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Britain is one of the most militarised places in the world. An area larger than London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow combined is given over to military use: for training, weapons manufacture, bomb testing, surveillance and much we know nothing about. Its many further sites around the globe – from Kenya to Cyprus to Australia – are themselves part of the 6% of the earth’s surface given over to military training and testing, roughly the same amount covered by rainforest. History teaches us that preparing for war is every bit as transformative as war itself, and yet what happens in this vast world is largely invisible and goes completely unscrutinised.
Tom Evans has spent more time in these places than any other outsider. Through a series of journeys into these scarred and uncanny zones, and through encounters with the people, animals and stories that inhabit them, he reveals the true scale and astonishing impacts of Britain’s militarisation – from deep within our bodies to the outer reaches of our atmosphere – as well as the yet greater implications for our rapidly militarising planet. He argues that at a time of heightened insecurity and threat, we can and should reconfigure our military force so that it is genuinely defensive, and that to do so would not be a burden or a risk, but an act supportive of freedom, security, and flourishing.
Above all, he brings our attention to a hidden and unruly realm where safe assumptions come rapidly and shockingly undone. Without sight of it, we not only fail to understand our current system of military power and preparation, we are not seriously equipped to discuss it at all.
