February 2021
Upcoming: “MH17: Can Justice be Served?”
On 17th July, 2014, passenger jet Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was destroyed over eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed, their bodies strewn across the cornfields of east Ukraine. These people were victims of Russia’s proxy war in Ukraine, which rages to this day and has claimed over 13,000 lives. Immediately after MH17 was downed, evidence began emerging of Russian involvement. The Joint Investigation Team painstakingly pieced together the evidence to demonstrate the culpability of regular Russian forces.…
Find out more »UK Maritime Policy: The Role of the Carrier Strike Group
In the wake of the Prime Minister’s much-vaunted recent announcement of the uplift in defence spending, the Royal Navy are set to be the big winners with increased frigates and destroyers bolstering the navy’s fleet. On the back of this announcement the UK-led Carrier Strike Group is set for its first operational mission this spring, charting a course East of Suez, and into the Indo-Pacific. Calling at Oman, Singapore, Japan and South Korea, the international task group will navigate the…
Find out more »March 2021
Upcoming: Misinformation during COVID-19: The US-UK Experience
It is almost five years since the Oxford English Dictionary named “post-truth” its word of the year. Since then, the onslaught of fake news, misinformation, and conspiracy theorising have not only remained unrelenting, the problem has grown worse. With the COVID-19 pandemic, a maturing environment and practice of misinformation has found its ideal host, a virus within a virus. The practice of misinformation during the pandemic has added to existing political divisions in numerous nations and become as much about…
Find out more »Upcoming: “Russian Influence and Intelligence in the Western Balkans”
The US and EU’s lack of a coherent strategy towards the Western Balkans has emboldened Russia to hinder the region’s integration into the EU and NATO. In recent years, the Western Balkans has been at the forefront of Russia’s strategy to expand its global influence and undermine the West. These strategies have included more traditional soft power and trade approaches, as well as the widespread use of disinformation, cyberwarfare, and intelligence operations. Some of Russia’s more brazen intelligence activities in the…
Find out more »