Dominick Cummings finally catches up with me and draws the link..🙄

They won’t get rid of Starmer just because he appointed someone dodgy. You might get rid of him if there was a serious link between the PM and something actually illegal. But they won’t find that. So the real question is political. When does the PLP conclude he’s a liability?

Bracing swim today🥶

A FANTASTIC review by @kermodemovie.bsky.social of Melania. An Amazon bribe A piece of handsomely mounted crypto-fascist propaganda & then you realise it's a heist movie in which a crime family break into the seat of power and steal the cutlery whilst destroying democracy youtu.be/DTyUni8dbkE?...

Brits capacity to think through its grand strategy is just awful. Migration policy is a case in point.

The UK Security Vetting has been broken for a decade. The 2023 National Audit Office made that clear. After 14 years of Tory austerity, the level of hollowing out of the UK state is much, much greater than people realise. www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Now the World Fact Book has ended, the CIA no longer have to worry about contradicting POTUS’s facts… www.cia.gov/stories/stor...

A thread on civilisational erasure and the price of beer. Or to save you time, population as a strategic resource and pointing out the policy contradictions in what passes for REFORM UK's "grand strategy"... 1/

A thread on civilisational erasure and the price of beer. Or to save you time, population as a strategic resource and pointing out the policy contradictions in what passes for REFORM UK's "grand strategy"... 1/

The most sensible thing I’ve seen so far this year!

£20m lol

A fascinating discussion on German defence policy. The U.K. defence debate needs to pay a lot more attention to Germany, which is set to eclipse U.K. military influence in Europe. We have taken our leading position for granted and this is at risk.

Humanitarian efforts are under pressure in an increasingly dangerous Ukraine. Report by @jethronorman.bsky.social shows how organisations grapple with drones, surveillance, and digital threats 👉 www.diis.dk/en/node/28019/

Let’s be bolder Mark. Let’s have a European Army not this Eurospeakease thing called a “European pillar”. Rutte does of course embody why a European Army won’t happen. The whole way he has framed it is as a duplicate bureaucracy not as the military arm of a superpower.

Lahore was really good fun. Definitely go visit.

Final panel and I’m listening to Professor Vali Nasr talk about the dramatic changes going on in Iran and what it means for Pakistan. Nasr’s talk is historically rooted, culturally nuanced and a properly insightful strategic analysis. Lahore #thinkfest

Crikey. Look at the size of this lecture theatre. Needed for an issue like this. Lahore #thinkfest

Fantastic panel at the end of the day. I could talk civilisational erasure and Trump’s National Security Strategy.

One more panel for me. On Greenland and Trump. By definition this will be fun!

The new US Defence Strategy is clear. The model partner is Israel. In terms of defence the UK is nowhere near that.

The Alhamra Arts Center has been a great venue for the Lahore #thinkfest Comes with fantastic cat and an audience interested in war in the smartphone age!

Fun morning talking about connectivity and what it means for war - especially in the context of Pakistan and India with Air Marshal Masood (rtd) and with the fantastic Azeema Cheema. Lahore #thinkfest

Shalamar Gardens at night…

Switching it up: Jos Gommans talks Mughal military history. It’s a good start. Why? Because like all military historians, he starts with a map.

The Gaza War panel has brought out the Lahore crowds…

Lots of great talks here (thanks to @profmurdoch.bsky.social), but may I draw your attention to the event on 1 Apr, where @warmatters.bsky.social and I will be yakking (in Stockholm) about the history of firearms #MilHist #firearmshistory #skystorians

Pleased to be in Lahore over the weekend talking about European security. Given the events of the last week there will be much to talk about!

To think me and @guyyeomans.bsky.social did a High North arctic security conference way back in 2011. Fifteen years ahead of the curve!

Very much looking forward to being in Lahore over the weekend. Lots to talk about after this week!

Basically NATO is DEAD (again)

Greenland as distraction while Trump pushes Ukraine under a bus re: US support. That’s a play. It puts Europe under the cosh again. Interesting

My apologies if you voted for Republican Congressman Andy Ogles but he is clearly an idiot who knows nothing about Greenland. When confronted with Greenlanders who directly said they don’t want to be American you could literally see his brain could not compute this possibility.

Can be read as a pretty direct critique of UK policy and rhetoric. Starmer won’t explain to his voters that we are ‘on the menu’.

That's the new DLC for the Call of Duty "Greenland Level" sorted.

Academics unsuccessfully predicted the end of the Berlin Wall. No doubt we will be equally good at explaining the end of the International Rules Based Order.

The logical conclusion of the enshittication of US power. www.wired.com/story/enshit...

Paging @himself.bsky.social and @abenewman.bsky.social: "You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination".

Holy shit. Carney calls the international rules based order a "useful fiction" that no longer works. "We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition (...) great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons".

"The two senior government officials said military planners are modelling a US invasion from the south...Canada does not have the number of military personnel or the sophisticated equipment needed to fend off a conventional American attack..." www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

A European army cannot be created out of Qualified Majority Vote

This is where Europe is headed if it doesn't get its act together -- EU, non-EU, the lot.

SIGH And it’s only Tuesday!😀

When you’re a vassal, building strength through integrity is very tough. European efforts at quiet diplomacy reflects its weakness and the painful realisation that strategic autonomy takes more than words.

European leaders waiting for Trump

Mark Rutte: where’s daddy? Posting your private sycophantic notes on Truth Social…

Well they can’t take Ukraine…

Macron on his way out of the French Presidency and Trump giving him a kick in the backside to accelerate his departure…

So the “deal” is give Trump Greenland or get: Economic recession End of transatlantic relations Collapse of European security Also destroy quiet diplomacy by: posting private notes from Macron humiliating Starmer over the Chagos Apparently, f2f meetings in Davos will help resolve things.