ABSTRACT
The world today faces many grave problems – including escalating armed conflict and regional poverty, climate change, resource depletion and increasing inequality. Such challenges are important in themselves but also exacerbate national and global insecurity. For example, resource scarcity and climate change can lead to the mass movement of people, resulting in armed conflict. It is important, while considering the role of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) in shaping the security and military agendas, to realise that these terms are highly contested. For many, the notion of ‘security’ involves deploying major military technologies, thereby threatening and using force rather than taking a broader perspective, which seeks to understand and deal with the roots of conflict. Indeed, an influential view today is that the use of conventional military force constitutes a practical tool of foreign policy post-Cold War (Stone 2004).
