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“ ending the conflict requires talking to the people involved in starting it and maintaining it.” True. But it does not require bending the knee to them. It does not require inviting them back to the G7 before anything has been agreed. It does not require pretending that they

In my first year at the IISS - 1983 - the UK was spending 5.4% of GDP on defence. Feels odd against that background that reaching half that level today when the threat from Moscow is arguably greater and the degree of US engagement potentially much lower, is thought a stretch.

The UK and NATO European states are rightly finally accepting that they have to pay a larger share of the costs of Europe’s defence. They need also pay to support Ukraine’s sovereignty after a peace deal. Russia too should be asked to pay its fair share of the costs of European

While Putin is playing Poker, the UK and NATO European countries cannot just play Bridge. Innovative policies are needed to change the balance of power in Europe at the speed of relevance. Seizing Russian assets to help fill the black hole in our current defence expenditure must

Alexander Stubb noting that Finland kept its independence after repelling Stalin’s invasion but lost 10 percent of its territory and its sovereignty. It regained its sovereignty to be able to choose to enter the EU, only when the USSR collapsed. A reminder that the trinity of

I would add that the ethnic and the civic identities should be placed in the right order. Adjective, then Noun. Hence — Asian British, or Carribean British, are nomenclatures that reinforce the principle of integration that is so essential to national identity.

We are now in a ‘rules broken international order.’ Strategic entrepreneurship is needed. Bold action is required to re-set the strategic rules of engagement. The US has many times said clearly that the European security order is Europe’s responsibility. It has effectively

As the Canadian PM arrives to the UK hosted Leaders Summit it is worth recalling that on 23 June 2022 Canada passed legislation allowing the seizure of Russian state assets through amendments to the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA), making it the first G7 country to enable

The US wants Europe to do more; Ukraine does not want to surrender; and Europe wants a say on the continents’s security, while retaining American engagement. The way to resolve all three of these dilemmas is for the UK and Europe to seize Russian assets and use some of them to

For immediate impact the UK and EU countries who hold them must seize the 220 billion in Russian state assets and use them to rebuild Ukraine’s military and critical infrastructure thus improving both the battlefield situation and Kyiv’s negotiating position. This would make

Honoured to have held today an excellent meeting in Putrajaya with H.E. PM of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim during which we discussed ASEAN; relations with the GCC; cybersecurity, AI; ARM’s engagement in the country; digital security and the ⁦IISS News⁩ Shangri-La Dialogue 2025.

Putin wants to buy time without paying for it. Time should carry a cost. If the ceasefire on the Russian side is not immediate, Western states should, under the legal authority of the state countermeasures doctrine, seize Russian state assets and give the money to Kyiv to rebuild

The US is not the only country holding ‘cards.’ Europe could give Ukraine Russia’s ‘cards’, by seizing Russian state assets, some $220 billion of which are in European states. The legal justification is straightforward: ‘to help Putin comply with his obligation to compensate

The IISS has done the numbers and a trillion dollars of defence expenditure is required to enable European NATO states to deal with a Russian invasion of yet another country. A range between 3.5 to 5 percent of GDP is reasonable against that reality; not forgetting that this was

A weekend of high-level defence diplomacy at ‘Asia’s indispensable Forum.’ 👇

The UK’s approval of Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Western Sahara, joining the US and France who had already done so, opens the path for enhanced UK-Morroco cooperation in the diplomatic, intelligence, military, and business spheres as Morocco moves at pace towards the hosting

It was a delight and honour to receive President Macron of France to deliver the keynote address at the 22nd IISS Shangri-La Dialogue.