Nobody should grow up learning that war is inevitable.
Worse still, our education should not contribute to someone else losing theirs.
Right now, British education is being used as a critical node of the war machine.
Arms companies are buying access to educational spaces so as to advance their own profit-led agendas.
This not only normalises war in spaces that should be protected as sanctuaries for peacebuilding, but also contributes to the production of armaments being used in violent conflicts today.
Schools, colleges and universities should be places where we learn how to prevent conflict, not prepare for it.
I co-founded Demilitarise Education (dED), registering the organisation in 2019 and have been leading the organisation's developments as Executive Director ever since. dED is the only global initiative focused solely on breaking the ties between higher education and the arms trade.
Our focus is to see universities implement arms exclusionary policy across their investments, research and academic policies. We have built the world's first university and arms database exposing billions in UK university links to the military and arms trade. Our Demilitarise Education Treaty is now used internationally, guiding students, staff, and communities as they hold universities accountable for their complicity in war. We are proud to have successfully achieved policy change at numerous institutions.
I do this work because higher education is a powerful engine for economic and social development. Therefore, university governance should be aligned with peacebuilding. So should university activity. That alignment matters. It helps remove the social licence — and capacity — that universities currently lend to the war machine. It redirects it toward conflict prevention and the creation of the conditions necessary for peace to exist. If we want peace, we must invest in it.
Put simply: we work to move money and influence out of war-making, and into conflict prevention and peacebuilding — before violence starts.
If you want to explore more of our data, impact, resources, and campaign tools, please visit the dED website.