Lakenheath Alliance for Peace

Lakenheath Alliance for Peace is a coalition formed to oppose the return of US nuclear weapons to Britain, bringing nonviolent protest directly to the gates of RAF Lakenheath.

A base and its shadow

RAF Lakenheath, in rural Suffolk, is one of the largest United States Air Force bases in Europe. During the Cold War, it was closely associated with the storage of American nuclear weapons, embedding a global military role within a quiet English landscape. For a time, those weapons were believed to have been withdrawn. By the early 2020s, however, evidence began to suggest that nuclear infrastructure was being prepared once again, including facilities linked to aircraft capable of carrying nuclear bombs.

This shift returned Lakenheath to view as a place where global strategy meets local ground. The presence of such weapons is never only technical; it carries political, ethical and environmental consequences that extend far beyond the perimeter fence. It is this tension - between place and power - that gave rise to a new wave of organised resistance.

Formation in 2024

The Lakenheath Alliance for Peace (LAP) was formed in March 2024 in direct response to these developments. Rather than emerging as a single organisation, it took shape as a coalition, bringing together dozens of peace groups, campaign networks and individual activists from across the UK and beyond. Its formation combined urgency with continuity: a rapid response to renewed nuclear risk, grounded in a longer tradition of anti-nuclear organising.

From the outset, LAP defined its purpose clearly. It seeks to prevent the return of US nuclear weapons to RAF Lakenheath, to challenge the role of the UK in supporting nuclear deployment, and to reassert the case for disarmament. In doing so, it positions itself not only against a specific policy, but against the wider normalisation of nuclear weapons within international security frameworks.

“We oppose the return of US nuclear weapons to RAF Lakenheath and the role the UK plays in enabling their deployment.”

Nonviolence at the gate

Central to LAP’s approach is a commitment to nonviolent direct action. This takes multiple forms, each with its own character. Peace camps have been established outside the base, sometimes lasting days or weeks, creating temporary communities of protest, discussion and shared living. These camps echo earlier movements, particularly the peace camps of the 1980s, while adapting their methods to a new political moment.

Alongside these encampments, activists have organised blockades and road occupations, seeking to disrupt access to the base and draw attention to its role. Such actions have led to arrests, placing participants within a long tradition of civil resistance. At the same time, regular vigils at the base gates offer a quieter but persistent form of public witness.

Together, these methods form a continuum: from stillness to disruption, from witness to resistance. Each reflects the same underlying principle - that opposition to nuclear weapons must be enacted, not only expressed.

What is being resisted

While the immediate focus of LAP is RAF Lakenheath, the alliance frames its work in wider terms. Nuclear weapons are understood not as isolated tools, but as part of a broader system of global violence. Their existence is tied to the threat of mass destruction, the allocation of vast public resources to military infrastructure, and the environmental risks associated with both their maintenance and potential use.

In recent actions, this framing has widened further, linking nuclear deployment to contemporary conflicts and humanitarian crises. The protest space at Lakenheath has therefore become more than a site of anti-nuclear campaigning; it has developed into a place where wider questions of war, responsibility and global justice are brought into view.

“The presence of nuclear weapons here places this community on the front line of global risk.”

A renewed tradition

The Lakenheath Alliance for Peace stands within a recognisable lineage. From the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to the peace camps at Greenham Common, Britain has seen repeated efforts to challenge nuclear weapons through organised, nonviolent resistance. LAP renews this tradition in a context where the nuclear age has not ended, but shifted and reasserted itself.

By bringing protest to the gates of RAF Lakenheath, the alliance returns a simple question to the ground: what does it mean for such weapons to be prepared in a place where people live? It answers not with abstraction, but with presence.