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.
Fight Tonight, Blight Tomorrow: NATO consolidates amidst climate breakdown
Two of the many consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been the release of vast amounts of climate-damaging carbon and the reconsolidation of the NATO alliance. Ian Davis reflects on two recent reports that illustrate how the world’s revived obsession with military ‘deterrence’ and protracted war heightens the risk of more than one type of existential catastrophe.
A Crisis of Exceptionalism: UK military spending and the next election
As elections loom, both the main British political parties have set their sights on another major boost to the UK's military spending. Richard Reeve analyses what capabilities this aims to fund and what it might mean for the UK's already exceptional global role.
Hypnotized by ‘Deterrence’, or Just Spellbound by the Bomb?
2024 has begun with top-level calls to prepare our society and stock our arsenals for coming war. Sean Howard sees such hyperbole as paranoid and paradoxical if nuclear deterrence really does work. But what if it doesn’t?
Why do we not know if US nuclear weapons are returning to Lakenheath?
Why do we not know if US nuclear weapons are about to return to the UK? Because British sovereignty over military-decision making has been surrendered to the United States and NATO, argues Ian Davis.
Ireland’s Consultative Forum on International Security Policy
This summer Ireland has held its own public national debates on its security context and the potential future direction of Irish international security policy. Andrew Cottey discusses what Ireland did and the potential for any change to its tradition of military neutrality.
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
Bargaining NATO’s tank fixation for peace
As the Ukrainian winter largely freezes positions on both sides of the grinding war there, temperatures in NATO have been rising over the idea that Germany is obstructing critical supply of battle tanks to Kyiv. Ian Davis poses four larger questions around this tank fixation and how it might best support negotiations to end the war.
Preventing Nuclear Use: A tale of two treaties
2022 brought not only renewed threats of nuclear war in Europe but the convening of two major conferences on nuclear weapons, in Vienna and New York. In this new long-read article, Rebecca Eleanor Johnson reflects on the very different aims, expectations and outcomes of the TPNW and NPT conferences amid the urgent need for progress in global disarmament.
Where does NATO go from here?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine appears to have bolstered NATO’s unity, purpose and expenditure, with Finland and Sweden hoping to join the club soon. But what, asks Steven Chisnall, is its endgame? Where is its strategy? And what if it could not count on the United States?