Campaign Against Arms Trade 50th anniversary lecture

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) turns 50 this year. The organisation was founded in 1974 in the wake of a war in the Middle East involving Israel. So, some things haven't changed. But much has. The global political order, the structure of the arms industry and trade, the nature of military technology, the way media and information operate… in many ways the world is unrecognisable. But, the huge support given by UK governments of all colours to the arms industry and trade has remained constant, and likewise their willingness (like most other major arms producers) to promote arms exports at the expense of humanity.

CAAT's resistance to this trade has continued throughout, but the context and methods of this campaigning have.

Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman from CAAT, will be giving a talk at the LSE Library on Wednesday, 19 June, to mark the anniversary. In his lecture, he will explore the ways in which both the arms trade and the campaign against it have changed and developed over the past half century, as well as the things that remain constant in a vastly different world."

This event is hosted by LSE Library in partnership with CAAT. LSE Library are the custodians of the CAAT archives, which are open to all to consult. Some of CAAT's archives will be on display a the current Library exhibition 'A Say in the End of the World' which you can view before and after the talk: www.lse.ac.uk/library/whats-on/exhibitions

Dr Luc-Andre Brunet, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary International History at the Open University and Co-Director of the Peace and Security Project at LSE IDEAS will be chairing the event. His research focuses on the dynamics between peace and anti-nuclear activism, on the one hand, and policymaking and diplomacy, on the other.

Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman is Research Coordinator at Campaign Against Arms Trade in the UK. His current main focus is on UK arms exports, and the political influence of the arms industry on UK government policy. His other areas of expertise include data on world military expenditure, arms industry and trade, and corruption in the international arms trade.He is also a Fellow of the World Peace Foundation, where he was previously Programme Manager of their project on Global Arms Business and Corruption, from 2016-2019; and a Senior Associate Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). From 2007 to 2016, Perlo-Freeman worked at SIPRI on issues regarding military expenditure, arms industry and arms trade, and, in particular, was head of the SIPRI Military Expenditure Project. In this capacity, he completed a project to extend SIPRI's unique military expenditure database backwards in time from 1988 to the 1950s.

Dr Luc-André Brunet is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary International History at the Open University and Co-Director of the Peace and Security Project at LSE IDEAS. His research focuses on the dynamics between peace and anti-nuclear activism, on the one hand, and policymaking and diplomacy, on the other.

The lecture takes place on Wednesday, 19 June from 6.30 - 8pm GMT+1, in the LSE Library: The British Library of Political and Economic Science, 10 Portugal Street London WC2A 2HD

LINK

Campaign Against Arms Trade: www.caat.org.uk