BY PAUL T HORGAN Perhaps it is because it was my teen years, but it seems to me as though the 1970s were the high-point in popular books about wars and militaries, not least because full-colour printing allowed illustrations of the weapons used to be depicted other than in drab monochrome. Certainly WHSmith was packed with these books and the stores were also packed with … Continue reading Blunderissimi
BY RAKESH PATEL The grand illusion of BRICS – that Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa could stand together as equals, forging a new world order beyond the grasp of Western hegemony – was always more wishful thinking than sober reality. From the beginning, the alliance was a patchwork of competing interests, bound not by shared ideals but by a mutual, if temporary, resentment … Continue reading BRICS: The Delusion Bloc
BY DR ROBERT PARR Why the UK Must Back Its Special Forces: Russia’s Hybrid Warfare and the Growing Threat to UK Security General Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, pictured below, is widely credited with formalising Russia’s hybrid warfare doctrine, commonly referred to as the ‘Gerasimov Doctrine’. This strategy integrates traditional military tactics with political, economic, informational, and legal … Continue reading Defending the Defenders
BY MARK TAC Some of my thoughts on the war in Ukraine… The Ukrainians have been busy attacking Russian early warning radars with drones, a long way from the front. On 23rd May, a radar was attacked by drones at Baronowski, 600 km from the Ukraine-Russian front, near Armavir (east of Stavropol), in the region of Krasnodar. Five days later, on 28th May, another radar … Continue reading Ukraine Update
BY PETER HARRIS It is a truism within military history that the outcomes of conflicts have been decisively affected, among other factors, by the terrain and climate in which the conflict occurred. Two of the reasons Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union survived Napoleon and Hitler’s offensives respectively is because of the enormous size of Russian and Soviet territory which was impossible to subdue and … Continue reading How Successful Would a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan Be?
BY JIM WEBSTER In the UK both major parties have been promising that there will be more money spent on environmental regeneration. Also politicians are now starting to pay lip service to food security. Sir Keir Starmer promised that “the next Labour government will commit to this – 50% of all food purchased by the public sector will be food produced locally and sustainably”. He … Continue reading The Money Available for Agricultural & Environmental Schemes
BY PETER HARRIS Part I can be read here. Russia regards the five former Soviet Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as part of its sphere of influence. So far, Russia has tolerated and benefited from Chinese initiatives in the region such as the aforementioned Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Belt and Road Initiative. However, China’s moves within the region are … Continue reading Can Sino-Russian Cooperation Last? Part II
BY PETER HARRIS Russia and China have never been so close in their relations as they are now. As affirmation of this deeper tie, in July 2023 around a dozen Russian and Chinese warships conducted naval exercises in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and in waters near Alaska. These had the double effect of demonstrating both nations’ commitment to being the hegemon within their … Continue reading Can Sino-Russian Cooperation Last? Part I
BY STEWART SLATER Wars, the old military saw has it, start when both sides have an unrealistic understanding of their own power and end when both sides have a realistic one. War is a learning process, stripping through delusion and self-deception to reveal the truth. We may assume that the Russian military, if not necessarily its leadership, has a slightly greater awareness of its capabilities … Continue reading The End of Empire
BY PAUL T HORGAN I do not have a TV Licence so I did not see the newscaster at the BBC gently reminding viewers that the M4 motorway up which Wagner commander Yevgeny Prigozhin was advancing with 25,000 battle-hardened veterans was in fact the road from Rostov to Moscow, and not the one that runs from Cardiff to London. Prigozhin made good distance along the … Continue reading An Armchair General Writes …
BY JAMES BEMBRIDGE Konstantin Kisin is a comedian, political commentator and co-host of the widely celebrated show TRIGGERnometry. His first book, An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West, serves as a warning siren to those who take for granted the freedoms that Western Civilisation affords; freedoms of which Kisin’s grandparents – under the oppressions of Soviet Russia – could have only dreamed. Britain’s middle-class commentariat … Continue reading An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West
BY EFFIE DEANS When the clocks change each year in Scotland each spring, I am able to see more of it. The weather may vary, but the daylight doesn’t and by June we have so much light that it is possible to go almost anywhere and get back in the same day. I take my own coffee and buy sandwiches in a supermarket so the … Continue reading Peace and Prosperity
BY EFFIE DEANS The war between Russia and Ukraine is essentially about different forms of nationalism. It is for this reason that it is relevant to Scotland. This is why the SNP is trying to create a narrative which it hopes will be helpful to its goal. After all Ukraine is the result of a successful secession movement. But it is also the victim of … Continue reading What Ukraine Teaches Us About Scottish & Irish Nationalism
BY DANIEL JUPP Mainstream: Russian security concerns are a paranoid fantasy. Putin is delusional. The idea that Ukraine could be used as a staging post for regime change in Russia is absurd. Johnson: Putin must fail! Biden: For God’s sake this man must go! The thing about the stupidity of the puppets selected to pretend to be leaders is that one of them is a … Continue reading Puppet Masters
BY ALEX STORY The Russian invasion of Ukraine has revealed a great deal. The West can bark but lost, seemingly, much of its teeth. The alliance, whatever that means, is strong on words but feeble in deeds. And it is, as the Good Book reminds us, “by their deeds” that “you shall know them”. We have wagged our finger at the Russian Bear with gusto, … Continue reading By Their Actions
BY MEG LEE CHIN It seems some of the events in Ukraine may have been misinterpreted by our Western media. Our typical warfare style is to immediately storm the capital city and kill or seize the leader. Although this allows us to claim a swift victory for our folks back home, it tends to leave a messy power vacuum as we scramble to install a … Continue reading The Zelensky Meme
BY NOEL YAXLEY It looks like people will be forced to undergo a bizarre act of compliance if they are to play at this year’s Wimbledon. Judging by the press coverage coming out, this certainly appears to be the case for Daniil Medvedev. The world number one tennis player and Russian native is being pressured to openly denounce Vladmir Putin in order to grace the … Continue reading Horseshoe Politics?
BY IAN MITCHELL Some years ago when I lived in Moscow, I remember being startled by a comment a friend of mine made about Russian chauvinism. I was—and still am—good friends with a youngish, smart and very self-possessed Russian lady, who had spent a long time in the United States and understood both Russian and Western ways of managing interpersonal relationships. I was sitting one … Continue reading Vladimir Putin as a ‘Real Russian Man’
BY STEWART SLATER What is the iconic image of WWII? It probably depends where you come from. If you are British, it is likely St Paul’s, standing proud, wreathed in smoke and flame. If you are Russian, it is probably a Soviet soldier flying the hammer and sickle from the top of the Reichstag. For an American, it is surely the Marines raising the flag … Continue reading The Image of War
BY EFFIE DEANS It is difficult to write about a fast-moving conflict with limited information and much disinformation. But it is impossible to write about anything else as every other topic looks trivial. I am uninterested in the domestic politics of the UK and cannot bring myself even to notice whatever Nicola Sturgeon might be saying about it or anything else. The key with news … Continue reading Putin the Terrible
