Britain’s proxy war on Russia

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 27 September 2022 UK participation in the Ukraine conflict is far-reaching, involving military and intelligence support, arms supplies and information warfare. But as Ukraine makes gains on the battlefield, Whitehall sees the war not only as a way to defend Kyiv but to ensure the strategic defeat of its rival, […]

Britain’s bumbling foreign policy over Taiwan and Ukraine

by Mark Curtis and Richard Norton-Taylor, Declassified UK, 8 June 2022 ‘Global Nato’. Help Taiwan ‘defend itself’. Recover the ‘whole’ of Ukraine. Promote ‘the free world’ – UK foreign policy under Liz Truss has become a series of empty slogans from a declining power desperate to remain a major one. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, foreign […]

Does the Ukraine war mean Britain should increase military spending?

by Paul Rogers and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 18 May 2022 Russia’s poor military performance in its invasion of Ukraine hardly demonstrates the need to increase the UK’s already large defence budget; if anything, it shows the opposite. Last week Russia celebrated Victory Day, marking the end of the Great Patriotic War, its name for […]

Sky News acts largely as a platform for the UK defence and foreign ministries, research finds

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 1 February 2021 Declassified UK’s analysis of the written outputs of three of Sky News’ principal foreign affairs journalists has found that the media outlet acts largely to amplify the views of the British Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office, while rarely offering critical, independent analysis. A study by Declassified, […]

UK has approved over £200 million worth of exports with potential military use to Russia since the Salisbury poisonings

By Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 23 July 2020 In the two years since a British citizen died following a chemical attack by Russian military intelligence officers in southern England, the UK government has licenced £232-million worth of controlled equipment to Russia, Declassified UK has found. Former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal […]

How the UK press supports the British military and intelligence establishment

by Mark Curtis Declassified UK, 11 March 2020 Britain’s national press is acting largely as a platform for the views of the UK military and intelligence establishment, new statistical research by Declassified UK shows.  The UK press, from The Times to The Guardian, is also routinely helping to demonise states identified by the British government as enemies, while tending to […]

How the UK press is misinforming the public about Britain’s role in the world

by Mark Curtis Declassified UK, 9 March 2020 Britain’s national press consistently portrays Britain as a supporter of noble objectives such as human rights and democracy. The extraordinary extent to which the public is being misinformed about the UK’s foreign and military policies is revealed in new statistical research by Declassified UK. The research suggests […]

When it comes to Middle East policy, the UK is nothing but a rogue state

Published in Middle East Eye, 6 April 2018 by Mark Curtis In the current crisis with Moscow, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has written that “Russia cannot break international rules with impunity”. Britain, along with Russia, has a particular obligation to uphold international law since it is one of the five permanent members of the […]

FCO, Planning Staff draft paper, ‘British objectives and priorities in Africa South of the Sahara, 1976-80’, November 1975

“Traditionally, from the days of trade in slaves and ivory, Africa has supplied natural products to Europe and received finished goods in exchange”. New UK investment in Sub-Saharan Africa was £148.1m or 9.1% of all overseas investment in 1973 – of that, 5.4% was to South Africa. Total stock of UK investment in SSA in […]

Memorandum from Maj-Gen. Kenneth Strong, Director General of Intelligence, MOD, to Chief of the Defence Staff, ‘Soviet/American bilateralism’, 22 June 1964

“Now that competition between the two social systems has moved from the military to the economic sphere, it may be that the US believe that the advantage will lie with that system which is more successful in removing national obstacles to the growth of trade and other forms of economic cooperation. Or secondly, it could […]