Beijing claims a Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal was illegal, lacking approval from Beijing, China has shifted to treating this as space it administers.

Joint exercises assume crises arrive singly, are recognisable and end on schedule. Compounded crises break all three, and readiness reporting cannot detect it.

This paper analyses how Russia's nuclear arsenal and doctrine are evolving, focusing on qualitative improvements and offensive capabilities amid strategic constraints.

Supporting Ukraine is self-interest, not charity: Russia threatens democracies well beyond Europe, and Ukraine’s battlefield innovation and civilian resilience hold lessons for the West.

Ukraine needs weapons to win the war, but Europe will need a wider tool set to secure a peace.

The UK and the EU insist that sanctions remain atop their security agendas, but current enforcement levels provide little evidence to support that claim.

Israel's next defence headache may have little to do with Iran, Gaza or Hezbollah. It could begin in Belgrade.

This paper compares the strategies used by Germany, Spain and the UK to manage risks from high-risk ICT vendors in critical national infrastructure.

As the Hormuz crisis strains supplies, Russia is likely to test Europe's resolve this winter, with cyberattacks on energy infrastructure the most credible threat.

Stablecoins are becoming important payment infrastructure, but policymakers are still trying to govern them through the financial crime frameworks built for traditional finance.

This paper presents a multilevel framework for cyber deterrence, integrating cyber and non-cyber tools to counter threats and enhance national security.

Vladimir Putin never formally ended his 2022 partial mobilisation. The question is not whether he orders another, but how long its quieter replacement can hold.

There is uncertainty over what capabilities a sovereignty-minded government decides Britain must control.

Europe’s reliance on US energy exports was meant to insulate the continent from Russia. But it may result in new and potentially equally powerful vulnerabilities.

Recent cuts to foreign aid have raised serious humanitarian concerns. They also offer vital insights into the relationship between development and security going forward.

The EU cannot outrun NATO in the Arctic. Its real gap is a legal category for partners like Norway, Iceland and the UK.

Russia’s elections were a staged affair, designed to legitimise Putin’s war on Ukraine. But elections have never decided Russia’s future. The latest ballots are no exception

NATO expert Dr Florence Gaub explains how strategic foresight helps NATO anticipate and avoid strategic surprise in an uncertain world.

Houthi gains around Bab Al-Mandeb have exposed rival visions of Gulf security, as Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, Pakistan and the US weigh competing responses.

A CIA director and the Vatican's foreign minister were in Moscow in August. The spy chief drew the coverage; the Archbishop's visit showed religion belongs in any analysis and resolution of Russia's war.

This paper examines how organised crime exploits general aviation and drones in the UK and the Benelux, revealing critical security vulnerabilities.

Today’s financial integrity architecture took shape in an era of multilateral cooperation. Can it still be effective in a world divided by war and geopolitical rivalry?

The 2025 Defence Industrial Strategy casts universities as suppliers of graduates and research. To deliver it, they must become part of the machinery itself.

Russian reliance on amateur saboteurs enables an escalating campaign across NATO but creates a less-visible risk of unintended escalation by operational dysfunction.

Northern Ireland is NATO territory. Irish unification would remove it from the Alliance – and neither London nor Dublin has planned for the defence consequences.

Our work examines the risk of opaque, foreign or malign influence entering UK politics via cryptocurrency donations.

Direct German funding of the UK’s nuclear deterrent would create more problems than it solves. Deeper Anglo-German cooperation on integrated deterrence offers a better path.

Germany’s attribution of the Leipzig drone attack to Russia shows why transport networks now sit at the centre of both NATO’s and Russia’s defence.

New Zealand's 2025 Defence Capability Plan is a promise, not a result. A Defence Capacity Statement could keep national-security risk, readiness and delivery connected.

A low-cost route to force regeneration: actively manage the Veterans ID card and Defence Gateway to build a dynamic, trained virtual reserve from those who have served.

The dissident Irish republican terror group threat is changing. Counter-terrorism officials must keep pace to meet the evolving security challenge.

Russia is learning how to restore command, targeting and sustainment after disruption. NATO should measure success by how long the military function stays unavailable.

Europe's nuclear future prominently on the agenda. But talk is cheap, even of grand designs, and the debate lacks an understanding of joint responses or near-term steps.

The UK is overhauling how it oversees the legal and accountancy sectors for anti-money laundering, but making the new system work is the real test.

This paper reviews how external state actors weaponise gender and identity to influence and destabilise societies in sub-Saharan Africa through various hybrid threats.

States lacking vast nuclear and conventional capabilities should team with the private sector via letters of marque and digital levée en masse.

Going without notice until they are not there, batteries are increasingly critical to Defence, but a steady supply is far from assured.

. . . And the Urgent Need for Sweeping Military Institutional Change. Remarks by General David H. Petraeus to the House of Lords, 1 September 2026.

Deterring state cyber activity takes more than cyber tools. A framework for combining economic, diplomatic, military and intelligence levers to constrain adversaries across domains is necessary.

While the Royal Navy's Hybrid Air Wing is often discussed in terms of platforms and technology, its longer-term significance may be to expand the options available to maritime commanders.

With seven of the eight Arctic countries now in NATO, how does the security and defence cooperation between these seven look in practice?

AI is not (yet) fundamentally reinventing cybercrime. For bold predictions on how it will change, look to history to understand what drives criminal behaviour online.