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Expanding the UK military won’t tackle the biggest threat to security

The climate crisis is the greatest challenge facing all nations, and it won’t be solved by recruiting more reservists

By Paul Rogers
Expanding the UK military won’t tackle the biggest threat to security
Some senior British politicians have been calling for increased budget for the military | Jeff J Mitchell / Getty / AFP
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We are reaching a period of near-global militarisation. Military spending worldwide soared by 9% to a record high of $2.2tn last year and is likely to grow further in 2024, aided by Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Against this backdrop, Rob Bauer, the chair of the NATO military committee and an admiral in the Dutch Navy, last month said that countries must increase their capacity to produce weapons and consider plans for mobilisation, increasing the size of reserve forces and even conscription.

This spending and messaging mean the world’s military-industrial complexes are looking forward to boom times in the coming years – and senior British politicians and military are as keen as any to help bring it on.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0