@transitionsec.bsky.social
Investigating the US and UK military industrial complexes as economic, climate and geopolitical threats. By @cmmonwealth.bsky.social and @cplusc.bsky.social.
@transitionsec.bsky.social"3.5% doesn't represent anything. There's no document you can find which says, 'this is why we need 3.5% of GDP for the military...' We're spending an extra £280 billion over the next decade just to meet this artificial target."
TSP's Khem Rogaly spoke to @novaramedia.com about our new report.
@transitionsec.bsky.social“Rather than being primarily structured around the literal defence of the country, our military is unusually equipped to fight thousands of miles from our shores.”
@owenjones.bsky.social covers our new report for @zeteo.uk. Read the full report here 👇
@transitionsec.bsky.social“The billions Britain wastes on global military deployments every year symbolise its destructive, outdated foreign policy... Britain should end its support for these attempts at global policing.”
TSP's Khem Rogaly on our new report, featured in @theguardian.com:
@annastavrianakis.bsky.socialReposted by @transitionsec.bsky.socialWhat is “defence” spending for? This is the sort of public intervention we desperately need, from the excellent @transitionsec.bsky.social
@davidwearing.bsky.socialReposted by @transitionsec.bsky.socialI'm a Fellow of @transitionsec.bsky.social and I strongly endorse this analysis. There's a lot of performative Seriousness from pundits and politicians on military spending. It's time we had a genuinely serious conversation around these issues, and I hope this new report can help to stimulate one.
@louiswillis.bsky.socialReposted by @transitionsec.bsky.socialImportant work. The UK faces real threats, but there’s also a real risk that in rushing to meet arbitrary targets we fail to apply the same level of scrutiny to defence that we do to the rest of government spending. With other capital budgets already being cut to fund the DIP, that can’t continue.
@transitionsec.bsky.socialRead the full report below:
@transitionsec.bsky.socialOur report presents new data on the costs of Britain’s global force projection, nuclear posture and wasteful procurement. Britain must end support for offensive military operations around the world and reject demands to increase military spending based on an arbitrary target.
@transitionsec.bsky.socialBritain’s military spending plan is not designed around specified defensive needs, but instead to increase spending to an arbitrary target: 3.5 per cent of GDP. This simply means increasing the military budget relative to the size of the national economy.
@transitionsec.bsky.socialDespite this, Britain has planned a vast increase in military spending. Over the next decade, Britain plans to add £279 billion to the military budget, seven times the value of the Affordable Homes Programme.
@transitionsec.bsky.socialIt is a myth that Britain and its allies are being underfunded. The US, NATO and their allies account for four fifths of the world’s military expenditure.
@transitionsec.bsky.socialThere is also the problem of mismanagement and waste. Since 2010, Britain’s MoD has wasted £14 billion on cancelled programmes — pouring billions into obsolete, unnecessary or faulty weapons.
@transitionsec.bsky.socialBritain has also spent more than £51 billion on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and related operations since 2001. Last year, it spent nearly £3 billion sustaining its global military deployments.
@transitionsec.bsky.socialBritain maintains a global military posture, with bases on five continents, retaining the capacity to intervene anywhere in the world. This policy of global force projection cost, conservatively, over £14 billion last year.
@transitionsec.bsky.socialBritain’s military budget is larger in real terms today than it was in the 1980s. Yet the government has used the idea that the military lacks resources to justify doubling its budget over the next decade. Our research presents new data asking: where is all this money going?
@transitionsec.bsky.socialNEW: Keir Starmer declared last year that the “peace dividend” was over, promoting the myth that Britain’s military spending has declined since the end of the Cold War. Our latest report shows this simply isn’t true. 🧵
@transitionsec.bsky.socialOur Co-Director @patrickmbigger on Israel’s ecocide in Gaza for @zeteouk 👇
@zeteo.ukReposted by @transitionsec.bsky.social“The assault has been not only on the people of Gaza, but on the environment that makes life possible.”
Patrick Bigger examines Gaza’s destroyed farmland, polluted water and toxic air, making the case for ecocide.
@transitionsec.bsky.socialTSP's Kevin Cashman in the New Internationalist:
@transitionsec.bsky.socialIn a letter organised by Transition Security Project, 10 unions call for Andy Burnham to end Britain’s military support for Saudi Arabia, due to the war crimes it has committed in Yemen
@tribunemagazine.bsky.social 👇
