Written Submission to Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy

The submission by Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) criticises the UK's focus on military deployment and the arms trade, urging a shift toward 'human security'. SGR identifies rapid climate change, nuclear war, and biodiversity loss as high-priority security threats and calls for the reallocation of military funding toward the 'green' economy and social needs.

• SGR identifies several high-priority security threats that should supersede traditional military concerns, including the risk of rapid climate change if the transition to a society keeping global temperature change below 1.5°C fails, and the risk of breaching 'planetary boundaries' such as biodiversity.
• The document criticises the UK's military policies, specifically the export of arms to countries with poor human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia and Israel, noting that arms exported to Saudi Arabia are used in the war in Yemen to the detriment of civilians.
• SGR argues that civilian security threats are severely under-resourced, stating that UK funding and policies to tackle climate change are considerably less than required and that outdoor air pollution kills an estimated 40,000 people in the UK annually.
• The submission calls for a comprehensive 'arms conversion' programme to retrain and redeploy workers from militaristic industries into the expanding 'green' economy, funded by decreasing spending on offensive military technologies.
• SGR urges the UK to end its deployment and modernisation of the Trident nuclear weapons system and to sign the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

APA

Scientists for Global Responsibility (2020). Written Submission to Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-11/SGR-submission-to-Integrated-Review-Sep20-final-text.pdf

Chicago

Scientists for Global Responsibility. Written Submission to Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. 2020. https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-11/SGR-submission-to-Integrated-Review-Sep20-final-text.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Scientists for Global Responsibility |title=Written Submission to Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy |date=September 2020 |url=https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-11/SGR-submission-to-Integrated-Review-Sep20-final-text.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{scientistsforglobalresponsibility2020written, author = {{Scientists for Global Responsibility}}, title = {{Written Submission to Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy}}, publisher = {Scientists for Global Responsibility}, year = {2020}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-11/SGR-submission-to-Integrated-Review-Sep20-final-text.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }