RUSI - Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies

'While a Ministry for Maritime Affairs would be an extreme solution, it is necessary to recognise that the UK is building a strategic system with limited institutional authority to defend it, and that two practical options are already on the table', writes Commander Alexander Westley in the latest RUSI Commentary.

Ensuring Offshore Infrastructure Protection Keeps Pace with Growth Offshore energy infrastructure is being built at pace, led by offshore wind and electrical interconnectors, but the security architecture needs to keep up.

'History matters because Trump’s proposal is not merely a question of whether Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Syria could strike Hezbollah. It raises a more basic question: why should Syria assume a role that stronger actors, better-resourced governments, and more deeply entrenched Syrian institutions failed to convert into a durable Lebanese settlement?' writes Ahmed Saber Abbas in the latest RUSI Newsbrief.

Lebanon’s Tutelage Trap Why cannot Syria inherit Lebanon?

🚨 RUSI's annual competition for original writing on contemporary issues of national and international defence and security is now open for entries!

Dating back to 1874, the Trench Gascoigne Essay Prize reflects and reinforces RUSI's status as a leading platform for free-thinking debate on defence and security. Visit our website for more details.

Trench Gascoigne Essay Prize 2026: Open for Entries RUSI's annual competition for original writing on contemporary issues of national and international defence and security.

Instrumentalised migration and Russia’s recruitment of disposable agents exploit the same European weakness: treating deniable acts of coercion as isolated rather than as elements of a wider campaign.

Read the latest RUSI Commentary by Zoe Neiman.

Instrumentalised Migration and Russia’s ‘Disposable Agents’ Instrumentalised migration and Russia’s recruitment of disposable agents exploit the same European weakness: treating deniable acts of coercion as isolated rather than as elements of a wider campaign.

'Jordan’s chronic water insecurity has long made cooperation with Israel a strategic necessity. But by refusing to renew a key water agreement, Israel may be pushing one of its closest regional partners towards greater self-sufficiency and further straining an already fragile relationship.' write Urban Coningham and Alaa Zoubi in the latest RUSI Commentary.

The Resource Politics of Cold Peace: Israel’s Relations with Jordan, Egypt As Israel’s relationships with Jordan and Egypt strain, water and energy shift from instruments of regional integration into tools of strategic competition, reshaping the Middle East’s cold peace.

Following an increase in whole-of-society attacks, the UK government should deploy tools to encourage nationalism and total defence across society.

Read the latest RUSI Commentary by Sophie Boulter and Margaret Ryan.

Uniting Nationalism and Threat Perception for Total Defence Following an increase in whole-of-society attacks, the UK government should deploy tools to encourage nationalism and total defence across society.

'Unlike cyber threats, which compromise technical systems to generate effects, many information threats instrumentalise the way platforms are designed to work, like algorithmic feeds' write Sophie Williams-Dunning, Andy Pryce and Jamie MacColl in the latest RUSI Commentary.

Burnham’s Opportunity to Rethink Information Resilience Repositioning DCMS as the lead for ‘information resilience’ online and offline provides coherence to a currently disparate portfolio, offering a rare opportunity to rethink how the government protects the UK from information threats.

'In Ukraine, integration has become a battlefield reality: a variety of drones, munitions, and other platforms integrate into a heterogeneous series of networks and digital platforms that form the backbone of Ukrainian command-and-control/digital capabilities.' writes Dr Linus Terhorst in the latest RUSI Commentary.

Swarming Software’s Defence Industrial Implications Open software architecture for autonomous systems will not only support interoperability but also increase industrial resilience and encourage innovation.