Action on Armed Violence

Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) aims to lessen the effects of armed violence by researching and monitoring its causes and consequences. Our primary focus is on the impact of explosive weapons that can cause widespread damage in populated areas. Since October 2010, we have been conducting a global assessment of explosive violence. Our efforts include examining various case studies related to the harm caused by explosive weapons. This includes the lasting effects in countries like Sri Lanka, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as NATO air strikes, attacks using improvised explosive devices by extremist groups, and the wide-reaching impact of explosive weapons in Ukraine, Jordan, and Israel, among others. We share our findings at international platforms, including the UN, and have presented our evidence on the harm caused by explosive violence to the UK Parliament, think tanks, and public discussions. Our research is frequently referenced in the media, and we are regular contributors to discussions on armed violence worldwide. For further details, please reach out to Iain Overton at [email protected].

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Articles

A critical commentary on the Prime Minister’s Govan speech and the expansion of Britain’s war economy

5 days ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

Keir Starmer’s Govan shipyard speech in advance of his unveiling of the Strategic Defence Review was a full-throttle rallying cry for a Britain rearmed and remobilised. Wrapped in the rhetoric of national unity and renewal, it was also a striking departure from the approach of peace and humanitarian accountability that many of his backbenchers have extolled.
War by algorithm: a review and critique of JSP 936, the UK’s defence AI doctrine

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

In November 2024, the UK Ministry of Defence issued JSP 936, Dependable Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Defence, a directive laying out the ethical, operational, and governance framework for integrating AI across military systems. Described as a “Directive” rather than merely a guideline, the publication represents a formal step in embedding artificial intelligence into the very structure of British defence strategy. The ambition is clear.
Algorithmic warfare and the foreshadowed death of conscience

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

This week (May 2025), the UK government announced over £1 billion in new defence spending to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) on the battlefield. It went largely unnoticed by many. But central to all of this was the Ministry of Defence’s newly unveiled Digital Targeting Web. It’s a system that promises to integrate AI, satellite feeds, drones and frontline troops in real time and does so in order to enable faster and more lethal decision-making.
The philosophy of violence: Slavoj Žižek and the obscene logic of power

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

Slavoj Žižek, the Slovenian philosopher, is not known for his restraint. His writing gallops and sometimes falters. His metaphors clash and sometimes drown. His references leap from Hegel to Hitchcock, from Stalin to Starbucks and sometimes off a cliff. And yet, for al the noise, beneath the performance lie moments of some of the most potent and unsettling dissections of violence in modern thought. This is not because he condemns violence.
Kill codes and command lines: understanding the rise of algorithmic warfare

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

If there is one thing that is clear about the 21st century battlefield is that algorithmic warfare is no longer the stuff of science fiction. With the British government announcing in May 2025 over £1 billion in new defence spending to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence on the battlefield, the deployment of autonomous systems is fast becoming the norm in state defence doctrine.
RUSI analyst Noah Sylvia speaks to AOAV on AI, ethics, and the future of armed conflict

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

Noah Sylvia is a Research Analyst for C4ISR and Emerging Tech on the Military Sciences team at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). In this wide-ranging and in-depth discussion, Iain Overton, Executive Director of Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), speaks with Noah about the ethics of algorithmic warfare, structural challenges in UK defence procurement, the dangers of relying on U.S. tech firms, and why militaries may be losing sight of the human cost of war.
The philosophy of violence: Martin Luther King Jr. and the ethics of nonviolent resistance

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

Martin Luther King Jr. did not position himself as a philosopher of violence. Yet his speeches, sermons, and letters when considered as a whole offer up one of the most enduring critiques of violence ever to have been contemplated — one that challenges the legitimacy of coercive force and offers a structured argument for nonviolent resistance, even today. At a time when armed conflict and state-sanctioned force continue to dominate global affairs, King’s insights remain strikingly relevant.
Automating death: AOAV's Iain Overton on Britain profiteering from war

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

In a wide-ranging on-camera interview featured in Platform Films’ new documentary Automating Death: How Britain Profits from War, Iain Overton—Executive Director of Action on Armed Violence (AOAV)—lays out a stark assessment of Britain’s role in the international arms trade.
When records fall silent: MoD refuses to disclose military animal deaths in 2024

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

The Ministry of Defence has refused to disclose how many military working animals were euthanised in 2024 and early 2025, stating that the task of gathering the data would be too resource-intensive.
Justice denied: what podcast 'In the Dark' reveals about the Haditha massacre

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

In its third season, the American podcast In The Dark shifts focus to one of the most harrowing and contested episodes of the Iraq War—the killing of 24 civilians by US marines in Haditha on 19 November 2005. This investigative series, produced by The New Yorker and led by journalist Madeline Baran, peels back the layers of military obfuscation to confront the uncomfortable truths surrounding a day of unchecked violence and its aftermath.