story-type: ForcesWatch comment

Start Thinking Gamer: the British military’s new recruitment frontier

The history of video-games is, unfortunately, one that involves the military. Arguably the first digital video-game, SpaceWar!, was created by Pentagon-funded grad students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the early 1960s. As the name suggests, the game itself was based on militarism and wedded to the twin concepts of nuclear conflict and space exploration prevalent at the time. The first known video-game tournament – a precursor to the now burgeoning eSports industry – saw competitors battle it out on SpaceWar! at the Pentagon funded Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab in Calfornia. Military funding essentially meant Stanford University was one of only a handful of places globally with the hardware to host such an event.

The industry spawned by SpaceWar! has created a multitude of titles focused on warfare, from Atari’s Space Invaders and BattleZone, to Konami’s Contra, EA’s Desert Strike and, of course, the immensely popular Call of Duty franchise. To name but a few! And lest we forget the Pentagon’s foray into game development with uber-recruitment tool America’s Army, a free to play first-person shooter released in 2002 that was available on PC, Xbox and PlayStation during its 20-year lifespan. The US military was also a key funder of many of the technologies that led to the advancement of videogames throughout the Cold War period, including the Internet and 3-D navigation in virtual environments.… Read more

The Troubles so-called: Britain’s War in Ireland

A picture of MPs sitting in the Houses of Parliement where they are currently debating legislation on The Troubles.

In a recent conversation with one of the UK’s leading national security journalists, this writer heard a quote about Ireland which stuck with me: “what the English can never remember, the Irish can never forget”.

That conversation was with Ian Cobain, author of books on torture, state secrecy and, most recently, the period referred to as The Troubles. Ian is one of three guests on our latest Warrior Nation mini-series focusing on Ireland. The other interviews – one with a former occupying soldier turned peace activist and one with a Derry resident who experienced the brutality of the Troubles first-hand – came as the new bill on Northern Ireland legacy issues was passing through Parliament into law.

Its central aim appears to be to inoculate the British state against accountability, including through legal action. And the ideology which has driven it is one of British exceptionalism, militarism, coloniality and no small amount of anti-Irish feeling. You can read our full analysis of the legacy bill here.

Down the memory hole

The bill passed into law on 18 September 2023. All House of Lords amendment were rejected. This was despite almost universal opposition from human rights and victims’ group. In fact, as former soldier Lee Lavis pointed out in our first podcast episode, the bill did something quite unusual in Ireland, achieving the rarely achievable by uniting all sides in the conflict against it.… Read more

What the arms fair tells us about new militarism

As well as being an arms fair, Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) acts as a stage from which senior military leaders and defence and trade politicians can project their latest thinking to a like-minded audience. DSEI is very much a state-sponsored event to encourage companies, governments, think-tanks and researchers to connect on strategy, partnerships and technologies. As arms trade researcher Anna Stavrianakis reminds us, ‘The costs of weapons production are socialised – but the profits are privatised.’

While there continues to be little public discussion about what goes on at DSEI enough is revealed in published speeches, the defence press and DSEI’s own communications about this ‘international defence community’ event, to provide important takeaways on the direction of defence policy that will affect us all, as well as the clearest illustration of how the interests and operations of states and the defence and security industry are deeply entwined.

Here, we take a brief look at a number of themes that have been prevalent at DSEI this year and that are key to the defence reviews and strategy documents of the last few years. Some reflect the trends we have been observing at the interface between defence interests – the military and defence industry – and other areas of society, such as the education system.… Read more

Erasing accountability during The Troubles

A picture of MPs sitting in the Houses of Parliement where they are currently debating legislation on The Troubles.

A new bill focusing on the Troubles is making its way through Parliament. It purports to deliver justice and clarity for those affected by the conflict, but a reading of the bill’s aims and detail, and a look at the tone of the debate around it, suggests it will fall short. Like its international counterpart, the Overseas Operations Act, the bill seems to be much more focused on securing indemnity for the British state. The animating ideologies behind it were particularly apparent in a recent Lords amendment debate, where many beliefs were evident: a thriving sense of British exceptionalism; a fear of a unified Ireland or ongoing Republican feeling among the young; and a willingness by the British establishment to throw its own people under the bus if it shields the state from accountability.

Lethal force

On 24 April 2023 protestors gathered outside the Northern Ireland Office in Belfast to oppose the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill. Belfast councillor JJ Magee, whose sister Anne was killed by Loyalists in 1976, took part in the protest. He told reporters:

‘We all know full well the full extent of the murderous actions of the British state, who had no qualms about using lethal force against a civilian population whether in Derry, Ballymurphy, Springhill or in the New Lodge.’… Read more

Rogue heroes?

This article by ForcesWatch was first published in Peace News April-May 2023

The 22nd Special Air Service regiment, better known as the SAS, occupies a unique place in the British public consciousness. For many, it embodies notions of an elite level of valour and heroism coupled with the mystique of state secrecy and a certain roguish prestige.

Even within the military, these troops are often seen as almost supernaturally tough and skilled. A sense of barely-governed violence attaches to them, which results in nicknames like ‘blades’ and ‘pilgrims’.

The SAS mythology begins in the Second World War, but at various points the SAS ideal has been re-invigorated and re-shaped around particular operations or moments in military and national history. Two examples would be the Iranian Embassy siege in London in 1980 or the failed Bravo Two Zero patrol in Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.

Contrary to its cultural impact, 22 SAS is a small unit estimated to have between 400 and 600 personnel. Until a change of policy in 2018 allowing women in frontline combat, the unit was exclusively male.

