Centre for Defence Studies

It was a good statement overall. I'm glad of the U-turn on producing a national security strategy, which should have been the framework for the SDR & other reviews from the beginning. Arguably, the defence spend decision should have been made sooner.

The UK’s cross-government “China audit” is reportedly being led by the FCDO, which is the lead foreign policy department, but the Cabinet Office and specifically the NSC, might have been the more obvious choice for shepherding a cross-government approach.

As the first political appointee in the role, this isn’t a bad appointment. Obvious strength on foreign policy, offsetting areas where he will need to lean more on his staff. Plenty of scope to revise the role (& wider NS centre) to fit how he/Starmer want it.

I think the striking thing isn’t this change, but the original decision. The episode tells us something about political relationships at the top. But we presumably won’t see any substantive changes in NS machinery/processes until the appointment of a new NSA.

A humble attempt to add some nuance to the undying controversy around Google disrupting "Western" cyber-enabled counter-terrorism operation by "burning" 0day exploits and use it to further the discussion of the ethics of ITW exploitation hunting. A short 🧵