This Alternative Defence Review was proposed and undertaken by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in response to the RMT union's decision to convene a labour and peace movement summit to work out the basis of a new foreign policy which would promote peace and social justice.
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| The Alternative Defence Review, published in May 2025 |
It is so refreshing to read a document that offers a new vision for peace, justice, and security - and challenges the war narrative that is becoming louder and louder, played out by the political elites, the military-industrial complex, and the mainstream media.
In summary, the Review shows how militarization:
- distorts national priorities
- fuels global instability
- undermines international law
- harms the environment
- diverts investment from public services and social infrastructure.
Increased military expenditure will be economically inefficient, environmentally destructive, and socially regressive, offering limited job creation while stifling a more sustainable and just economy.
We need a significantly demilitarized defence strategy rooted in human security and common security - prioritizing diplomacy, global cooperation, conflict prevention, and investment in health, education, climate resilience, social care, and the creation of well-paid, secure, unionized and socially useful jobs.
We call for:
- a significant reduction in military spending
- an immediate halt to arms exports to countries involved in active conflict or human rights abuses (including Israel and Gulf states)
- a Just Transition for defence-dependent workers and communities.
Unfortunately, the present Labour Government plans to increase defence spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of GDP, financing this escalation by cutting international aid and domestic welfare - directly undermining support for the most disadvantaged communities. The aim of NATO is to see each member state, including the UK, spending 3.5% on the military. Trump since becoming the US president is demanding European states increase their defence spending to 5% of GDP.
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| Starmer follows the Trump line to a degree |
The UK has been a leading supplier of military equipment to Ukraine since the Russian invasion - and Johnson, when prime minister, went out of his way to prevent the success of peace talks in April 2022.
The UK government continues to provide political, military and intelligence backing to Israel as it follows a policy in Gaza that I and others call genocide. A defence strategy rooted in justice and diplomacy, rather than military aggression, is essential to breaking cycles of violence and fostering long-term peace in the region.
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| The direction of travel is clear. |
We have seen over the last decade a new war narrative developing across the US, the UK, and NATO member states in Europe. The Project for a New American Century was founded in 1999 in the US with an explicit purpose: forestalling the rise of China.
The UK Government has aligned itself with such a policy as was shown very clearly by the actions of Boris Johnson and the militarist wing of the Conservative Party. It was also powerfully backed by the UK's own military-industrial complex led by BAE Systems, itself a joint British-US company in terms of ownership. BAE is one of the world's largest arms producers - their sales between 2017 and 2021 were split between US (43%), UK (20%), and Saudi Arabia (14%). BAE produces around 15% of the US F-35 stealth fighter aircraft that have obliterated humans and buildings in Gaza.
The UK's armament companies are not independent. The dominant shareholders in BAE are US investment companies. Rolls Royce and Babcock, although smaller, also have dominant US shareholders - alongside British investment banks.
Moreover, the UK's nuclear weapons arsenal is dependent on the US for warhead design and manufacture, while Trident missiles are leased by the UK from the US. The UK's nuclear dependency on the US is itself enshrined in the secretive Mutual Defence Agreement that has not been subjected to any substantial parliamentary debate since it was first signed in 1958. I would make the case that the UK does not have an independent foreign policy; we are in effect a US puppet-state.
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| Which magic money tree is providing this new funding? |
In 2014 the Quaker Peace & Social Witness produced a briefing on a 'new tide of militarisation ' emerging over previous decades. Militarisation is now pervasive in the fields of education and research. Bringing a 'military ethos' into schools and military style discipline is often used as language to 'build character'. A University of Northampton report in 2025 noted that 'nearly 60% of school cadet units are now in the state sector, often in disadvantaged areas of the UK, where previously the majority were in independent schools. BAE Systems runs its own outreach programmes from primary to college level.
There has been a decades-long depiction that it is peace that poses a threat to our national security rather than warmongering and posturing which presents an existential threat to billions across the planet. We need to have a conversation about what truly keeps us safe.
We are subject to messaging that military spending generates wider positive economic and social effects through development of technology, research and development investment and jobs. The truth is that military spending generates a smaller economic multiplier than other public investments. For example, in 2019 every £1 spent on rail generated £2.50 of income elsewhere in the UK economy. Military spending is ranked 70 out of 100 in terms of numbers of jobs generated. Health is rated number1; investing in health is two and a half times more 'job rich' than military spending. Economic sectors from agriculture to energy, food manufacture, chemicals, iron and steel, transport, computers and construction all have greater 'employment multipliers' than military spending.
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| Starmer wrapping himself within the flag and the military |
The armaments industry provides a lamentable record of waste and irrelevance. For example, a fleet of new Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft was scrapped in 2010 because of delays and cost overruns, wasting almost £4 billion of public money. There is a lack of effective scrutiny and accountability by independent and democratic institutions, including parliament. In 2023/24, 44 per cent of Ministry of Defence contracts were non-competitive, consuming £16.4 billion of public investment. There is a concerning rotation of staff between the MoD and the companies that it procures weapons from: 40 per cent of senior military and MoD personnel take roles at arms and security companies after leaving Government employment.
We need 'defence diversification' and a 'Just Transition' from armaments to production of goods that are peaceful, sustainable, and socially beneficial. However, defence sector workers surveyed in 2022 were concerned with issues of pay which tends to be higher in defence jobs; issues of relevance with defence workers proud of their work for the country; issues of quality with defence workers aware of the high quality requirements of their work; and issues of trust with defence workers suspicious that any transition would be neither just nor effective. Such concerns have to be faced; it will require a broader economic and social vision than politicians have shown so far. We need the spirit of 1945 and a reincarnation of the Attlee Labour government (1945-51) - a socialist Government fit for the 21st century.
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