3 days ago · The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is the world’s oldest and the UK’s leading defence and security think tank. Our mission is to inform, influence and enhance public debate to help build a safer and more stable world.

2 days ago · But Russia’s unprecedented use of Belarus as a launchpad for its offensive into Ukraine, the significant dependency of the Belarusian economy on Russia for exports, and Russia’s permanent military presence in Belarus all continue to pose a risk to both Russia’s economy – it has already had to postpone Belarus’s debt repayments – and European security …

1 day ago · The HTGR working group is apparently meant to serve a slightly different purpose: facilitating Russian access to foreign HTGR technology – namely, to China’s HTR-PM reactor design and an HTGR design under development in South Africa – which will allow Russia to ‘optimise efforts [and] minimise resources and time’ for the development of indigenous HTGR …

2 days ago · DeepSeek’s focus on pushing the frontiers of development towards AGI is the exception rather than the rule in China’s AI industry. While the US has gone all-in on expensively pushing scaling at the frontier, Chinese companies have been competing in ‘ the hundred model war ’ to commercialise their products and cut costs.

3 days ago · A fragile ceasefire offers a brief respite in Gaza, but without decisive leadership, the cycle of conflict may soon resume. The world watches – and waits. The war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel is finally over. Or is it? Sadly, probably not. But for the coming weeks at least, there is a chance ...

1 day ago · President Donald Trump has softened his long-standing opposition to military aid to Ukraine. This is welcome news for apprehensive Ukrainians, but his offer does not come free. Ukraine must supply the US with strategically valuable rare earth metals and use those exports as “equalisation” for the “close to $300 billion” in support that the US has provided Kyiv. Read the …

3 days ago · Russia’s shadow tankers use AIS blackouts or spoofing to hide entry into Russian ports or ship to ship transfers at sea, where oil is moved sometimes multiple times between vessels and may be blended with oil from other countries to obscure its origin. To conceal their activities further, the shadow fleet uses flags of convenience from countries that are less likely …

4 days ago · In a recent joint paper for Rusi, the defence think-tank, experts Will Jessett, Tom McKane and Peter Watkins said the SDR would need to consider the “scale and immediacy” of threats to UK national and European security, as well as what they said were the longer-term challenges from countries like China.