The party’s rise has been fuelled by strong patriotic messaging, yet important questions remain about its approach to security and armed violence.

More than 50 UK civil society organisations – including AOAV – have written to the Prime Minister urging the Government to rebalance its approach to security by investing in diplomacy, development and climate action alongside defence, warning that an increasing focus on militarisation risks making the world less, not more, secure.

UK imports of Israeli arms and military equipment increased by 10,589% between 2023 and 2025, according to UN trade data, prompting renewed scrutiny of Britain’s defence ties with Israel and the growing international market for technologies critics say have been developed and tested in the context of the occupation of Palestinian territories.

Two child-made paper aeroplanes folded from the British and American flags rest side by side on a school desk, suggesting a shared journey whose consequences lie beyond the innocence of the gesture.

A decade of Ministry of Defence transparency data reveals growing ties between senior officials and the defence industry, rising overseas spending and persistent gaps in disclosure that continue to obscure how public money, influence and national security decisions intersect.

Here AOAV examines how Britain’s historic and contemporary military involvement, arms exports and strategic alliances across the Middle East have linked the UK, directly or indirectly, to conflicts and alleged human-rights violations across the region.

New data show the UK has trained nearly 1,900 military personnel from over 100 countries, including 14 on its own human-rights watchlist, raising concerns about oversight, transparency and the risk of bolstering abusive security forces.

Is the US-UK special relationship becoming increasingly untenable as Washington under Trump abandons multilateralism and embraces volatile unilateral action, leaving Britain dangerously dependent on an ally whose behaviour increasingly conflicts with its own interests and values?

When a nation professes to champion human rights and international law, most people would think its actions should match its words. Not so Germany. Deutschland has, it seems, gotten itself caught up in that old and familiar trap of moral aspiration running up against claimed strategic necessity. So, on one hand, Berlin has publicly expressed […]

Former British Army General Tim Cross urges caution over potential peacekeeping deployment to Ukraine, calling for reflection on the human cost of military commitments.

The U.S. State Department has abruptly halted funding for global mine-clearing programs, including critical operations in Ukraine and Southeast Asia, citing a review of foreign aid priorities under the Trump administration.

Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense has sparked controversy due to Hegseth’s connections to Christian nationalist ideologies, including Reformed Reconstructionism and Christian Zionism, raising concerns about the potential influence of far-right religious beliefs on U.S. defense and foreign policy.