Who benefits when security becomes a permanent emergency? Oxford anthropologist Ruben Andersson talks to AOAV’s Iain Overton about the politics and profits of fear, the expansion of surveillance, and why diplomacy and peace deserve a hearing.

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.

Action on Armed Violence analysis found that CEOs of the UK’s largest defence companies earned an average of £5.2 million in 2024, with executive pay rising by £1.53 million on average over the past decade and far outpacing both median UK earnings and wider FTSE 100 remuneration levels amid growing military spending.

The UK has awarded £80 million to 24 universities to train the next generation of defence specialists, raising questions about the growing integration of higher education into Britain’s military-industrial strategy.

Action on Armed Violence has joined a coalition of UK organisations in endorsing a statement urging universities to reject the Defence Universities Alliance, warning that closer ties between higher education and the defence sector risk undermining academic independence and accelerating the militarisation of campuses.

More than 1,500 academics and students have signed an open letter urging UK universities to end defence industry partnerships worth an estimated £2.5bn, intensifying debate over the role of military funding in higher education.

Donald Trump’s boast of striking a “drug boat” off Venezuela exposes how America’s border has become a theatre of lethal sovereignty, where the state redefines law through violence and turns open seas into instruments of exclusion and death.

As far-right nationalism resurges in Britain, American defence-tech firms like Anduril and Palantir are exploiting patriotic imagery and political discontent to expand their influence, embedding themselves within the UK’s defence establishment and blurring the line between security, surveillance, and ideology.

A former Palantir employee turned whistleblower has exposed the company’s deep entanglement with authoritarian surveillance, militarised AI, and the Trump administration—warning that its technologies, from Gaza to the NHS, are driving a dangerous global shift towards data-driven oppression and unchecked state power.

Keir Starmer’s Strategic Defence Review speech in Govan reveals a worrying embrace of militarism as national policy, ignoring the humanitarian and economic costs of Britain’s expanding arms trade.

AOAV’s Executive Director speaks to Platform Films about arms exports, AI in warfare, and the erosion of ethical accountability in UK defence policy

The LEOSA Reform Act dangerously expands federal firearms privileges for current and retired law enforcement officers, undermining local authority, public safety, and the principle of firearm-free spaces.