story-type: ForcesWatch comment

Do we want militarised schools? Cadet forces, ‘independent’ evaluations and defence agendas in education

Cadet with rifle

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Summary

In August the government announced £70m of new funding for the UK’s military cadet forces. The pledge to increase the number of cadets by 30%, or over 40,000, by 2030 was made in June’s Strategic Defence Review. The review also stated that a further increase would see cadet numbers rising to 250,000 ‘in the longer term’.

Much of this expansion will be in school-based cadet forces. Since 2012 it has been government policy to increase the number of armed forces cadet units in state-funded secondary schools. To back up the expansion the Ministry of Defence commissioned the University of Northampton to produce a series of evaluation reports to demonstrate the social impact and value of cadet forces.

The first of these reports came out in 2017 and the most recent in April this year, with a report published almost every year in between. The reports have provided the government with a string of similarly highly positive findings and made claims about huge financial benefits to the country. They have been used to generate press releases, media coverage and parliamentary debates, and provided justification for the spending on cadets – estimated to be £210m a year.… Read more

A ‘chief of staff’ and ‘enduring relationships’: The advance of military interests in Parliament

AFPS article

In November 2024, the UK’s Defence Academy posted on X that the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme (AFPS), which is run by the Armed Forces Parliamentary Trust, has returned with a record number of participants. At just shy of 60, this means almost one tenth of the House of Commons is currently participating in an arms industry funded military cosplay fantasy that, as we highlight below, is seen by UK Strategic Command as a way to influence MPs. This is an 80% increase on the 33 parliamentary ‘graduates’ from the Scheme in 2023-24.

There are some interesting parallels here with the first Tony Blair administration. As we found in our first investigation into the Scheme, Labour very quickly decided to expand the number of MPs taking part in the Scheme when they came to power in 1997. Whilst significant at the time, it was merely a stepping stone to the ever increasing rise to the size of participation today.

Other changes have occurred since the 2024 election, chiefly that Conservative MP James Gray, the long time Chair of the Scheme and its sibling the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Armed Forces, lost his Wiltshire seat due to constituency boundary changes. Whilst this means he can no longer take part in the APPG, the charitable status of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Trust, and its dual position of being both inside and outside Parliament, allows him to stay actively involved in the Scheme.… Read more

Is this militarist realism? Defence dividends for an ‘armour-clad nation’

Graphic of man thinking about defence

With the publication in June of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) and the National Security Strategy (NSS) and with more reports to come, this government is working hard to change the status of ‘Defence’ in the consciousness and economy of the country. ‘If you want peace, prepare for war’ the authors of the SDR tell us, with the promise of a ‘defence dividend’ that brings jobs and prosperity.

We reflect on the two strategy reports, what other critics have highlighted and what they tell us about a narrative of ‘militarist realism’ at this moment.

Part 2 about the ‘whole-of-society’ narrative will be published soon.

Contents

  • New strategies, with extra politics
  • The rise of centring ‘Defence’
  • Militarist Realism
    • Militarism: the dominance and state subsidy of the (US) military industrial complex
    • Realism: the pervasive atmosphere of permanent war
  • No escape from reality….we are not there yet

New strategies, with extra politics

The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) was published in early June with a fanfare. The high rhetoric was matched by the staging of the launch at BAE Systems in Glasgow and a quarrel in Parliament when some in the defence industry – as well as journalists – were given access to the review before MPs.… Read more

York Armed Forces Day: ‘rage-bait’, militarism and the authorised ‘knowers’

Controversy around York’s Armed Forces Day 2025, held on 5 July, caused a stir in the national press after it was reported that military equipment had been ‘banned’ by the local Labour council. Yet key details were either missing from, or misrepresented in, coverage about the supposed ban, as ForcesWatch’s Joe Glenton, a York resident, reports.

Inaccurate, partial and unevidenced claims were made in the press about a decision to not have military equipment present at York Armed Forces Day (AFD). For example, it was suggested by The Independent that ‘fear’ about potential protests influenced the council’s decision. The Daily Mail carried quotes from a military ‘expert’ incorrectly linking recently proscribed group Palestine Action to protests in York. But a statement from the Leader of City of York Council suggests that the decision was not a result of some nebulous ‘fear’, but of a democratic process of consultation which directly involved the army and local residents. This key detail, and others, were missing from several stories in the national papers.

As a result, a degree of moral panic was generated. If a few key, publicly available, details had been included in the coverage stories they would have clarified the matter.… Read more

Hope in a time of luminous insanity

I read a sentence today in JK Galbraith’s history of the 1929 stock market crash that seemed to capture something of our current moment. He wrote:

‘Great drama joined in those months with a luminous insanity.’ 

Writing in the week of VE Day 2025 – the 80th anniversary of the defeat of 20th century fascism in Europe – is an odd feeling. Far away from Halifax bombers, royal pomp and nostalgic street parties to commemorate the end of a devastating war, another outbreak of mass human conflict threatens. There is great drama, and it seems like only a matter of time before it cross-contaminates with a luminous insanity. Or perhaps it already has.

In Ukraine, there is grinding trench warfare which wouldn’t look out of place in 1916. Israel, with material and political support from the UK and others, has just announced the latest phase of its genocidal assault on Gaza. And now (nuclear-armed) India has bombed numerous targets in (nuclear-armed) Pakistan and Kashmir. For those of us who closely observe war and militarism, there is a sensation of being unseen and unheard; a feeling that the world is ploughing towards a third global conflagration despite everything we’ve said and done, often over long, thankless decades.… Read more

The politics of the military recruitment crisis

Using military data and recent research on the experience of young recruits, we outline some of the entrenched problems faced by service personnel. We argue that current opportunities for change must not be overshadowed by operational and political demands for more recruits – or even national service.

