FATF greylisting and financial inclusion
This report from UK think tank RUSI offers policy solutions to balance financial integrity with financial inclusion. This paper reveals how FATF greylisting – the designation of countries as ‘jurisdictions under increased monitoring due to strategic deficiencies in their anti‑money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes’ – can unintentionally undermine financial inclusion....
Gender-responsive approaches to countering state threats: a policy brief
This report from UK think tank RUSI explores how intersectional gender analysis strengthens understanding of and defence against state threats. This paper demonstrates how integrating intersectional gender analysis enhances defence and security strategies against state threats by exploring why it has been absent and the basis for including it. Key Recommendations: Build the evidence base...
Gender and identity analysis for hybrid threats
This report from UK think tank RUSI presents a framework for integrating gender and identity analysis into the assessment of and response to hybrid threats. RUSI's project on Enhancing NATO Counter Hybrid Threats Strategies with Gender Analysis examines how adversarial actors weaponise gender and identity as part of hybrid threat strategies aimed at weakening social...
Instability in the Kenya-Somalia-Ethopia borderlands
This report from UK think tank RUSI underscores the need for integrated approaches to peacebuilding, development and security in the borderlands. This paper provides critical insights into the complex dynamics of instability in the Kenya–Somalia–Ethiopia borderlands, drawing on findings from the Deris Wanaag project's research conference held in Nairobi in February 2026. The conference brought...
Where’s the demos in democracy?
This report from UK think tank the Institute of Development Studies demonstrates that democracy delivers development better than other regimes. Democracy is in crisis. Anti-democratic politicians and anti-rights movements are becoming more popular. Simultaneously, growing inequality around the world – a product of neoliberal capitalist societies – has left millions of people feeling left behind...
War of words: Countering Russia’s global information campaigns
This report from UK think tank the Coalition of Global Prosperity explores how Russia is using disinformation to set the foundation for future aggression in Europe. Disinformation and propaganda have been central to Russian strategy for more than a century. Notwithstanding technological developments and shifting political dynamics, Russia’s contemporary information campaigns exhibit striking similarities to...
Countering backlash: Reclaiming gender justice
This report from UK think tank the Institute of Development Studies conceptualises gender backlash as a multidimensional attack on gender equality. This report distils six years of collaborative research (from late 2019 to early 2026) from the IDS-led Countering Backlash programme, by IDS itself and 11 partners across seven countries on how contemporary gender backlash...
Smart city surveillance in Africa: Mapping Chinese AI surveillance across 11 countries
This report from UK think tank the Institute of Development Studies warns that surveillance is violating citizens' freedoms and their human right to privacy. This report provides the most comprehensive account to date of smart city surveillance in Africa. Expert researchers draw on their contextual experience of their own countries in detailed reports on Algeria,...
Hostile states and the Far Right: Converging tactics
This report from UK think tank RUSI examines how hostile states exploit far-right gender and identity narratives to polarise societies and weaken democracies. This paper highlights the critical intersection between hostile state actors and transnational far-right movements, revealing how gender and identity-based narratives are weaponised to polarise societies, weaken democratic institutions and disrupt international alliances....
Preventing violent extremism: Integration amid a funding crisis
This report from UK think tank RUSI stresses the need to integrate preventing and countering VE across development and security coverage. By contextualising violent extremism (VE) within broader conflict systems, this paper stresses the need to integrate preventing and countering VE across development and security coverage. Despite several conceptual and operational barriers, this approach would...