How Britain and Germany could establish a sub-strategic nuclear deterrent The Memorandum | No. 13.2026

UK and Germany should collaborate to build a sovereign, European-led sub-strategic nuclear deterrent within the #NATO framework to deter Russian aggression.

💡 Read the latest #Memorandum by @james-rogers.bsky.social, our Co-founder (Research), for #BritainsWorld

Special stamps with the picture of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Germany is celebrating the late Queen!

A special stamp marks what would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday on 21 April. It honours her legacy and work towards reconciliation between the UK and Germany.

No protracted proxy war stays local.

Spain helped reshape the 1930s world order. Ukraine is doing the same today - across Europe, Asia, and beyond.

Thinking regionally is a strategic mistake.

Read the new HCSS guest paper by @irehman.bsky.social:

buff.ly/Shs48Fq

Who's going to tell Mark the US already has bilateral intelligence sharing with Israel, Poland, Ukraine, UAE, Japan, ROK?

Five Eyes gives the US so much more, and safeguards US lives.

Another punchy The Economist cover this week

a man in a plaid shirt and tie is typing on a keyboard with flames coming out of it ALT: a man in a plaid shirt and tie is typing on a keyboard with flames coming out of it

Another day of trying to do my job while Monitoring the Situation

Chris Rokos on why he set up the new School of Government at the University of Cambridge YouTube video by Cambridge University

We are delighted to announce that the University of Cambridge has received a commitment of £190 million – the biggest individual donation to a British university in modern times – to establish the Rokos School of Government.
https://youtu.be/oruSfls6jRE?si=sXGlMPuzcXBybQBQ

Erm, maybe we should stop taking seriously the posts of Donald.

The special intelligence relationship continues, and will do, as intelligence sharing is of mutual benefit.

Looking forward to lecturing to the brilliant students of
NTU Singapore on Roman grand strategy and its lessons for today. Seems strangely fitting, given Lee Kuan Yew's own extensive ruminations on the issue. Thanks to @wdjames.bsky.social for the kind invitation.

Why the US remains a major Middle Eastern power Despite talk of US decline, the war in the Middle East shows that American power has not dwindled as much as some have claimed. It may yet prove crucial in resolving the region's crises.

Why the US remains a major Middle Eastern power | @ronanmainprize.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/why...

Via a friend.

Fighting a second-rate military power while vicariously and indirectly militarily and economically strengthening two first-order ones, which you may have to confront at a later stage, through your actions, and the sequencing problems it creates, may perhaps not be sound military strategy.

Aid to Ukraine from 2022-2026 was a rounding error. We used more in the first two weeks of the Iran war than we provided in the 4 years of aid to Ukraine.

📘We’re thrilled to share that the book authored by #EISS Board Member @clibiseller.bsky.social, “Reconceptualizing War: The Rise and Fall of Fashionable Concepts in Strategic Studies”, is out!

🔗 global.oup.com/academic/pro...

The great Brendan Simms explains how Trump 2.0 is attempting to transform the American-led world order:

UK, Netherlands, Finland in talks to set up defense investment bank The multilateral mechanism can include non-EU partners such as the U.K., according to Dutch officials.

File under: A damn good idea. www.defensenews.com/global/europ...

Buy our book! It's great! I wrote about planes!

Timely

UK pumps extra funding into BBC World Service as conflicts escalate Britain said on Thursday it would increase funding for the BBC World Service over the next three years, citing the growing need ​to provide international audiences with impartial news at a time of ‌conflict and media blackouts around the world.

UK pumps extra funding into BBC World Service as conflicts escalate reut.rs/3PuRxHs

Pleased to receive my copies in today's post.

Now available in *some* good book shops - or direct from Georgetown for $35 with the code TGUF: press.georgetown.edu/Book/Transat...

Black Swan Strategy Papers - UWA Defence & Security Institute The Black Swan Strategy Papers are the flagship publication of the UWA Defence and Security Institute (DSI). They represent the intersection between Western

I know we're all thinking about the Middle East right now, but my paper on Submarine Rotational Forces West came out today, co-authored with the awesome Zack Cooper and Troy Lee-Brown.

An AUKUS paper co-written by 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 🇦🇺 authors - pleasing symbolism!

defenceuwa.com.au/publications...

This will be a chronic future alliance management problem for the US post-Trump (if we still have alliances). Allies will be more capable & assertive than at any time post-Cold War.

Watershed moment as UK levies steel tariff in new strategy Sky's Ed Conway writes that the government's protectionist measures in support of the steel industry are a watershed moment for our economy.

🚨Clearly there's loads of news today so there's a chance this gets ignored but... it is a BIG deal.
Britain, the country that invented free trade as we know it, is raising steel tariffs to 50%.
Biggest tariffs since Brexit. A massively symbolic moment. news.sky.com/story/waters...

Shahed Drones Are Now Taking Center Stage in the Iran War, Too Drones, and more specifically loitering munitions like the Shahed-136, are now a central feature of the Iran War.

Why are Shahed drones so relevant for Iran at the moment? Not necessarily because of the destruction they cause. I analyse what we know about #drone use in Iran for @wpr.bsky.social

www.worldpoliticsreview.com/iran-war-sha...

Is Britain sitting on more gas? | Ed Conway analysis YouTube video by Sky News

📽️From Donald Trump to Britain's wind power trade body, there's a growing coalition calling for more drilling in the North Sea.
Raising the question: if we DID encourage more exploration, how much oil & gas could we actually get?
Our MEGA primer on the North Sea👇 youtu.be/eDr0Z19x3p0?...

Formidable US firepower fails to unseat Iran’s regime

Highly insightful podcast on Iran with Sir Simon Gass, fmr UK amb to Tehran. open.spotify.com/episode/29FJ...

Don’t let Britain decline The Fourth Great Disruption is here

📝 NEW | "We are in the midst of a series of structural and ideological changes, at home and abroad, that are incomparable in their scale to anything we have seen in almost 80 years," writes Prof John Bew in a new piece for @newstatesman1913.bsky.social.

www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2026/0...

Just a reminder that the Washington Treaty defines the geography of NATO’s mutual defense pledge — at U.S. insistence in 1949 — to prevent allies from committing us to their wars outside of Europe.

Trump and Rubio dismantled U.S. diplomacy. It’s making the Iran War harder. Since the start of 2026, President Donald Trump has taken the wheel of American military power and pressed hard on […]

“Alliance tensions in wartime are normal. Starting conflicts without basic alliance management is not.” The latest from @profsaunders.bsky.social goodauthority.org/news/trump-a...

An impact of this is going to be an almighty fight about British defence spending priorities.We are currently not spending enough (or rather not spending quickly enough, the targeted end point is fine) to do our bit deterring Russia.There will now be pressure to prepare for this sort of scenario too