Frontline Voices

Beyond the Battlefield: What does more than four decades of military service teach you about the true meaning of security? And why does protecting people matter just as much as protecting nations?

In this special episode of Frontline Voices, we're doing something a little different. My friend and podcast producer, David Bailey, turns the microphone around and asks me to share the story behind the podcast, my military career and why I've become so passionate about human security.

We're recording in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country where I first served as a young British Army officer during the conflict in the early 1990s. Returning more than 30 years later has given me an opportunity to reflect on how my understanding of conflict, peace and security has changed.

My military career began after studying geography at Queen's University Belfast, followed by officer training at Sandhurst. What I originally thought would be three years in uniform became more than 40 years of service in the Regular Army and Army Reserve.

Along the way, I served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Afghanistan, worked with NATO during the Libya campaign, and specialised in military media operations and strategic communications. One of my proudest appointments was commanding the Media Operations Group, working alongside an extraordinary team of military communications specialists.

But it was my experiences in Afghanistan, particularly the stories of women whose voices were rarely heard, that fundamentally changed how I thought about security.

I began to recognise that military operations, however necessary, could never provide the complete answer to the challenges facing communities affected by conflict.

That realisation led me to study gender and conflict, explore the role of women in peace and security, and eventually help develop and deliver the UK's first Defence Human Security Advisers course.

In our conversation, David and I explore what human security actually means and why it matters in an increasingly uncertain world.

We discuss the connections between conflict, governance, economic insecurity, food shortages, environmental pressures and the growing influence of misinformation and disinformation.

We also explore three themes that I believe are fundamental to understanding human security: gender, culture and the environment.

And we return to Bosnia, reflecting on the changes I've witnessed since the war and why rebuilding communities, protecting cultural identity and creating opportunities for future generations are essential to lasting peace.

• My journey from Belfast to Sandhurst and more than 40 years in the British Army.
• Military operations in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Libya, and the experiences that shaped my thinking.
• Why my time in Afghanistan transformed my understanding of women, conflict and security.
• What human security means and how it differs from traditional approaches to national defence.
• The importance of gender, cultural identity and environmental security in understanding conflict.
• Why misinformation, disinformation and artificial intelligence present growing challenges for communities.
• Returning to Bosnia more than 30 years after the conflict and reflecting on the prospects for lasting peace.
• Why I created Frontline Voices and what I hope listeners will take away from our conversations.

For me, the frontline isn't simply a military position or a place of armed conflict.

It's wherever people are confronting some of the most difficult challenges facing our world.

That might be a soldier deployed on operations, a humanitarian worker supporting communities affected by disaster, a researcher examining the causes of conflict, or someone working quietly to rebuild lives and livelihoods after war.

Through Frontline Voices, I want to bring those experiences to life.

I believe that personal stories can help us understand complex issues in ways that facts and statistics alone cannot.

Above all, I hope these conversations encourage curiosity, critical thinking and a willingness to look beyond the headlines.

Because understanding security means understanding people.

Thank you for listening to Frontline Voices.

If this conversation has interested you, please follow the podcast, share it with someone who might enjoy it, and leave a review.

I'd also love to hear your thoughts. What does security mean to you, and has that understanding changed through your own experiences?

Rosie Stone

Host, Frontline Voices

Frontline Voices explores human security through thoughtful conversations with practitioners, researchers and specialists working across defence, humanitarian assistance, academia and international development.

Hosted by Rosie Stone, each episode looks at the pressures shaping people, communities and security, and asks what can be understood, challenged or changed before crisis turns into conflict

What if the real beginning of a conflict happens long before the fighting starts?

In this episode of Frontline Voices, Rosie Stone speaks with Brigadier Thammy Evans about the connections between climate change, water, food, livelihoods, migration and human security.

Thammy argues that many of the pressures that eventually lead to instability and conflict begin much earlier — with environmental change, loss of resources, failing livelihoods and communities under increasing strain.

Their conversation explores why defence and security organisations need to look further “upstream” and consider how some crises might be prevented before military intervention becomes necessary.

They also discuss the difference between securitising climate and climatising security — and why environmental change should not simply be treated as another threat to control.

