Policy area: International relations

Reports

Russian cyber and information warfare in practice

This report from UK think tank Chatham House will examine lessons observed from the war on Ukraine. Russia’s use of cyber and information warfare against Ukraine has confirmed some previous assessments of Russian doctrine and capabilities and invalidated others. In both cases, observation of operations in the war to date provides valuable insights for other...

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Security actors in Misrata, Zawiya and Zintan since 2011

This report from UK think tank Chatham House looks at how local factors shape Libya's security sector. Libya’s armed groups predominantly operate in the areas where they originated. This means that the security sector has developed since 2011 in accordance with distinctly local dynamics: the social composition of the area; the experience of conflict; the...

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Ukraine’s nuclear shadow

This report from UK think tank the Henry Jackson Society This research paper addresses the national security implications of the potential and actual nuclear and radiological events in Ukraine for the UK and the European members of NATO. The armed conflict, over the past 20 months, has had significant humanitarian, economic, and environmental impacts in...

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Beyond Brexit: public perspectives on the future UK-EU relationship

This report by UK think tank British Future analyses new research on public attitudes towards the UK’s future relationship with the EU. This British Future report analyses new research on public attitudes towards the UK’s future relationship with the EU. It covers such issues as whether people would support closer cooperation between the UK and...

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Reducing nuclear weapons risk

This report from UK think tank Chatham House highlights behavioural insights and the human factor in nuclear decision-making. This research paper highlights four aspects of nuclear weapons policy in which behavioural insights could be relevant and useful: reducing overconfidence among decision-makers; addressing concerns about miscommunication in nuclear decision-making; minimizing errors in nuclear policy implementation; and...

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Exploring mechanisms for the return of proceeds of corruption

This report from UK think tank RUSI explores mechanisms for the return of proceeds of corruption. In the report, Maria outlines how the amount of assets returned by destination countries to countries of origin represents only a minimal fraction of the total amount of proceeds lost to corruption. In early 2022, it was estimated that...

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Studying abroad to serve China

This report from UK think tank the Henry Jackson Society suggests that it is critical for universities and students’ unions to recognise that CSSAs are not independent – they are part of a system. Universities and students’ unions are operating under the fiction that CSSAs, the Chinese Students and Scholars Associations [中国学生学者联谊会] in the UK,...

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New energy supply chains: is the UK at risk from Chinese dominance?

This report from UK think tank RUSI examines what risks China’s position in global supply chains poses to the physical supply of materials. The report examines what risks China’s position in global supply chains poses to the physical supply of materials, components and final goods in the battery and EV, solar, wind and electricity grid...

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Unearthing environmental and human security risks

This report from UK think tank RUSI outlines how the extraction of critical minerals may pose a threat to the UK's energy transition. In the report, the authors outline how the extraction of critical minerals – while being essential to enable the low-carbon transition – also “poses various environmental and human security risks, many of...

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Sanctions and patient diplomacy: having it all or just a diversion?

This report from UK think tank BFPG looks at the impact on security and prosperity objectives by Russian sanctions. The British Foreign Policy Group’s latest report finds that sanctions against Russia have led to a significant degree of trade diversion, are contributing to a splintering of previously globalised trade routes, into Eastern- and Western-dominated routes,...

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The securitisation of energy

This report from UK think tank RUSI examines how Russia’s energy policy has interacted with its foreign and defence policies since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia views as a serious security threat any restriction of its access to and exploitation of oil and gas markets, either through international sanctions that prevent...

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Getting a foot in the door

This report from UK think tank the Henry Jackson Society suggests how preparations for a democratic future-Russia might begin. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is now in its second year with no end in sight. Western military strategists and policymakers are now planning for increased weapons supplies and training for Ukrainian troops to prepare for...

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Saudi Arabia: Kingdom of oil

This report from UK think tank RUSI analyses Saudi Arabia’s oil policy and how it interacts with the Kingdom’s domestic and foreign and security policies. Tobias outlines how oil revenues – which have historically fuelled Saudi Arabia’s social contract – are now the indispensable source of funding for the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform agenda. He...

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Russia and the anti-western axis must be militarily defeated

This report from UK think tank the Henry Jackson Society explores shifting the Western consensus toward ending Russia’s military threat to Ukraine and the West. The new Cold War pits a Russia-China-Iran-North Korea axis against the West. The goal of this anti-Western axis is the defeat of the US-led unipolar world that has been in...

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Mapping the supply of surveillance technologies to Africa

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Development Studies documents which companies are supplying which types of surveillance technology to African governments. African governments are spending over 1US$bn per year on digital surveillance technologies which are being used without adequate legal protections in ways that regularly violate citizens’ fundamental human rights. This report...

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