With elections looming and pressure mounting on Keir Starmer to up the pace of British military spending increases, the Prime Minister will find that there are no easy ways to find the funds. Michael Brzoska and Ian Davis argue that neither the case for the spending increases nor the trade-offs necessary to achieve them have … Continue reading Paying for increased military spending: No easy choices for Starmer
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 potential annexation of Greenland, arguing that planning should start now for a post-NATO security architecture in Europe and the Arctic. On 17 January, US President Donald Trump … Continue reading How Europe should respond to Trump’s threats over Greenland
CSBMs not shoot-downs are required to take the heat out of the escalating airspace violations
A series of violations of NATO airspace by Russian crewed and uncrewed aircraft in September significantly escalated the rhetoric and potential for deadly violence between European adversaries beyond Ukraine. Ian Davis suggests four ways in which the alliance can deter Russia while reducing the risk of miscalculation and the dangers of escalation. NATO member states … Continue reading CSBMs not shoot-downs are required to take the heat out of the escalating airspace violations
‘Europe’s Role for Peace in the World’: A Positive Peace Scenario from Sicherheit neu Denken
In order to overcome major global challenges, especially climate breakdown and the crisis in the international legal order, it is necessary to end the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible. Europe also urgently needs to reimagine its role in the world, beyond its often subordinate role to US interests. To meet both these aims … Continue reading ‘Europe’s Role for Peace in the World’: A Positive Peace Scenario from Sicherheit neu Denken
“Other, more benevolent things”: Revisiting Helsinki to prevent the final act of nuclear war
The Helsinki Accords that helped define the European security order for nearly half-a-century emerged not from the victory or the collapse of one state or bloc, but from compromise amid heightened Cold War tensions. On the 50th anniversary of the Accords, as part of our series ‘Stories of People- and Planet-centred Cooperation’, Sean Howard explores … Continue reading “Other, more benevolent things”: Revisiting Helsinki to prevent the final act of nuclear war
Human Security Must Remain on the NATO Agenda
Since 2022 NATO has endorsed a Human Security approach in relation to its core tasks. Yet its 2025 Summit fell silent on this, among many other issues. Alexander Gilder makes the case for why Human Security must stay on NATO’s agenda in order to bolster the Atlantic alliance’s legitimacy and effectiveness. With rising geopolitical tensions … Continue reading Human Security Must Remain on the NATO Agenda
Don’t Look Up, Don’t Look Down: The radical certainty of Labour’s National Security Strategy
The UK’s latest National Security Strategy heralds a radical redistribution of national resources from social spending to defence. Richard Reeve argues that it not only brushes aside the looming reality of irreversible climate breakdown but also represents a fundamental abandonment of an eight-decade project to learn the catastrophic lessons of World War Two. ‘Security for … Continue reading Don’t Look Up, Don’t Look Down: The radical certainty of Labour’s National Security Strategy
‘Organised irresponsibility’: How Britain’s defence strategy clings to a bygone world
The UK's new Strategic Defence Review is another example of the government talking tough while failing to make tough choices. Mary Kaldor and Luke Cooper argue that the SDR strategizes for a bygone age, in which the US was a dependable ally rather than a threat to European democracy. The German sociologist, Ulrich Beck, coined … Continue reading ‘Organised irresponsibility’: How Britain’s defence strategy clings to a bygone world
SDR 2025: America First, Last and Everything
The UK's new Strategic Defence Review is a squib. Not because its ambitions are under-funded, but because its ambitions centre on keeping the MAGA state engaged in European defence at any cost. Richard Reeve argues for an urgent and open national conversation that confronts the unsustainable and unstable myths at the heart of UK security policy.
Bridge to Nowhere: UK security strategy in the ruins of Atlantis
As Western security alliances fragment, Richard Reeve charts the implications for the UK’s most fundamental strategic assumptions, and makes the case for ‘thinking beyond the unthinkable’ in the government’s next National Security Strategy.
A Cuckoo in the Nest: Eight ways NATO states can respond to Trump 2.0
February 2025 looks like being a defining month for European security and the eight-decade transatlantic alliance. With European leaders unsure whether the Trump administration identifies more with Putin’s Russia than EU democracies, Ian Davis proposes eight ways in which European security might be rethought and reclaimed, within NATO or beyond it.
Do we really need a NATO bank to ‘Trump-proof’ European security?
The prospect of NATO-sceptic Donald Trump returning to the US presidency after next month’s election has stimulated much discussion of how to ‘Trump-proof’ European collective security. Ian Davis argues that the solution lies in funding global demobilization, not rearmament.