Water becomes a central theme. From freshwater shortages to the hidden “virtual water” contained in food and global trade, Thammy explains how decisions made in wealthier countries can place pressure on communities elsewhere.

The episode also looks at:

• climate change and resource competition
• water, food and energy security
• migration and displacement
• the role of defence in disaster prevention and resilience
• critical minerals and the global energy transition
• nature-based solutions
• the importance of gender and inclusion in security decision-making
• why protecting livelihoods can also help prevent conflict

Rosie and Thammy also consider a difficult but important question: who gets to make the decisions?

Human security is not only about states, borders or military power. It is about people — and whether those most affected by insecurity are included in shaping the response.

Brigadier Thammy Evans is a British Army reservist whose work has included defence reform, security sector governance, conflict prevention and ecological security.

She has worked with organisations including the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, served as a non-resident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center, and is a senior research associate with the Climate Change and Insecurity Project.

Host: Rosie Stone

Guest: Brigadier Thammy Evans

Podcast: Frontline Voices

This conversation was recorded before publication, and some of the geopolitical and policy context was updated for release in July 2026.

If you found this conversation useful, follow Frontline Voices wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who may find it interesting.

If you found this episode useful, follow Frontline Voices wherever you listen to podcasts and share it with someone who may find the conversation valuable.

You can find more episodes, information about the podcast and ways to contact Rosie at frontlinevoices.net.

Frontline Voices explores human security through thoughtful conversations with practitioners, researchers and specialists working across defence, humanitarian assistance, academia and international development.

Hosted by Rosie Stone, each episode looks at the pressures shaping people, communities and security, and asks what can be understood, challenged or changed before crisis turns into conflict

Climate change is no longer only an environmental issue. It is increasingly shaping food security, migration, economic stability and competition between states.

In this episode of Frontline Voices, Rosie Stone speaks with Bru Pearce and Guy Jackson from Envisionation, followed by Sabrina Kaschowić from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, to explore what happens when climate breakdown collides with geopolitics, resource competition and human security.

Bru and Guy discuss the Biosphere Restoration Plan, which looks beyond carbon reduction towards restoring forests, oceans, soils and the wider natural systems on which human life depends.

They also explain the idea of a digital twin of the Earth — bringing environmental, agricultural, economic and human data together to help us understand where pressures are building and where intervention may be needed.

The conversation then turns to the increasingly political question of climate security.

Sabrina explores how the transition towards cleaner energy is creating new competition for critical minerals such as lithium and graphite. Ukraine, Greenland and parts of Africa are becoming strategically important not only because of geography, but because of the resources beneath their soil.

Rosie and her guests ask a question that runs through much of Frontline Voices:

Whose security are we actually protecting?

• Climate change as a threat to human security
• Food security and the risk of social instability
• Restoring forests, oceans and damaged ecosystems
• The Biosphere Restoration Plan
• Creating a digital twin of the Earth
• Financing environmental restoration
• Critical minerals and the green-energy transition
• Ukraine, Greenland and global resource competition
• The securitisation of climate change
• Climate justice and inequality
• Feminist and decolonial approaches to climate policy
• Why climate action needs to consider who benefits and who carries the cost

The episode contains serious warnings, but also reasons for hope. Our guests argue that damaged ecosystems can recover, technological change is already reshaping energy markets, and many of the solutions we need are already understood.

The question is whether we are prepared to act quickly enough — and whether that action can be fair as well as effective.

Bru Pearce and Guy Jackson — Envisionation

Sabrina Kaschowić — Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Host: Rosie Stone

Podcast: Frontline Voices

Sabrina’s paper, Climate Cooperation in a Divided World

The Biosphere Restoration Plan and Envisionation’s work on ecological restoration, Earth-system monitoring and new approaches to environmental finance.

If this episode made you think, follow Frontline Voices wherever you listen to podcasts and share the conversation with someone who may find it useful.

More episodes and information can be found at frontlinevoices.net.

If you found this episode useful, follow Frontline Voices wherever you listen to podcasts and share it with someone who may find the conversation valuable.

You can find more episodes, information about the podcast and ways to contact Rosie at frontlinevoices.net.