SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This report explores the impact that security think tanks such as the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) are having on British democracy and societal cohesion. It highlights links between such groups and the British and international far Right which combine with patterns of divisive and agendadriven reports based in impoverished methodologies to shape UK policy and political discourse for the worse. Such groups have caused concern amongst numerous equalities, community, and faith groups and are cited as enabling and encouraging Islamophobia and racism, facilitating far Right mobilisation, and pushing successive UK governments towards policy positions that damage societal cohesion. This report brings together open-source articles, reports, and public instances of events to document the problematic work being carried out by these security-focused think tanks and map the impact that they have had on British society. Whilst the report is particularly concerned by the on-going work of HJS, the findings are applicable to a broad network of private and publicly funded security organisations that benefit financially from the on-going War on Terror, and which routinely publish poorly researched work, thereby encouraging hostile attitudes and repressive policies against Muslims and minorities across the UK