-end securitisation of the climate crisis; to …

🚨New on the Blog:

How helpful is it to let spooks and national security actors define the climate and ecological crisis?

Civil society needs to speak up if we’re to avoid the dead-end securitisation of the climate crisis, argues Doug Weir of
@ceobs.org.

rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2026/03/03/n...

Some good letters in the Guardian today on the current campaign to surge spending to the dysfunctional MoD and disingenuous calls for a national or 'continental conversation' on security, including from our Coordinator, @quaker.org.uk & @nortontaylor.bsky.social.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

“This additional £130bn per year [of military spending] ... has not been set by Britain's security needs ... it was set by the US and will mean we have fewer resources for other key priorities ... mak[ing] our country weaker over the long run.”
 
Khem Rogaly on LBC News. 👇

As defence chiefs, we warn you today about Russia, and say this rearmament is not warmongering | Richard Knighton and Carsten Breuer Our security is more uncertain than in decades. But by working together, and by showing strength, Britain, Germany and the rest of Europe can preserve peace, say defence chiefs Richard Knighton and Ca...

There's so much of our security polycrisis that an "honest, continent-wide conversation w/ the public" could be covering.
Instead we have a post-MSC barrage of influence operations via the uncritical press, occluding any element of conversation, public or honesty.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

UK overseas aid cuts to outstrip those of Trump administration Spending will drop 27% this year from 2024 levels to help fund higher defence budget

Cuts to overseas aid by the UK are set to go further and faster than those made by the Trump administration in the US, as Sir Keir Starmer’s government wrestles with funding pressures

www.ft.com/content/ad52...

Minor Problems: The benefits of an all-adult recruitment model for the British Armed Forces The UK is among a diminishing minority of countries that recruit children to their armed forces. It does so despite ethical considerations, higher costs, lower outcomes of training, and the inabili…

🚨New on the Blog:

The UK military still recruits children, despite ethical considerations, higher costs, lower outcomes of training, & the inability to deploy under-18s operationally.

Jim Patrick Wyke makes the case for a more efficient all-adult military.
rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2026/02/13/b...

Our response to the publication of the Representation of the People Bill 👇

🔗 www.faircomment.co.uk/p/statement-...

Trump orders Pentagon to buy coal power as the polluting fuel struggles to survive President Donald Trump signed an order directing the Defense Department to favor electricity derived from coal, expanding his campaign to prop up the fossil fuel.

Hard to think of a dumber 21st Century energy and security policy than Trump's insistence that the Pentagon buy more coal power. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Public opinion polling of British people on security How the British people understand their own security is a question that ought to be central to security policy analysis. Yet public opinion polling on security issues almost always seeks to gauge r…

Absolutely. Our 2023 public opinion survey (via Savanta) identified Corruption and the Actions of the UK Gov't as the top two threats to UK national security.

Of 16-30 year-olds, 74% rated corruption, and 68% rated UK Gov't action, as a significant threat.

rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2024/06/20/h...

Is our Government Complicit in Genocide? The Genocide Convention imposes obligations on states and individuals not just to punish the crime of genocide but to actively prevent it. Two years into the war in Gaza and over 20 months since th…

The Genocide Convention imposes obligations on states & individuals not just to punish the crime of genocide but to actively prevent it. Carne Ross assesses the UK government & its officials' complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.
rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2025/10/07/i...

The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I'm not surprised | George Monbiot It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

The JIC/DEFRA report on ecosystem collapse "provides a powerful vindication of certain messages that, when voiced by environmentalists, have been greeted with hatred, fury and denial.
"But what was cut from the report is, according to The Times, even graver..."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

How Europe should respond to Trump’s threats over Greenland The crisis over Greenland marks the greatest possibility of rupture in trans-Atlantic relations since NATO’s foundation. Ian Davis considers how European states might respond to US sanctions and po…

New article:

How Europe should respond to Trump’s threats over Greenland

Ian Davis considers how European states might respond to US sanctions & potential annexation of Greenland, arguing that planning should start now for a post-NATO security architecture in Europe & the Arctic.

lnkd.in/eq4bDepB

Nature security assessment on global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security This strategic assessment explores how global biodiversity loss and the collapse of critical ecosystems could affect the UK’s resilience, security and prosperity.