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Summary

Fuelled by war-footing narratives, the long-standing recruitment shortfall in the armed forces has developed into a ‘recruitment crisis’ in the media. Changing attitudes of young people towards enlistment, and conscription, often get blame for the failure of the military to meet recruiting targets. However, the figures show that large number of applications to join up continue to be made but, for various reasons, these have not translated into new recruits. This suggests that, in constantly pushing for more recruits, the armed forces are actually demanding more suitable recruits, rejecting in one way or another the majority of those that do apply.

Ministry of Defence statistics show that the high net outflow of the last few years – which has caused such alarm – is now decreasing. It is likely to be partly a consequence of the high net intake in the previous period, which was a response to very prominent recruitment marketing in the years leading up to and during the Covid pandemic.… Read more

A back door to Parliament for defence contractors: mapping arms company influence in APPGs

Since its inception in 2010 the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Armed Forces has been one of the least transparent of APPGs. Here, we lay out what we know – about its activities, sponsorship by the arms industry and the criticism it has received in the past. While the Armed Forces APPG is yet to reform since the general election we look at how defence companies continue to be involved in other parliamentary groups.

Formed after the general election that gave us the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Armed Forces was, according to its long-time chairman James Gray, the largest APPG in Parliament during its early years, with a membership of more than 300 MPs and Peers. It was formed by the merger of previously separate APPGs for the Royal Navy, Army, RAF and Royal Marines, entities we know little about due to the lack of historical records on APPGs.

Whilst Gray was among the Conservatives MPs who lost their seat in July 2024, his legacy – which also includes over a decade at the helm of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Trust – it is clear his influence was huge, even if, as we outline, much of the APPG’s work remains shrouded in secrecy.… Read more

Complicit partners? The UK-Israel Roadmap

UK-Israel relations are correctly under intense scrutiny as the assault on Gaza, the equally indiscriminate killing in Lebanon, and opportunistic attacks on Syria continue. So far, the new Labour government seems as committed to maintaining normal relations with Israel as its Conservative predecessor, making only the smallest of concessions to horrified public opinion.

In this context, it is vital to examine the cooperation agreements and partnerships that the UK has signed with Israel. Although developed and signed under the previous government, these agreements provide some of the context and rationale for the UK’s continuing support for Israel’s actions in spite of the overwhelming evidence of international war crimes and genocide against Palestinians, most recently compiled in last week’s report by Amnesty International.

Beyond its announcement a year and a half ago it has received little media or parliamentary attention despite the current political situation, yet its implications for the entwining of UK and Israeli interests, and the politics that go with them, are profound.

The 2030 Roadmap for UK-Israel Bilateral Relations, signed in 2023, brings together both pre-existing and new initiatives under a single ‘strategic partnership’, and provides an ideological framework for it. The Roadmap is the culmination of years of diplomat engagement between Britain, the former colonial power in the region, and Israel, which serves as a key node of US/Western power in the area.… Read more

International antimilitarism

We’ve finished Series 5 of the Warrior Nation podcast. It’s hard to believe what started in a back shed at our offices has covered such a range of topics. From public memorialising of the military to the martial nature of policing, from drone warfare through to the role of art in resisting militarism.

The latest 6-episode series covers international antimilitarism and we wanted to take the chance to reflect on what we learned from our guests this time round.

Episode one – Demilitarising Education

Back in February we spoke to Demilitarise Education’s Jinsella Kennaway. For a number of years now dED have been working in universities to counter the presence of arms firms in education. We had a great discussion about strategy, tactics, efficiency and organizing; one which anybody could stand to learn from.

“We have to understand that hope is our greatest superpower. We have to reclaim the power of education so it can advance the world into a sustainable utopia that we all want to live in.”

You can listen to EP1 here.

Episode two – militarism & patriarchy in Israel

In March we spoke to Or, an activist and objector from the Israeli organisation New Profile.… Read more

100 days of Starmer: no substantial change to UK militarism

The Prime Minister’s first hundred days in power have been dissected by his supporters and political opponents alike. The timeworn metrics will include polls and analsysis of manifesto promises. With our critical military perspective, we look at the Starmer government’s actions in relation to Britain’s defence commitments and foreign policy.

It is worth starting with reference to our recent blog titled ‘Honourable and Gallant Members’: Patrician militarism prevails under Labour’. It describes Starmer’s carefully-posed speech at the National Arboretum a month before the general election. In this flag-draped setting he delivered a speech on foreign policy flanked by Labour candidates with military backgrounds. This was the culmination of a promotional strategy which stretches back through Starmer’s time in opposition. He and his team have always positioned themselves hawkishly, in close proximity to the flag and to the military.

The veterans present endorsed Starmer enthusiastically, suggesting the leader had restored their trust by breaking with the foreign policy of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. Though as we pointed out, on many major military matters the 2019 manifesto differed very little from the 2024 manifesto.

It is also worth remembering that, as a leading cabinet minister in 2019 Starmer himself signed up to a number of commitments with anti-militarist credentials, such as:

  • respect international law and avoid needless military interventions
  • introduce a War Powers Act to ensure that no prime minister can bypass parliament to commit to conventional military action
  • conduct an audit of the impact of Britain’s colonial legacy

While it is too early to assess the likelihood of progress on these, recent developments are indicative of the Starmer government’s general approach to defence and foreign policy and the country’s relations with, and impact on, the rest of the world.… Read more