On 16 July, the UK’s new Prime Minister commissioned a Strategic Defence Review (SDR) with submissions invited until the end of September from different stakeholders, including academics and the general public. The review presents an opportunity to substantively engage with the UK's security and foreign policy agenda and offer new angles to feed into policy processes.
Our newly established Security Policy and Practice Working Group is therefore convening a dialogue event for academics, practitioners and other experts to exchange views on the issues that this review should take into account. No prior experience in submitting evidence is needed and the session will discuss different ways of successfully engaging in policy processes of this kind. The session will encourage constructive, multi-disciplinary dialogue across a wide spectrum of opinion and voices, including feminist, postcolonial and other historically marginalised perspectives in the security and defence area.
Agenda
The session will focus on 3 areas:
- The context and stakes How is this SDR framed, and what is at stake that we might want to critically interrogate?
- How to engage? How to submit to a review like this? What sort of things are the organisers looking for, what kind of evidence is useful, and what kind of critical engagement can be effective?
- How can and should academics position themselves towards and collaborate on (1) this SDR? And (2) engaging with decision-making and reframing / shifting the narrative on UK defence and security beyond this review?
1.00 Short word of welcome and framing (5 Mins)
Chair: Dr. Thomas Martin, (SPP group co-convener / Open University)
1.05 Remarks from invited speakers on the context, framing of the review, how to engage with such reviews, plus any reflections on the issues at stake (20-25 mins)
Eleanor Fairhurst, Specialist, House of Commons Defence Select Committee team
Richard Reeve, Coordinator, Rethinking Security
Prof. Anna Stavrianakis, University of Sussex
1.30 Plenary discussion (20-25 minutes)
1.50 Breakout group discussions (40 minutes)
Questions – for all groups:
- Why are you interested in the SDR/this meeting?
- How do you see the context and stakes of this SDR?
- How do you (or could we) plan to engage with the SDR / other security policy debates/reviews (e.g. opportunities/challenges)?
2.30 Feedback and close (15 minutes)
Registration will close two hours before the event begins.