War by Biodegradable Means? An Assessment of the British Military Sector's Green Turn

"Algae, alcohol and household waste will power RAF fighter jets under bold Ministry of Defence plans to slash carbon emissions," reads an announcement launching the UK's Sustainability Strategic Approach as part of wider attempts to address climate change within the British military sector (MOD 2021). The new approach is emblematic of increasing attention paid to the links between climate and military issues by both defence and third sector actors. Yet while civil society highlights the negative climate impact of military action - a rallying-point voiced especially loudly during recent protests around COP26 in Glasgow - the recent 'green turn' in British military policy conversely draws on the climate crisis as a justification for expanding the UK's reliance upon military security and arms production. The main pillars of the new green approach mobilise the British military sector as a leading player in supporting and realising the UK's climate commitments, whilst "embracing" the strategic and operational "opportunities" that "a more sustainable approach can bring" (MOD 2021). It gives the military a primary role in addressing climate change and suggests that environmentally sustainable military expansion is not a threat to British climate commitments. The sustainability focus coincides with the government's decision to increase its military spending over the next four years by £24 billion, emphasising the expansion and restoration of existing military equipment (Parkinson 2021) - including raising the cap on British nuclear warheads (GOV 2021). The increase expands a military-industrial sector with an existing annual carbon "boot-print" (military greenhouse gas emissions) of 11 million tonnes: the equivalent of more than 60 individual countries the size of Zambia (Selwyn 2020, 2). This raises questions around the drivers behind and justifications for the British military sector's leading role "at the forefront of a new and growing green military agenda" (MOD 2021, 6), and the consequences of this agenda for UK military and environmental politics. This emergent military sustainability agenda and its meaning and significance - which I call green militarism - has not been substantively addressed within International Relations (IR), related disciplines or the (social) sciences more generally. Nor have the convergences between militarisation and climate change, despite their significance for the study of the environment, as well as of war, security and related politics. Focusing on the UK as a global leader in moves towards military sustainability, this research project investigates why and how the UK military sector - including but not limited to the Ministry of Defence (MOD), armed forces, and defence industry, and their associated defence and industry policy, strategies, and research and development (R&D) - is positioning itself as an ally in the green transition, and what the implications are for UK military and environmental practice. Drawing on and extending extant theoretical literatures on liberal militarism, climate (in)justice, and geopolitical ecology, and combining policy analysis with in-depth interviews, the project examines the UK military sector's climate policies and impact to both develop a novel conceptualisation of the relationship between militarism and climate justice and offer the first empirical account of the drivers and implications of introducing environmental sustainability to Britain's military sector. The project includes a collaborative element and placement with Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) as non-academic partner - a leading voice on the climate-military nexus - enhancing both feasibility and potential for public impact. As such, it seeks to strengthen the bonds between UK-based climate and peace researchers and movements, offering scholarly research that can serve as a springboard for impact on key policy problems around the climate crisis and its military dimensions.