Issues

We currently focus on four main issues: disarmament and security, climate change and energy, questions of who controls science and technology and issues surrounding new and emerging technologies. You will also see that we work on some other issues too. You can explore these with the menu on the left of this page and with the search function. Material in this section includes all SGR's main outputs since 2005, with a selection of the more important material from before then.

Partnerships between the military and UK academia are being rapidly expanded. Alba Andrés Sánchez examines whether some of them might be used to help develop lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS).

15 September 2022

With the present British government intent on a fleet of new nuclear power stations, Dr Paul Dorfman, Sussex University, looks at the major obstacles and argues for alternatives.

31 August 2022

Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, looks at how the language used to describe war – including that in Ukraine – can mislead and obscure the situation. He provides a short guide for cutting through the information fog.

26 August 2022

Dr Jan Maskell, SGR, summarises the academic evidence on one of the key debates in climate communication.

22 July 2022

What would it take for humanity to hear and act on the scientists' warnings of a climate and nature emergency? Dr Alan Cottey discusses ‘adequate response’ and how to achieve it.

15 July 2022

Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, summarises the ways in which the Russia-Ukraine war is fuelling climate change both on and off the battlefield - putting the 1.5C temperature target in jeopardy.

14 June 2022

Dr Philip Webber, SGR, examines the how military strategy and modern weapon technologies are combining to cause a huge human tragedy in Ukraine - and how nuclear threats could make the situation even worse.

10 June 2022

Lewis Akenji, Dana Vigran and Magnus Bengtsson, of the Hot or Cool Institute, outline their latest research on sustainable lifestyles.

5 June 2022

How do we reconcile the benefits of scientific gatherings with tackling the climate emergency? Prof Richard Parncutt, University of Graz, has trialled a potential solution.

30 May 2022

Finlay Asher, Safe Landing, assesses the technical obstacles to the decarbonisation of aviation - and finds they are substantial.

29 April 2022