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SOAS was founded in 1917 with the explicit purpose of serving the interests of the British empire: strengthening its political, commercial and military presence in Africa and Asia, and producing knowledge and narratives about colonial subjects and environments. In 2019, a student investigation revealed that SOAS is still collaborating with the British Ministry of Defence by providing academic expertise to the Defence Cultural Specialist Unit (DCSU). The university has received over £400,000 since 2016 to design and deliver 'cultural specialist' trainings on three regions: 'Eastern Europe and Central Asia,' 'Middle East and North Africa,' and 'sub-Saharan Africa.'
The DCSU was formed in 2010 as the MoD's "centre of excellence for cultural capability" in response to the UK's involvement in the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It operates under the 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade in the 6th Division of the British Armed Forces. With at least 43,000 troops deployed and 20 military bases across the globe, from Kenya and Oman to Brunei and Belize, and engaged in at least eight conflicts, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, Britain's empire is neither spatially nor temporally contained in the past.
Although SOAS now claims to be 'decolonising' in a 'post-imperial' age, the institution's continuing partnership with the British military suggests otherwise. The specialist information SOAS provides them--from anthropology to geography, linguistics to politics--is used, at best, to generate more inclusive forms of imperial governance, a military strategy to win 'hearts and minds.' At worst, it can be used to neutralise or destroy potential sources of resistance, maintaining the compliance of local populations.
This collaboration is part of a broader culture of surveillance and militarism entrenching itself in universities, from the Prevent programme to the 'Hostile Environment.' Academic institutions are integral to the military-industrial complex: investing millions in the arms trade, profiting from and completing research for arms companies and the military, providing specialist trainings, and hosting careers services that promote industries that profit from war and repression to students.
As a campaign of students, workers and academics, Demilitarise SOAS calls for faculty and universities collaborating with the DCSU to immediately cease their involvement, and for educational spaces that cultivate life and liberation rather than death and destruction.
