EDITORIALS
Share
Ukraine’s donor-funded answer to Iranian drones is drawing attention far beyond the battlefield
Ukraine’s war with Russia has forced the country to develop practical answers to one of the most persistent threats in modern warfare: the Iranian-designed Shahed attack drone. What began as an urgent wartime necessity is now emerging as a significant…
Hegseth shrugs off reports of Russian intelligence aid to Iran as Trump refuses comment
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has sought to minimise the political impact of reports that Russia is supplying Iran with intelligence that could help it target American forces in the Middle East, insisting that President Donald Trump is fully aware…
Britain’s Strategic Paralysis — and the Dangerous Illusion of Security
If the unfolding crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean proves anything, it is that Britain’s international standing now rests not on the steel of its armed forces but on the timidity of its political leadership. The spectacle of a government paralysed…
Poland seeks greater autonomy in nuclear deterrence as Europe revisits defence integration
Poland has moved the question of nuclear deterrence closer to the centre of the European security debate after Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Warsaw wants “as much autonomy as possible” in this field and is holding talks with France and…
Israel’s coherence, Washington’s ambiguity: the missing political strategy in Iran
As Israeli operations follow a clear military logic, questions grow over whether Washington has any coherent political plan for what comes next in Iran. Events in the Middle East have been moving at speed since the latest phase of the…
Shielding the Spear Tip: How Britain Could Defend Its Forward Bases from the Drone Age
The drone that struck RAF Akrotiri was small, comparatively cheap and — in the grim arithmetic of modern warfare — expendable. Yet it exposed something far more valuable: the vulnerability of Britain’s forward operating model in an era when unmanned…
Can Europe’s nuclear deterrent remain credible without US certainty?
Europe’s nuclear deterrence debate has sharpened as officials and analysts examine whether Britain and France can continue to provide a credible nuclear backstop in a less certain security environment. The immediate trigger has been a broader reassessment of deterrence in…
Secret Tunnels and Hybrid Pressure: How Belarus and Russia Are Testing Europe’s Eastern Border
Belarus’s use of migration pressure against the European Union is no longer confined to flights, forest crossings and organised pushes at the frontier. According to reporting by The Telegraph, citing Polish officials, border guards discovered four underground tunnels under the…
Four Years Since the Invasion: The War’s Strategic Lessons for Ukraine, Russia and Europe
Four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the central expectation that shaped much of the early commentary has not materialised: Moscow has not achieved its declared war aims. On the fourth anniversary, the…
Zelenskyy’s warning to Trump: peace without guarantees will fail Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plea to Donald Trump — “stay on our side” — should be read as more than an appeal for sympathy. It is a warning about strategy. At the centre of the current diplomacy is a question that sounds…