Why rethink security?
Security matters to everyone, but much that governments do in its name is making us all less safe, at home and around the world. It’s time for a rethink – here’s why.
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Where’s the space for local ownership? A response to the 2022 UK International Development Strategy
The UK government’s long-awaited International Development Strategy makes the case for a competitive geopolitical approach to development assistance centred on British priorities, interests and ‘expertise’. Kit Dorey argues that this approach is another missed opportunity to decolonise the ‘aid system’, prioritise local agendas and knowledge, and create transformative change.
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Keeping up with the Putins
The British Foreign Secretary laid out her vision for the UK’s foreign policy in an age of global conflict on 27 April. Fred Carver argues that her speech ignored the compromised nature of both Russian and British power and failed to envision any long-term basis for sustainable peace between the West, Russia and China.
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The Alternative Security Review
The Alternative Security Review is a civil society-led review of the UK’s security strategy. By asking people in the UK what they feel really matters to them for their security, the Alternative Security Review will create a human security strategy to provide an alternative to failing government policy.
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Why rethink security?
Security matters to everyone, but much that governments do in its name is making us all less safe, at home and around the world. It’s time for a rethink – here’s why.
Rethinking Security is a network of organisations, academics and activists working together for security based on justice, cooperation and sustainability. We invite you to join us.
The Alternative Security Review
The Alternative Security Review is a civil society-led review of the UK’s security strategy. By asking people in the UK what they feel really matters to them for their security, the Alternative Security Review will create a human security strategy to provide an alternative to failing government policy.
Who pays the price?
Who pays the price for the UK’s approach to national security? Our three short films show its impact on people’s lives.
Our discussion paper
This 90-page paper provides an evidence-based critique of the UK’s national security strategy. It analyses the features of an outmoded narrative, and suggests the principal reasons for this failure to adapt.
Community Energy: Local responses to the 2030 Climate Emergency
The UK has a vast amount to do to secure its energy supplies, cut energy usage and prices and transform its electricity production to all-clean sources. Instead of reviving fossil fuels and nuclear power, community energy entrepreneur Tony McNally argues that the government must support local solutions, including community solar and wind power schemes.
Engineers’ Choices: Disarmament by design
Designing weapons is a lucrative career choice for many engineers, but comes with deadly and destabilising consequences. Roger Orpwood argues for an ethical approach to engineering and explores some options for dis-incentivising the development of new weapons technologies.
Everyday Peace Indicators: A way to measure and build peace
For decades, calls for greater attention to local, everyday experiences in peacebuilding have been growing. Yvette Selim and Roger Mac Ginty discuss Everyday Peace Indicators’ bottom-up participatory approach to understanding and tracking changes in difficult-to-measure concepts like peace, reconciliation and governance in conflict-affected communities.
To the victor go the spoils … a heap of ashes
Diana Francis and Andrew Rigby see the appalling tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. Acknowledging the right of Ukrainians to resist the invasion of their country by any means, they make the case for a cessation of military struggle, in favour of civilian-based resistance which might avert the ‘desertification’ of their land, its institutions, its infrastructure and its social fabric.
Moving the Immovable Object: Obama’s Climate Securitisation
Francesca Kilpatrick reflects on the usefulness and risks of casting climate change as a security issue, looking at the changes to climate policy under the Obama administration as an example.
From Aleppo to Mariupol: Stopping use of explosive weapons in populated areas
Russian use of aerial, artillery and missile barrages against Ukrainian cities recalls the criminal devastation of Aleppo and other Syrian cities. Ian Davis assesses the possibilities and urgent moral imperative to protect civilians by banning the use of explosive weapons in populated areas (EWIPA).
Unthinking Immigration Detention
A decade on from the launch of its Hostile Environment agenda, the UK government is stepping up its campaign against asylum seekers, with indefinite imprisonment of migrants a central component. Fred Ashmore argues that immigration detention is expensive, ineffective and demeans us as a nation. It requires an urgent rethinking beyond the politics of fear.