Thanks for flagging my latest article From #Kingpins to #Terrorists @brianjphillips.bsky.social
Designating cartels as foreign terrorist orgs projects resolve, but risks mistaking political spectacle for strategy. Symbolic toughness≠strategic effectiveness.The difference carries real consequences.

@rorycormac.bsky.social and I had a fantastic time with @jackmurphyrgr.bsky.social on @theteamhouse.bsky.social - we talked #CovertAction; how and why states use it; and what we might miss if we apply the US approach too narrowly elsewhere. Watch it on #YouTube or listen on your fave #podcast app

We're wrapped for 2025 on @theteamhouse.bsky.social. Three upcoming episodes before the new year, one with @rorycormac.bsky.social and @magslong.bsky.social about covert action, another with a 5th SFG/75th vet, and another with Anthony Vinci of the DIA and NGA.

@rorycormac.bsky.social and I really enjoyed talking #CovertAction with you! Thank you very much for having us!

Delighted *Entangled Alliances* @cornellupress.bsky.social is sharing company with excellent works by Thomas Gidney, Eric H. Cline & @magslong.bsky.social in @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social's collection of New Books in Diplomatic History. 📚

open.spotify.com/show/0MIbXiv...

My @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast with @markstout.bsky.social, @magslong.bsky.social, and @rorycormac.bsky.social is now available. Learn more about covert action here:

newbooksnetwork.com/covert-action

🤣 catchy!

Hear, hear, @markstout.bsky.social !! What a fantastic episode and experience! And a great holiday 🎁 there as well! 🎄 🤶 🎅

Thank you so much for having us, Luca! That was great fun. Thoroughly enjoyed it (despite my lapsus linguae, which I hope @rorycormac.bsky.social will adopt as his new pen name 😬)!

📜 It was a great opportunity to highlight research we published at @rusi.bsky.social in '24 on #gigeconomysabotage, w/ @kloosha.bsky.social @magslong.bsky.social @patrickbury.bsky.social.

👥 It was excellent to appear alongside the expert voices of #SO15 Dom Murphy, @matthewrr.bsky.social & others.

The European Political Community can be more than an ‘unidentified political object’ The EPC is helping to forge an awareness of shared European strategic interests. It should now set itself the clear task of redesigning Europe’s strategic security architecture.

The European Political Community could prove to be a useful format of last resort should the EU or other European multilateral institutions become blocked or neglected by a rising far right.

Wagner Group's Web of Companies This week, Insight Intelligence is taking a look at Wagner Group - a Russian private military corporation that functions as a proxy for the Russian state.

Just finished editing the terrorist financing news roundup coming out later this week....and there's a fun little nugget in there that has inspired me to re-share my initial look at the Wagner Group's web of companies:

newsletter.insightthreatintel.com/p/wagner-gro...

Excited to see Covert Action: National Approaches to Unacknowledged Intervention, in the wild at #APSA2025. My contribution: Israel's Mossad and Covert Action: Immigration, Counter-Proliferation, and Assassination. Edited by @rorycormac.bsky.social @magslong.bsky.social @markstout.bsky.social

Amazing!!! Thank you, Mindy! #APSA2025 stop by the GUP booth! Some fab holiday 🎁 there - just saying 📚📒

Finally!! Welcome to the club of Covert Action book owners 😬

Thank you so much, Diana—this means a lot coming from you. I’m thrilled it’s out in time for your class! Can’t wait to hear how your students engage with it.

Excellent! You already have a copy!

Royal Mail avoiding your neck of the woods :)

@rorycormac.bsky.social @markstout.bsky.social @dvanp.bsky.social
@jgmaber.bsky.social @paulmcgarr.bsky.social @dianabolsinger.bsky.social
It arrived!
Super excited about our edited volume on #covertaction! And extremely grateful to our contributors and reviewers for their hard work and support!

👀 SIS/MI6 are the last of the UK's agencies to join social media in an official capacity, following on from MI5 and GCHQ.

Cheeky reference to spy fiction vs reality here ⏬️

www.instagram.com/reel/DOVSo5J...

😂 love it!

Dunno, there is some interesting “stuff” in Chapter 9 😊

I am still PATIENTLY waiting for my copy!! 😬

Amazing!! You guys you received it before us! Thank you so much for contributing, Steve, and for your patience!!

New addition

Journal article: Unveiling Russian intelligence failures in the Ukraine conflict: a strategic culture perspective by Huw Dylan, Elena Grossfeld (published 22-08-2025)

https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2025.2544460

New batch of emails from Russia's disinformation campaign, which added Chancellor Merz of Germany to its list of targets, which has previously focused on Moldovan president Maia Sandu and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

IISS: 'The Scale of Russian Sabotage Operations Against Europe’s Critical Infrastructure' www.iiss.org/research-pap...

Thanks, Rory! As you know, I’ve been working on this for a while, so I am very excited about this publication with the @thecipherbrief.bsky.social Thanks for posting @sandbaggerone.bsky.social!!

When States Go Mob: The Criminalization of Modern Statecraft OPINION — In the fall of 2021, an FBI informant received a chilling offer: $300,000 to assassinate former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton. The would-be hitman posed as a drug cartel enforce...

💥Very excited to report that @thecipherbrief.bsky.social ‬ published my article "When States Go Mob"! #OrganizedCrime networks are force multipliers and a structural scaffolding in the #grayzone reshaping the global security environment. Pse. have a look!👇 www.thecipherbrief.com/gray-zone-cr...

I hear you! I feel the same, and I am not even British :) - but I am not so surprised you received these glowing endorsements! As I mentioned previously, your writing style is fantastic! I am a big fan. Way to go, Rory!!👏