Former UK Labour MP Madeleine Moon argues that Britain’s political instability is the product of profound social and geopolitical change. With Andy Burnham in Number 10, Britain must think simultaneously about defence, the economy, technological advantage, and democratic institutions while building on reforms to pursue a whole-of-society approach to national resilience.
Andy Burnham has signalled that he wants to focus his energies on domestic policy, and his Cabinet appointments suggest he is willing to delegate responsibility to his top team – though that does not come without risks, write Jack Pannell and Ed Arnold. The experience of recent Prime Ministers suggests foreign policy requires the direct attention and energy of the Prime Minister.
A decade after the Brexit referendum shattered the UK’s relationship with the EU, the ELN’s Nikita Gryazin argues that Europe’s security can no longer afford parallel approaches. With geopolitical pressures intensifying, he makes the case for turning political rapprochement into lasting security cooperation through stronger institutions, defence-industrial collaboration, and operational partnerships.
In the third in our series exploring P5 perspectives on the forthcoming 2026 NPT Review Conference, Sahil Shah looks at the UK’s approach. He argues that its most effective role is not to promise what the P5 cannot deliver, but to strengthen the conditions under which progress remains possible: practical measures grounded in existing commitments, sustained dialogue, and continued investment in the institutions and relationships that keep restraint possible.
The world today stands closer to nuclear catastrophe than at any point since the end of the Cold War. Conflicts involving nuclear-armed states could all too easily escalate to a nuclear confrontation, as global arms control treaties collapse. Steve Barwick, Chair of the Nuclear Education Trust, calls for the UK, as the chair of the group of five ‘official’ nuclear weapon states in the run-up to the 2026 NPT Review Conference, to reject nuclear sharing and prioritise transparency, reinvigorate global nuclear diplomacy, adopt a no-first-use policy, and engage with the TPNW.
In times of eroding arms control measures, nuclear-weapons states should consider enhancing transparency around their nuclear safety, security and reliability mechanisms (‘fail-safe’) to strengthen the risk reduction agenda. This policy brief, by ELN Senior Policy Fellow Julia Berghofer, shows how France and the UK can advance fail-safe individually and bilaterally, as well as in the P3 and P5 contexts. Non-nuclear-weapon states parties to the NPT and members of NATO could also support this.