The Corkscrew Innovation Project: New Thinking and Action on Environmental Security
Oxford’s Climate Change & (In)Security Project (CCIP) and King’s College London’s Environmental Security Research Group (ESRG) are working with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) on a new initiative to develop innovative approaches to environmental security while strengthening military capability.
We are looking for ideas that make Defence more capable by thinking differently about environment, resources, and security.
The project takes inspiration from Winston Churchill’s wartime call for “corkscrew thinkers”, people who approach entrenched problems from unexpected angles and find a way through when conventional thinking fails or stalls.
The project’s first output will be a Policy Recipe Book: a collection of concise, creative and actionable ideas for delivering change in the three key areas (further details below).
The call is for genuinely original proposals. These might be at different scales and ambition, although low-cost and short-term ideas are particularly welcome, and consideration should also be given to factors, such as credibility and political acceptability. It is hoped that these ideas will be “out of the box” rather than recycled policies that have repeatedly failed. That noted, ways to unblock cyclical failure might also be considered.
Corkscrew Thinking:
A corkscrew idea does more than identify a problem. It might reframe it, reveal an overlooked lever, connect resources normally considered separately, or find a practical route around an apparently immovable constraint. We are particularly interested in small interventions that could unlock disproportionately large operational, financial or strategic benefits.
Ideas may cross institutional and disciplinary boundaries – for example, connecting Defence with energy, infrastructure, finance, land management, technology, insurance, food or water systems. Some of the most valuable may not initially look like Defence policy at all and may come from people with no previous connection to Defence.
Do not assume an idea is too unconventional, too small or comes from the “wrong” field. A corkscrew proposal might be a policy change, financial mechanism, procurement innovation, technology application, incentive, regulatory adjustment, new use of an existing asset, institutional arrangement or different combination of existing capabilities. We welcome ideas that challenge assumptions as well as those that introduce new capabilities.
Our Approach and Timeline
This is a “move fast and build” initiative designed to generate fresh thinking and rapid momentum. The first submission window will run for just 30 days, closing on 30 October. Following an assessment of the ideas received, the final Policy Recipe Book will be published on 1 December. If you have an idea, please submit it through the submission button below in no more than 500 words, either with your name or anonymously. You do not need to provide a fully developed intervention or business case. Explain the idea, the problem or constraint it unlocks, why it is different, the principal benefit to Defence, and the simplest credible first step. You are welcome to use AI to help present your proposal with maximum clarity and brevity.
Call for Corkscrew Ideas:
1. Making and Saving Money for UK Defence
Defence faces acute financial pressures, even as the UK tax burden approaches its highest level since the aftermath of World War II. How could the MOD generate revenue, reduce costs or make better use of its existing resources linked to the environment? You might think beyond conventional efficiency savings. Could Defence land, infrastructure, procurement power, intellectual property, energy demand, logistics networks or purchasing scale be used differently to create value? Could an environmental intervention simultaneously remove a cost elsewhere in government, create a new revenue stream, reduce exposure to volatile markets or avoid a future Defence liability? You might also, for example, propose a creative way to solve wider government problems and funnel the savings into MOD or design a new incentive scheme that rewards units and commanders for innovation and measurable savings.
2. Environmental Security, Nature and War
How can we solve environmental-security challenges creatively, at minimal cost and with maximum benefit for Defence, society and the environment? Nature can also shape the operating environment profoundly; wildfires, floods, extreme heat, terrain and changing ecosystems can alter mobility, infrastructure, logistics, and strategic advantage, so how could Defence harness that power while preventing adversaries from weaponising it against us? What other imaginative approaches could help us address environmental-security problems at home and abroad from climate change, biodiversity loss, and shrinking polar and glacial ice to the UK’s lack of reservoir capacity? You might propose solutions or adaptations to individual hazards, but also in the systems they affect: food, water, energy, infrastructure, supply chains, communities, and strategic geography. Where might an environmental intervention remove several security risks simultaneously – or turn a vulnerability into an advantage?
3. Sustainability, Capability and Lethality
Sustainability can be viewed as a problem of operational dependence. Every litre of fuel or water, replacement component, battery, resupply convoy or supply-chain dependency creates a demand that must be protected and sustained. What happens if environmental thinking is applied not to make Defence merely “greener”, but to reduce those dependencies and increase endurance, autonomy, survivability, and freedom of manoeuvre? The MOD faces growing constraints on personnel, finance and materiel. How can sustainability thinking help create a military that is faster, cheaper, more agile, more resilient and more effective in both deterrence and combat? Concepts such as semi-autonomous armoured battle groups, alongside the rapid evolution of drone warfare in Ukraine, demonstrate how reducing dependence on scarce resources can enhance operational capability. How can we take this thinking further and redefine “Green Defence” not as a constraint on military effectiveness, but as a means of improving it?
