Climate breakdown is accelerating and its interaction with conflict and gender relations is evolving in complex and destructive ways. Drawing on the experiences of conflict-affected communities in Kashmir, the Philippines and Uganda, Alastair Carr and Amy Dwyer propose several ways in which peacebuilding programmes can respond.
The Urgent Need to Reclaim Security – Join the discussion next week
As Rethinking Security enters the final stages of the Alternative Security Review and we look towards the publication of our Human Security Strategy for the UK, we begin a webinar series on Weds 8th Nov to explore why this is necessary and what human security looks like globally, for communities and for individuals. Read on … Continue reading The Urgent Need to Reclaim Security – Join the discussion next week
Fair Deal Security: Centring people and planet in Lib Dem strategy
Rethinking Security presented its case for a Human Security Strategy at the Lib Dems conference in Bournemouth in September. Richard Reeve here advances five evidenced arguments that should inform Lib Dem policy before the next general election.
The Will to Wonder: Ambition, empowerment and inspiration for a shared society
Why is it that our collective imagination and action can range across the galaxy to solve abstruse mysteries but humanity can’t get to grips with the immediate problems of poverty, pandemic and climate breakdown? Clem McCartney appeals for a renewed capacity to wonder that can excite us to act and protect all that we stand to lose by our inaction.
The Worries Box: What really makes people feel insecure?
A group of activists in Bath spent the winter collecting the ‘worries’ of their fellow citizens about the future. Their indicative findings suggest a country deeply concerned about the viability of its planet, the misdeeds of its politicians, and a failing and divisive economic system.
Stick and Twist: The UK bets big on existential competition
The UK has revealed its hand for its new national security strategy, released on 13 March. Or has it? In this new long read, Richard Reeve argues that the UK is placing three big, long bets in its Integrated Review Refresh with major consequences and opportunity costs for tackling the environmental and social crises that threaten us all
No Security Without Climate Security
Because they are driven by narrow concepts of security, national security strategies typically end up looking for answers to new threats in the same old places. But Germany still has a chance to do it differently. In a special article for 49Security, Joanna Frew argues for the centrality of a sustainable climate in any security strategy.
Human Security and Climate Change
Climate breakdown necessitates a paradigmatic shift in our understanding of security. Joanna Frew reflects on the challenges for redefining security to meet the challenges ahead after hearing from civil society experts on agriculture, energy and global justice.
Stranded Assets: Climate, collusion and the geopolitics of a green transition
Mounting evidence of the accelerated breakdown of our climate and its human and economic consequences surely means that the game is up for fossil carbon. So why is the UK backtracking on its commitment to a green energy transition? Paul Rogers and Richard Reeve explain how elite interests are simply too entwined with militarised post-imperial geopolitics to challenge fossil fuel interests.
Reframing Security: Reflections on assessing local security concerns
We are constantly being told about threats to our national security but what is it that makes ordinary people in the UK feel most insecure? Judith Eversley reports on the findings of her local group’s efforts to gauge perceptions of human security in Bath and North East Somerset.
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.
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.