New report to launch on the demilitarising education
The Campaign Against the Arms Trade, in collaboration with Demilitarise Education will launch a new report on Tuesday 27th February, entitled Weaponising Universities: Research Collaborations between UK Universities and the Military Industrial Complex, by Okopi Ajonye. The launch will involve an online panel discussion at 19:00-20:30.
Register for the webinar here
The report discusses the deepening ties between universities in the UK and the arms industry and military research. This include arms industry-funded research on campus, dedicated research centres sponsored by the arms industry and/ the Ministry of Defence and other parts of the UK security establishment, and other ties.
The report discusses the history of the so-called “Military-Industrial-Academic Complex” and the reasons why the government is increasingly drawing on academia to further research with military applications. Two key areas of research are highlighted: “Emerging and Disruptive Technologies”, such as AI, autonomous systems, and hypersonic weapons, which are believed to have the potential to change the nature of warfare; and what the report describes as “Militarized Environmental Technologies”. These are technologies that seek to reduce the environmental impact of military activities (such as military aviation), but which are also used to gain military advantage, and as a propaganda tool to ‘greenwash’ the fundamentally unsustainable business of war.
The report also looks at opposition within universities and academia to their militarization, and ways in which universities might, on the contrary, pursue research aimed at promoting peace and global disarmament, including the economic alternatives to arms production. Finally, a set of recommendations are made, both for universities themselves, and for students and academics seeking to challenge the weaponization of their universities.
The panel for the report launch will include:
- Okopi Ajonye (he/him), Research Officer, Demilitarise Education, report author
- Victoria Araj (she/her), Lecturer in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Lincoln, PhD in Peace Studies
- Andy Stirling (he/him), Professor of Science and Technology Policy at the Science Policy Research Centre, University of Sussex
- River Butterworth (they/them), Postgraduate Officer at Nottingham University Students Union, and anti-militarist activist
The facilitator for the discussion will be Sam Perlo-Freeman (he/him), Research Coordinator at Campaign Against Arms Trade.
Register here. More information here.
The latest issue of CAAT News, issue 268, February 2024, is now out and can be read here.
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/campaignagainstarmstrade/16581641545/. Creator: Campaign Against Arms Trade. CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
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