“The SAS exists at an odd point of tension in British culture, in that it is both intensely secretive and, at the same time, many of its activities are very well-known”

Based near Hereford in the West Midlands, the SAS is the largest element of UK special forces.… Read more

Mutual militarisation: the budget and NATO spending

Mutual militarisation. Chancellor holding his red case. Increased defence spending promises in the 2023 Spring Budget.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a flagrant and brutal violation of the most fundamental principle of international law. The initial invasion has been followed by numerous atrocities, including the bombing and shelling of civilians, the deliberate targeting of critical civilian infrastructure, massacres of civilians in conquered territory, and – for which Russian President Vladimir Putin has now been indicted – the kidnap of Ukrainian children and their transfer to Russia to be placed with Russian families.

The invasion has sent shock waves around the world (not least in poorer countries faced with soaring food prices), and has reshaped security calculations not only in Europe, but also in the Asia Pacific, another theatre of superpower competition. The response of the West has included sweeping sanctions on Russia, though still failing to close all loopholes by which Putin allies launder their plundered wealth, and massive military support for Ukraine.

Military spending increases

But it has also greatly accelerated an existing trend – in part spurred by Russia’s earlier intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014 – towards higher military spending, including in the UK. The Spending Review of November 2020 included a £24 billion increase in military spending over 4 years (compared to existing levels), and now the 2023 Spring Budget has made a further £7.1 billion increase over the current and coming two years (compared to previous plans), up to 2024-25 – in addition to the UK’s military aid to Ukraine, which should be counted in most definitions of military spending, and which is expected to total £4.6 billion in 2022 and 2023.… Read more

Unpicking British Army recruitment adverts

Screenshot of British Army recruitment advert The Flood.

Searchlights pass over a disaster scene at night as the camera surveys a flooded residential area. A helicopter can be heard flying low over partially submerged cars whilst soldiers in combat uniform wade through the water among the vehicles. The camera discovers a young black soldier. Then we flashback. The soldiers are in the back of a truck on the way to the disaster scene. One wields a small high-tech device as it guides them to the location of the emergency. They arrive and pour off the vehicle into the water.

The soldiers find a woman trapped in the driver’s seat of a flooded vehicle – she gestures frantically to the back seat where there is a baby. The young black soldier, established early as the main protagonist, opens the passenger door and lifts the child out. He holds it close and talks reassuringly to it. The camera lingers over this tender moment. The soldier lifts the child to the mother, who is now safe, wearing a space blanket in a dinghy. In this final phase of the advert, during which the soldier looks tired and relieved, a voice over tell us: “The army is more advanced than ever, but nothing can do what a soldier can do.”… Read more

The MPs and the arms company reps

Screenshot of the seating arrangement for the 2021 Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme graduation dinner. It shows six tables around which are seats MPs, ministers, military top brass and representatives from some of the worlds largest arms companies.

In November 2021 ForcesWatch released its first investigation into the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme (AFPS), an annual ‘course’ that purports to educate MPs and Peers about the daily experience of service personnel. To do so, the AFPS puts parliamentarians in uniform and lets them get tactile with tanks, helicopters and automatic weapons. It is as if MPs live vicariously through the Scheme, which presents a kind of martial optics for them to burnish their militarist credentials.

The Conservatives have traditionally enjoyed organic connections to the military and have always been well represented on the AFPS, but an ever increasing number of Labour MPs are taking part. Although this trend began long before Keir Starmer became leader of the party – and started appealing to the patriotism he believes is key to winning back the Red Wall – our analysis shows that many recent participants are on the Labour front bench.

This has a number of implications. Firstly, the Scheme further normalises close connections with – and a favourable ‘understanding’ of – the military as a prerequisite for elected officials. Secondly, with Labour high in the polls, there is a real chance that key brief holders in the next government will have been exposed to military and arms industry influence.… Read more

From Militant to Military Labour

The UK is experiencing a period of industrial militancy. Transport workers, dockers and postal workers have all been out on strike in recent weeks. Even barristers have taken to picketing, while nurses and firefighters are balloting on walk-outs. Strikes invariably inspire reaction, in every sense of the word. One mode of that reaction, especially when strikes shutdown key industries or public services, are calls to summon the army as “scab” labour to keep vital services running.

The practicalities of bringing in soldiers to run the ticket barriers at Euston or Lime Street, let alone operate trains, should be enough to put anyone off. And yet the calls emerge each time, especially on social media. And in truth, the British military has stepped in during periods of militant worker’s activity in the past. Generally, they do so in one of two ways: the first, to break strikes with force, actual or implied; and secondly, to literally step in and take over jobs worker’s have withdrawn their labour from. We will examine both, as well as the prospects for them reoccurring now.

This is relevant not only because of the current climate of organised labour activity, but because of the increasing lionisation of the military in public life during the transition to power of a fourth Tory prime minister in 12 years.… Read more

Overselling the Military

A powerfully built robot lopes tirelessly across an apocalyptic battlefield. It weaves its way through shattered buildings, past burned out cars, crushing a rusted oil drum underfoot without breaking pace. A sensor built into its head emits beams of light as it stops, limbs rotating inhumanely while it appears to assess the horizon. The scene zooms deep into the robot’s camera-like eye as a woman’s voice, itself robotically altered, asked us:

‘What does the army of the future look like?’

The camera pulls back from the eye. It now belongs to a young female soldier. She’s intensely focused, her face beaded with sweat. A further adjustment to the shot shows she is holding a small helicopter drone in an outstretched hand. It flies into the air, and we are told, in the same robotic voice:

‘It looks… like you.’

Another woman’s voice – not robotic this time – takes over:

‘In the future, technology will help us do incredible things. But nothing can do, what a soldier can do.’

Behind the woman, other soldiers appear, mucky from battle, rifles raised to their shoulders, as they advance through the bombed-out ruins. Another big zoom out and we see vehicles and infantry advancing determinedly through a shattered village towards some distant location several hills away.… Read more