After Ukraine’s advances in the Kharkiv region in mid-September, what once seemed a remote prospect – the operational defeat of Russia’s forces in Ukraine – is looking increasingly plausible. But President Putin will seek to avoid that through escalation. But he is not holding all the cards; Ukraine and its supporters can take steps to …
President Putin knows perfectly well that NATO poses no military threat to Russia. But it is not a military threat that he fears. Finland and Sweden’s decisions to join NATO show just how severely President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has backfired. President Putin might well have stalled Ukraine’s membership prospects, but these were long-term, even …
Having painted himself into a corner and with wounded pride, what will a detached and deluded President Putin do when Finland and Sweden apply to join NATO?
There is every reason to condemn President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but don’t inadvertently play into his own twisted narrative.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marks the beginning of the end for the Putin regime. It also marks the end of the beginning of a new era in geo-strategy and how the world’s democracies respond to threats from aggressive autocracies. For President Putin, all the plausible outcomes in Ukraine leave him in trouble. Even if Russian …
Russia tries to ignore that Russia itself – as well as the United Kingdom and the United States – signed an agreement to respect Ukraine’s borders, not threaten or use force against Ukraine, and refrain from using economic coercion against Ukraine.
The messy end to NATO’s engagement in Afghanistan underlines the need to press ahead with plans to adapt to the new era of strategic competition so that NATO remains as the central hub for defence and security cooperation among the Allies. The rapidity of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the hasty evacuation from Kabul …
Afghanistan and NATO: an Alarm Bell, not a Death Knell Read More »
In a new era of strategic competition, with economic might as a major instrument of power, NATO must adapt if it is to remain as the central component of its members’ security. The key to doing that – to “future proofing” the Alliance – is hiding in plain sight
On 16 March 2021, the government published “Global Britain in a Competitive Age”, the centrepiece of its long-awaited Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development, and Foreign Policy It presents a “whole-of-government” and “whole-of-society” approach to national security and resilience, going well beyond traditional notions of defence and foreign policy. The goal is to defend “our …
