Description
In 2025, UK security policy is entering a period of pronounced militarisation, highlighted by the Strategic Defence and Security Review, funding shifts from development to defence priorities, and institutional emphasis on rapid military readiness across UK ministries. These developments coincide with shifts in U.S. Security Sector Reform (SSR) policy and funding, reflecting an increasingly transactional and securitised approach initiated by the Trump administration. This paper examines how these parallel trends will shape SSR implementation both by the UK and across transatlantic partnerships, while potentially reshaping SSR globally. Drawing on policy documents, funding patterns, and insights from my decade of practitioner experience in Washington, the analysis shows how UK SSR is poised to prioritise short-term strategic outcomes, flexible partnerships, and military utility, potentially at the expense of long-term institution-building and reform principles. The paper explores the tension between traditional SSR objectives—local ownership, accountability, and governance reform—and militarised, transactional imperatives, situating the UK experience within broader transatlantic and European SSR dynamics. It also considers how these emerging militarised approaches may coexist or conflict with alternative SSR paradigms focused on governance, development, and normative reform. By focusing on these emerging trends, this contribution provides a timely, practitioner-informed analysis of how recent policy and funding shifts may reshape SSR approaches, with implications for transatlantic coherence and the future of global SSR governance.
