Warpod Saferworld

The UK’s place in the world is changing, and so is the nature of the conflict around the world. With new risks and developing dynamics pulling policymakers and politicians in different directions, we spoke to great guests.  


Olivia O'Sullivan is the Director of the UK in the World Programme at Chatham House and contributor to their podcast Independent Thinking.  


Christine Cheng is senior lecturer in War Studies at King's College London. 



Our discussion gives insight into how UK political parties approach security policy making and the various challenges they face. We cover the ways in which the UK’s major parties would respond to current conflicts and crises, the areas of consensus between their approaches, the difficulties in communicating foreign policy and security challenges to domestic populations, and the potential reorientation of the UK’s foreign policy under a prospective Labour government. We also spoke about the role of foreign policy and commentary on it in the upcoming UK election more broadly, and the need for inclusive and constructive debates on security challenges. 

Saferworld, as a registered charity, is not politically affiliated in any way and is both politically neutral and impartial. 

Please note – the views, perspectives and opinions expressed in this podcast episode are those of the guests and do not necessarily represent the views of Saferworld as an organisation. 

In this episode, we explore the future of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping and the role of the African Union (AU) in peace operations with three guests: 


Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, the representative for California’s 51st District and a member of the United States House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Africa;  


David Haeri from the UN Department of Peace Operations, where he leads a division responsible for policy evaluation and training issues;  


Dr Linda Darkwa, Senior Research Fellow at the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy at the University of Ghana and the coordinator for the Training for Peace Programme, where she works with the AU Commission. 



Our guests talk about the challenges involved in the protection of civilians, the importance of due diligence in safeguarding human rights, the threats posed by unconstitutional changes of government and geopolitical security, and the need for flexible ways of addressing emerging challenges. We also speak about the concept of peace enforcement, which the UN Secretary General formally introduced in the New Agenda for Peace, and which differs from traditional peacekeeping in that it involves the use of force against combatants to establish peace. Running throughout all these discussions is a recognition that trust, political consensus and effective coordination between the UN and the AU are central to ensuring the success of peace operations. 

Please note – the views, perspectives and opinions expressed in this podcast episode are those of the guests and do not necessarily represent the views of Saferworld as an organisation.   

In this episode, we explore the role of the European Union in the research, development and joint production of arms and military equipment.  

 

Unlike other industrial policy areas such as commercial trade, decisions around arms production and export have traditionally been held solely by individual EU member states – linked closely to their sovereignty and national defence ambitions. However, in recent years and especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, we have started to see this dynamic shift, with the ramping up of joint research and development projects and collective efforts to provide military equipment to Ukraine. With this shift accelerating, can the EU’s oversight and accountability mechanisms keep up?  

 

To unpack this question, we speak to Hannah Neumann, a Member of the European Parliament who sits on the Security and Defence Committee and chairs the delegation for relations with the Arabian Peninsula, where the issue of arms exports is often debated.  

In this second part of our discussion with Lord Peter Ricketts and Nargis Kassenova, we take a deeper look at some of the security policy change we’ve seen in recent years, and at wider patterns of geopolitical competition and alliances. We also discuss how interventions by some major players in the region have created unreliable and inconsistent security partnerships, which in some cases has eroded trust and undermined their broader strategic aims. 

Lord Peter Ricketts is a former British diplomat of 40 years who was the UK’s first National Security Adviser and who now chairs the European Affairs Committee in the House of Lords. Nargis Kassenova is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Programme on Central Asia at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. 

If you’ve not listened to part one of this discussion, you can find it here.

The world is more dangerous now than ever, with worrying upward trends in the estimated number of civilians being killed in conflicts around the world, and rising challenges posed by climate change, new technologies, disinformation and upcoming elections.  

To open our new series of Warpod, we look at the trends shaping contemporary security policy, at what’s changed and what hasn’t since our last episodes, and at some of the different approaches being taken to address the challenges facing the world today.  

To help us do this, we've interviewed two experts: 


Lord Peter Ricketts, a former British diplomat of 40 years who was the UK’s first national security adviser and who now chairs the European Affairs Committee in the House of Lords.  
Nargis Kassenova, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Programme on Central Asia at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. 

The discussion with our guests has been split into two parts. In this first episode our guests identify the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a key moment driving security trends. We explore rising defence spending and military build-ups in Europe and Central Asia, and discuss the risks of these approaches. In episode 2, we will look at the wider patterns of geopolitical competition and alliances, and we discuss some of the impacts of unreliable and inconsistent approaches to partnerships. 

Please note – the views, perspectives and opinions expressed in this podcast episode are those of the guests and do not necessarily represent the views of Saferworld as an organisation. 

Every day, civilians suffer in violent conflicts attacked by armed forces, militias and rebel groups. These attacks have left many dead or injured, and caused millions to be forcibly displaced. However, most attempts to address these issues are done by influencing conflict parties to cease attacks on civilians, instead of enhancing the protection of civilians in places affected by violent conflict.

In this episode, we discuss the Global Public Policy Institute’s report on preventive protection efforts that hinder future harms rather than mitigating the effects of past violations, “The logic of protection approaches: Four models to safeguard civilians from harm”, and what can be done to increase protection of civilian, using examples from Iraq.

We are joined by:


Julia Steets, Director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, Germany.
Zmkan Ali, Research Director at the Institute of Regional and International Studies at the American University in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.

Please note the views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the contributors featured. They are not necessarily the views or opinions of Saferworld.