David Keen

David Keen is a professor of conflict studies at the London School of Economics. He is the author of The Benefits of Famine and Useful Enemies, among other books, and winner of the Edgar Graham prize

Why are politicians fixated with declaring war?

War rhetoric is everywhere in our volatile politics: from Ukraine to the resurrection of the war on terror in Gaza, from the ‘wars’ on human smugglers, drugs and crime, through to more metaphorical culture wars, ‘war on motorists’, on a virus – even on climate change. Keir Starmer accuses Rishi Sunak of prosecuting a ‘one-man