Embedding the Covenant
Over the last decade, local authorities and thousands of private and public organisations across the UK have pledged to promote the military through events such as Armed Forces Day. We explore how the Armed Forces Covenant enables this and how plans to further embed it in law are more widely problematic.
Pinkwashing War: Pride and Militarism
With June's Pride events underway we look at their sponsorship by the armed forces and defence industry and how activists have challenged this.
The Armed Forces Bill: lost opportunities and some dubious proposals
The Armed Forces Bill proposes important changes to the military justice system and will make civil society obligations under the Armed Forces Covenant a legal duty. We look at these and other matters of interest that have come up in the process.
The Integrated Review: enmeshing and strengthening the military
The government’s new defence and foreign policy review prioritises military thinking and interests at the expense of other international approaches and vital human security goals. Here we look at some of the Review's key elements and the implications of this new vision.
A tough year but business as usual
‘Tough year’ doesn't quite capture the extent to which our lives have been shaped by crises in 2020. Militarism, however, has not been locked down. Here is some of what we have been keeping an eye on this year as we look towards 2021.
Creating barriers to justice
We take a look at the extensive criticism that the controversial Overseas Operations Bill is gathering as it makes its way through Parliament and how, without serious challenge, this self interested legislation will create barriers to justice for all those caught up in warfare.
The Overseas Operations Bill: A Tale Of Two Militarisms?
The Labour party is finally engaging with a bill that could rewrite the law around prosecutions for actions in war and the derogation from the European Convention on Human Rights in relation to overseas operations.
The UK military admits it has a racism problem, but can it be decolonised?
Without the political will to face our colonial past and abandon the violent obligations of a junior partnership with the US, decolonising our military seems unlikely, writes Joe Glenton for Ceasefire magazine.
High ideals: VE Day, Covid and an anti-militarist future
On the 75th anniversary of VE Day, we reflect on what happened to the ideas and hopes that flourished after the Second World War, and what we can learn from this for a post-COVID world.
This article was first published in Peace News.
Militarising the crisis?
We need to tackle coronavirus with a strategy for health, care and solidarity. While military support is useful, there is little place for its approaches and culture during the UK’s Covid-19 response. Yet echoes of the military are starting to sound quite loudly as it seeks to maintain relevance.