Essential Reading:

Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security.

UK gov't used yesterday to release/bury a long-embargoed report, compiled by the Joint Intelligence Committee but released by DEFRA.

It's exactly what should have been in the NSS.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Rethinking security in an interconnected age: Achim Steiner on… The Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford brings together the best minds from different fields to tackle the most pressing issues of the 21st…

This new global initiative to rethink security from Achim Steiner of @oxmartinschool.bsky.social is necessary in so many ways.
It aims "to contribute to a security narrative that is both realistic about risk & confident about humanity’s capacity to respond."
www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/blog/rethink...

Strategising for Peace in the New Age of Empire This month’s US National Security Strategy underlines an ongoing shift away from liberal values into a new age of empire. In this new long read, Larry Attree discusses how – by rethinking alliances…

New long read:

Strategising for Peace in the New Age of Empire

The US National Security Strategy underlines a shift from liberalism to overt imperialism. Larry Attree discusses how the UK can oppose these dangerous trends & promote a more peaceful future.

rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2025/12/11/s...

Over 25,000 people have already signed the letter to Keir Starmer and national broadcasters calling for a televised emergency briefing.
www.nebriefing.org/open-letter-... #NEB2025

Efforts to end the Israel-Palestine conflict The horrors that have unfolded in Gaza since 7 October 2023 have shocked the world and polarised political communities in many countries. With a very fragile ceasefire at constant risk of collapsing, ...

Speakers:
Nidal Foqaha, Palestinian Peace Coalition/Birzeit University
Eran Nissan, CEO, Mehazkim
Nivine Sandouka, Regional Director, ALLMEP
Netta Loevy, Co-Director, Centre for Women, Peace & Security

Chair:
Larry Attree (Rethinking Security)

Register: indico.bisa.ac.uk/event/605/

Efforts to end the Israel-Palestine conflict - Security Policy and Practice | BISA - Security Policy and Practice Working Group

New Event - BISA Security Policy & Practice - 09 Dec, 10am

*Efforts to end the Israel-Palestine conflict*

This event offers space for scholars & peacebuilders to share their perspectives about roadmaps for peace within Israel, Palestine & at regional & int'l levels.

bisa.ac.uk/members/work...

We are pleased to have signed on to this letter to the PM calling for an urgent rethink of the government's ill-thought, uncosted plan to acquire F-35A jets for the NATO 'tactical nuclear' role.

COP30: What to expect on conflict, climate and militarism - CEOBS COP30 is taking place against a backdrop of wars and rising military spending, what will it deliver on conflict, climate and militarism?

Wars affecting every corner of the globe, military spending at a record high, and 1.5 degrees breached. Our #COP30 preview wonders what, if anything, will be delivered on conflict, climate and militarism. ceobs.org/cop30-what-t...

An alternative vision of security for the UK and France | ICN Peace organisations from the UK and France, including Pax Christi England and Wales and Pax Christi Scotland, hosted a peace conference at St Anne's Church, Soho, London on Saturday.Held to mark the 1...

RS's Jo Frew joined UK & EU peace orgs in London to call on UK & French gov'ts to end their collaboration on developing nuclear arsenals and to collaborate instead on real threats to human security such as climate change, wealth inequality and failing democracy.
www.indcatholicnews.com/news/53608

SMRs vs Renewables: A Costly Distraction? Politicians in many countries, including the UK and Australia, have recently advocated the development of ‘small modular reactors’ (SMRs) as a means to speed up nuclear power production as an alter…

🚨New on the Blog:

Hyping ‘small modular reactors’ is all the rage. But with the tech still some 15 years from maturity, Ian Lowe argues that SMRs are an expensive & risky distraction from rapidly building safer, cleaner & cheaper renewable energy capacity.

rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2025/11/05/a...