ForcesWatch materials
Warrior Nation podcast – What’s wrong with Armed Forces Day?
Webinar: Mobilising the crisis: Covid-19 and the UK military
This webinar was recorded on 10 June 2020. Leading critical military studies academics discuss the role and operation of the UK military in the COVID-19 crisis and, in the light of the #BlackLivesMatter protests, how militarism intersects with racism and public control at home and abroad.
Warrior Nation: Militarism, War & Resistance
Kids with guns
Should the armed forces encourage young people to interact with weapons and military vehicles? Our new web resource looks at why is this happening and asks if it is right and how can it be challenged?
Selling the Military films
At the launch event for our report with Medact on Selling the Military: A critical analysis of contemporary recruitment marketing in the UK, contributors and participants told us why they think this is an important issue. And a longer film of the presentation summarising the report.
Model motion on military and defence industry influence in education
For discussion in union or party branches and councils etc. The motion calls for oversight and regulation of military activities in schools, including for careers and curriculum purposes, and for military-themed activities or perspectives to be balanced by activities focusing on peace and human rights. It also calls for activities run by arms companies in schools to cease.
Selling the military: A critical analysis of contemporary recruitment marketing in the UK
This report, written by ForcesWatch and published with the public health charity Medact, analyses the way the armed forces market their careers to adolescents and young people, creating powerful messages that which exploit developmental vulnerabilities and social inequality, risking the health and well-being of recruits. Narratives of camaraderie and self-development also serve to promote an uncontroversial and depoliticised idea of the military more widely which promote self-fulfilment in the context of conflict.
White Poppies for Schools
We have teamed up with the Peace Pledge Union to produce a White Poppy Schools Pack, which aims to explore Remembrance in a way that encourages critical thinking, and gives space for marginalised perspectives on war and peace. The learning resource can be read online here, or purchased from the Peace Pledge Union as a bigger pack including white poppies and white poppy leaflets.
Military involvement in education and youth activities in the UK
This briefing summarises key elements of military involvement in education and youth activities in the UK. It covers the defence industry as well as the armed forces and Ministry of Defence. It outlines the main concerns this raises and how these concerns have been voiced so far.
Warrior Nation: war, militarisation and British democracy – films
These presentations were recorded at the launch of the report Warrior Nation: war, militarisation and British democracy by Paul Dixon (published by ForcesWatch) in June 2018 in London.
- Warrior Nation: war, militarisation and British democracy, by Professor Paul Dixon
- Military Britain by Professor Joanna Bourke
- Militarism in public life in the UK, Emma Sangster, Coordinator of ForcesWatch