If security is such a broad concept, why does security policy so often seek to exclude the most vulnerable from protection? Leonie Mills-Woanya looks at the UK’s approach to international development, border control and policing and finds it consciously polarising and exclusive, not so much from a lack of resources as a lack of political will.
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
Visualising Security: Reflecting on the symbols and emotions that define security
Last week we held a launch event for our Visualising Security project. The aim of the project is, over the next 4 months, to build a collection of images and stories that challenge the conventional narrative of ‘security’ and provide evidence for our Alternative Security Review. Joanna Frew shares some reflections on the event
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.
The Contagion of Impunity: Occupation, settlement and liberation in the South Hebron Hills
The assault and detention of an old friend in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is an act of normalised brutality in this contested territory. Andrew Rigby argues that challenging such violence is essential to ending impunity and has the potential to transform the conflict and liberate both oppressed and oppressors from such ‘routinisation of terror’.
Searching for humane alternatives to the ‘whole society’ approach to security
In the first of a series of blog posts reflecting on our Alternative Security Review, Joanna Frew highlights some of the common themes in the first three of Rethinking Security’s roundtable discussions with civil society on human security issues.
Preventing Violence: Lessons from Health and Social Care
Connections between violence and health have been revealed in a number of ways, not least through the World Health Organisation’s recognition of violence as a public health problem. Anna Gillions asks what we can learn from reviewing approaches to violence from the health and social care sector.
Pulling up the Drawbridge on Fortress Britain
Government policy and practice consistently treat asylum and migration as security issues to be tackled via hard borders and military enforcement. Libby Ruffle describes how, in its Nationality and Borders Bill, the government is closing the door on those risking their lives in dangerous channel crossings in a desperate search for safety from war and repression.
Playing the Pools: Omicron and Common Security
With the ultra-infectious Omicron variant looking set to sweep the world, Paul Rogers argues that the greatest global security challenge facing us is to heed WHO advice and ensure rapid world-wide vaccination against COVID to reduce the risk of new, more lethal variants of the virus emerging in future.
Open Society, Closed Conversations: External Consultation and the Integrated Review
This briefing paper from Rethinking Security and UNA-UK compares the external consultation processes of the recent Integrated Review with previous UK security reviews. It aims to inform better practice and contribute to Rethinking Security’s Alternative Security Review project.
Racial Hierarchies and the War on Terror
Paul Higate argues that ‘counter-terrorism’ strategy in Afghanistan and elsewhere has been grounded in persistent ideas of racial hierarchy that value the lives of ‘deserving’ British troops well above those of contracted foreign personnel, let alone ‘disposable’ local allies and proxies.
A Path to Redemption? Can mainstreaming save ‘P/CVE’?
Preventing or countering ‘violent extremism’ (P/CVE) is a highly contentious field that has increasingly characterised counter-terrorism policy, in the UK and internationally, over the last 20 years. Joel Busher, Tufyal Choudhury and Paul Thomas assess the implications of current efforts to ‘mainstream’ P/CVE into other policy areas.