This month’s US National Security Strategy underlines an ongoing shift away from liberal values into a new age of empire. In this new long read, Larry Attree discusses how – by rethinking alliances, defence posture, peace and conflict policies, and international cooperation – the UK can oppose these dangerous trends and promote a more peaceful … Continue reading Strategising for Peace in the New Age of Empire
How can we build on the ‘radical peace’ made in Northern Ireland?
Among the UK and Ireland’s greatest successes of the last century has been the achievement of peace in Northern Ireland. Almost three decades on, Larry Attree asked five key experts how peace and security was built in Northern Ireland, and what is now needed to sustain it in the face of unrest, social division and … Continue reading How can we build on the ‘radical peace’ made in Northern Ireland?
A ‘Peace Lens’ for the New UK National Security Strategy
For twenty years, violent conflicts and related deaths have been spiralling, while forced displacement has nearly doubled in ten years. Why is this happening? And could a ‘peace lens’ help the UK respond more effectively in its forthcoming National Security Strategy? In this short piece, Larry Attree, Hillary Briffa, Thomas Martin and Richard Reeve discuss the challenges and ways forward, drawing on a roundtable convened on 01 May 2025 to explore this question.
Making the case for de-escalation in the UK’s Strategic Defence Review
As a new UK Strategic Defence Review gets underway, a series of complex interconnected crises from the Middle East to the Horn of Africa must prompt a much greater emphasis on de-escalation. Charlie Linney and Lewis Brooks propose three areas where UK Defence can contribute to de-escalation and conflict prevention.
Joining the Dots: Lessons for peacebuilders navigating conflict, gender and climate change
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.
Solidarity and Self-Definition: Can research processes build peace and security?
Understanding the lived experience of marginalised people in situations of violence and insecurity is vital for peace and conflict policy-makers and practitioners, but can being involved in participatory research also contribute to the well-being of conflict-affected people? Four Yezidi women from northern Iraq here reflect on their research into their own experience of and response to insecurity.
Building Peace Together in Schools
The time for rethinking security in the classroom is now. With 'conventional wisdom' failing to set sustainable approaches to security, Isabel Cartwright makes the case for peace education and a relational approach to education that focuses on inclusion, equity and guardianship of the earth.
The MOD’s Accidental Roadmap to Peace: A radical reading of the Integrated Operating Framework
The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) has been doing some rethinking about how it operates in peacetime, wartime and somewhere in-between. ‘Cassandra’ looks at the MOD’s Integrated Operating Concept and finds an unexpected roadmap for building peace in a world already at war, but only when read from back to front.
Where’s the space for local ownership? A response to the 2022 UK International Development Strategy
The UK government's long-awaited International Development Strategy makes the case for a competitive geopolitical approach to development assistance centred on British priorities, interests and 'expertise'. Kit Dorey argues that this approach is another missed opportunity to decolonise the 'aid system', prioritise local agendas and knowledge, and create transformative change.
Everyday Peace Indicators: A way to measure and build peace
For decades, calls for greater attention to local, everyday experiences in peacebuilding have been growing. Yvette Selim and Roger Mac Ginty discuss Everyday Peace Indicators’ bottom-up participatory approach to understanding and tracking changes in difficult-to-measure concepts like peace, reconciliation and governance in conflict-affected communities.