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harpers.org The Paranoid Style in American Politics, by Richard Hofstadter 
www.theguardian.com Russia tested nerve agent on door handles before Skripal attack, UK dossier claims Previously classified intelligence about poisoning of former Russian spy sent to Nato 🚨 The UK and its NATO allies should consider going “on the offensive” to defend against Russia - put pressure on the Kremlin, cause them a dilemma and create jeopardy - rather than leaving the initiative with Moscow and defending against whatever Russia does, Lord Mark Sedwill, a former Cabinet Secretary and long-serving UK National Security Adviser, has said.View quoted post on X
He said this could be done by using conventional or hybrid defences.
Lord Sedwill, a highly regarded and leading voice in the security community, was speaking on the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier in Norway at the opening of a conference attended by serving military chiefs and ministers as well as members of the defence industry from across Europe and beyond.
Lord Sedwill posed three questions for the attendees.
Firstly, how can the UK and its allies defend effectively the North Sea and the North Atlantic - Britain’s “frontline” with Russia?
Secondly, how can allies defend against Russian, Iranian and other hostile grey zone attacks such as cyber hacks, assassinations and hoax bomb threats?
But his third point was the most strident.
Here is what Lord Sedwill said at the Atlantic Future Forum:
“This is something I really do want to emphasise. It is not just about defence.
“NATO is a defensive alliance but the most effective form of defence is often to cause a dilemma, it is often to go on the offensive against our adversaries.
“So how can we present our Russian adversaries in particular with a set of strategic dilemmas?
“How do we make them feel they are under threat? Not simply leave the initiative to them and defend against it.
“That is true whether we are talking about land, sea and air but it is also true if we are talking about the hybrid space, space, cyber space and indeed in the information space as well.
“I hope we can think that through as well.
“How - whether it is in conventional defence or in hybrid defence - can we put some pressure on the Russians?
“Because deterrence requires not just effective defence, it does require there to be some jeopardy to our adversaries in continuing to probe us.”
🚨 NEW: Under-16s in the UK could now be banned from Spotify, Lego Play and YouTube Kids under expanded Government proposals to widen the scope of its social media banView quoted post on X
In March 2018, a nerve agent of the Novichok group was applied to the front door handle of a house in Salisbury, England, where the former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal lived. He and his daughter survived. Two Russian military intelligence officers, later named as Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, were identified as the men who carried it out.
The agent had been brought into the country in a bottle made up to look like a Nina Ricci perfume, packaged in a sealed box. After the attack, it was discarded in Salisbury.
Some three months later, Charlie Rowley found the box and kept it. On 30 June 2018 he gave it to his partner, Dawn Sturgess, at a flat in nearby Amesbury. She was 44. She sprayed the contents on her wrists and collapsed within minutes. Rowley fell ill later the same day.
Sturgess died in hospital on 8 July. Rowley survived after weeks of treatment and lasting damage to his health.
A public inquiry reported in December 2025. It concluded that the Russian state was responsible, that the operation against Skripal had been authorized by President Putin, and that abandoning the bottle in a public place had been an act of extraordinary recklessness.
Chilling historical photos: bit.ly/4kSq9PjView quoted post on X
