Kirsten Bayes argues that the UK’s addiction to arms trading is a vestige of empire and great power politics that continues to empower despots and immiserate the world’s most vulnerable people.
Blog
Facing the Truth: Engaging with the Climate and Ecological Emergency
Why are we so unperturbed in the face of the catastrophic risk of ecological collapse? Psychologist Breda Kingston highlights the challenges, collective and individual, of confronting our ‘ecoanxiety’, embracing uncertainty and working together for change
5G and the Myth of a Green Transition
Far from absurd conspiracy theories about spreading coronavirus, Jo Baker argues that the rapid and seemingly unstoppable spread of 5G is happening without consultation or due consideration of the economic, environmental and climatic impact of such technologies.
Prospects for Innovative Security Approaches in the South Caucasus
Gulnara Shahinian argues that Armenia’s recent National Security Strategy set it on a path to engage with 21st century human security challenges in constant tension with the South Caucasus’ simmering Soviet-legacy territorial conflicts.
No Climate Justice, No Peace
Molly Scott Cato argues that the unjust and unequal impacts of climate chaos, as experienced most acutely in Africa and the Global South, are deeply linked to centuries of racism and exploitation by colonialist European states.
Existential Risk and The Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill
Natasha Brian explains the challenges of convincing policy-makers to take future issues seriously and why scores of parliamentarians from across the political spectrum are backing the draft Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill.
Kneel where Protest is Valid: Security through Subversive Memory
Clive Barrett argues that a radical review of national, community and family memory would empower resistance to racism and right-wing extremism.
Report of ‘Radically Rethinking Security’ Workshop
Richard Reeve reflects on a workshop that broadened the Rethink Security network by bringing academic specialists together with policy and practice experts from civil society to formulate a radical rethinking of UK foreign and security policy.
Sustainable Security: Defining, Measuring and Building Security after Covid-19
Abigail Watson and Alasdair McKay make the case for Sustainable Security, incorporating a broader range of risk drivers and responses than the national security approach. Embracing this would be an opportunity for the UK to strategise a more secure society and world after Covid-19.
Who Pays the Price for UK National Security Policy in Saudi Arabia?
For Ameen Nemer, a human rights activist from Saudi Arabia, the UK’s relationship with the Saudi government has come at a cost. Filmed last year, Rethinking Security’s interview with Ameen is released this week, amid increasing public concern about the continuing arms trade between the two nations. In this special blog post, he tells us why it’s time to rethink security.
Will the UK Reduce its Military Carbon Emissions?
The British military is taking some steps to curb its impacts on the climate. But its efforts will fail to have a significant effect without major changes in the UK’s national security policies, argues Dr Stuart Parkinson of Scientists for Global Responsibility.
Normalising the Exceptional as a Serious Security Threat
Jørgen Johansen argues that, like terrorism before it, the Covid-19 pandemic is being used by politicians across the world to normalise exceptional restrictions on basic rights with political consequences that will long outlast the health emergency.
