Is Britain on the Brink of Civil War?
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/05/12/is-britain-on-the-brink-of-civil-war/According to David Betz, Professor of War in the Modern World at King’s College London, many of the preconditions for civil war exist in Britain today. Using academic studies on social cohesion, civil war causation theory and social attitudes surveys, he argues that the following preconditions are in place: elite overreach, factional polarisation, a collapse in trust, economic pressures, and the perceived downgrading of the majority population in a previously homogeneous society, are all present in contemporary Britain.
The current dynamics, he continues, point to an emerging conflict between radicalised factions within the Muslim community and an incipient nativist white nationalism. Professor Betz goes on to claim – using the Maoist model that divides insurgencies into three phases – that the nativists are in phase one, the so-called defensive phase in which the group begins to organise, disseminate propaganda and build a conscious community of followers.
Islamists, on the other hand, are in phase two – when violent attacks occur on a semi-regular basis, a military structure is being developed, but they are not yet strong enough to challenge the state’s monopoly on violence. (Professor Betz believes that, due to the absence of clear geographic divisions between the antagonists, Britain is unlikely to reach phase three – the offensive phase. This is when the insurgent groups are strong enough to challenge government forces.)
It is an arresting and troubling thesis. It is also convincing. The preconditions outlined above undeniably exist in modern Britain.
Britain has had many wars, including civils wars.
