The 2015 UK Strategic Defence and Security Review and beyond

The UK is in the process of conducting a Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) and refreshing its National Security Strategy (NSS), which will set out the UK’s approach to delivering on its security needs. This submission to the process from Saferworld focuses on how the UK can continue to build on work to date to try and prevent conflict and build peace as an integral part of an enlightened approach to national security.

The UK has an important role to play in responding to conflict as a thought leader, development actor (with over 30 per cent of UK aid spent in fragile states), an economic and military power, and a key influencer on the international stage. The UK has made significant strides in its thinking and programming in this respect, including in the innovative 2011 Building Stability Overseas Strategy (BSOS), recognising the value of promoting a more stable world based on good governance and respect for human rights. For Saferworld this strategy continues to be a crucial tool for advancing UK interests while also preventing conflict. Conflict prevention will also be an important aspect of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, which include a focus on peace, good governance and the rule of law as championed by the Prime Minister. The 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, and its subsequent implementation, should reaffirm that it is in the UK’s interest to address the drivers of conflict, promote the principles underlined in the BSOS, support sustainable development, and avoid actions that might fuel violence and instability. As such, this submission makes high level recommendations to the SDSR process, but is focused on a longer-term discussion for how the UK might better promote security and stability overseas.

Read more about our work with UK actors working on conflict and security issues.

“The UK Government should ... aim to reinforce expertise on conflict issues in headquarters and in country offices, systematically drawing on partnerships in civil society and consultations with communities affected by conflict to build better local power analyses, and focus on actions that aim to increase the long-term prospects for stability.”

Saferworld