Summary: A Disused-Infrastructure Network Linking Kielder, Manchester, Cambridge and London The concept: stitch together genuinely disused or under-used British infrastructure — water transfer tunnels, mothballed oil pipelines, derelict canal navigations, and abandoned rail tunnels — into one continuous corridor connecting four points that have no logical transport link between them otherwise. The route, node by node: Kielder Water → Teesside — the Kielder Transfer Scheme tun

June 30, 2026 History Remains Important... From my own history, 25 years ago +/-, I was recently reconnected with Christian Tafani . Together, back then, we wrote a paper called 'The Twenty First Century East India Companies' which contained the UN ( IAE Nice (Graduate School of Management)) /NU ( Northumbria University) Hypothesis which predicted the USA High Tech Companies' similar behaviour today and the ensuing conflict between the USA and Europe that we see today. Modern

In a product development meeting today I was reminded of two things:1. CONTEXT - AI does not do CONTEXT, humans do. So AI CANNOT do everything. In the RESILIENCE context this is CRITICAL, and resilience is the governance umbrella of the AI world. In October 2008 James Royds and I gave a keynote to the Business Continuity Institute Conference where we pointed out the lack of context in Business Continuity Planning and presented the GODFEAR model as a means of assessing context

What actually happened On June 12, the U.S. government ordered Anthropic to immediately shut off access to Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5, citing national security concerns. The directive called for suspending all access by any foreign national — including Anthropic's own employees — and the company said it had to "abruptly disable" access for all customers worldwide to comply. The backdrop matters: Anthropic had declined to remove guardrails limiting use of its AI for ma

When asked about Britain's AI strategy, many default to the EU's regulatory framework - this is misleading. The UK needs an AI strategy organised around three sequential priorities: sovereignty first, then facilitation, then governance. This ordering is not arbitrary. You cannot sensibly govern what you do not control, and you cannot facilitate what you have not chosen to build. Critics who respond to this argument by pointing to the EU AI Act as a ready-made solution have, p

Conference Aims and Outline Whilst women, both historically and in the current period, have played a critical role in national security and intelligence, their contributions are often overlooked, not recognised or underappreciated. The BUCSIS Annual Conference brings together leading women in security and intelligence to cast light on their experiences and achievements. The conference aims to highlight the importance of women in the field of security and intelligence, so tha

A Discussion Document Compiled from an extended strategic dialogue | May 2026 This document summarises an extended strategic dialogue covering artificial intelligence, geopolitical risk, the limitations of machine cognition, and the design of a transformation program for business leaders. The discussion was initiated by a senior commercial practitioner with direct operational experience across four geopolitical theatres spanning three decades. It is presented here in the

Britain's Diplomatic Landscape in the AI Age The Core Reality: The Old Map is Obsolete Foreign Secretary Lammy has himself acknowledged this bluntly, warning that unless Britain lifts its head above the rat-race of crises and summits and examines the longer-term trends reshaping the world, it will be boiled like the proverbial frog. AI will deliver a paradigm shift in the distribution and exercise of power, redefining how nations project influence, how threats emerge, and how

This is a genuinely important strategic question. Sanders' concerns form a useful backdrop — particularly his warnings about robotic soldiers, mass surveillance, and the concentration of extraordinary control in the hands of a small number of people. Those are precisely the tools a rogue authoritarian state would weaponise. Here's a concise strategic summary: AI as an Offensive Tool for a Rogue State Surveillance & Social Control at Home The foundation of any such regime woul

Dr Maitland Hyslop1 January 2026 Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming intelligence from a human-centred craft into a computational infrastructure embedded across security, defence, law enforcement, and governance systems. Intelligence is no longer primarily interpretative but algorithmic: predictive, automated, and continuous. This shift has democratised open-source intelligence while simultaneously enabling covert manipulation at unprecedented scale. The sam

THE UNGOVERNABLE STATE? Britain, the AI Century, and the Compounding Crisis of Capacity A strategic analysis · 17th May 2026 Preamble: A Diagnosis and its Implications The claim that Britain has become ungovernable is now made openly — by historians, by foreign correspondents, by its own politicians, occasionally by its own Prime Ministers. It deserves to be taken seriously, not as a counsel of despair but as a diagnostic tool. If the diagnosis is substantially correct, i

A Whole-System Economic Strategy for Britain in the AI Century A synthesis paper drawing on 'Resilience in the AI Century', the IOGP Security analysis (see elsewhere on these Posts), and the preceding strategic series · 18th May 2026 · Revised Edition Preamble: The Moment of Convergence Something important is available to Britain right now, if it is willing to see it. The problems documented in the preceding papers — the ungovernable political system, the hollowed-out c

To: House of Lords Select Committee on National Resilience From: Dr Maitland Hyslop Date: 30th March 2026 UK NATIONAL RESILIENCE Risk Interconnection, Preparedness & the Leadership Imperative Executive Summary The United Kingdom faces a risk environment of unprecedented complexity. Unlike prior decades when threats were largely discrete and sequential, today's risks cascade — a pandemic accelerates supply chain failure; a cyber-attack cripples the energy grid; disinform

Hyperscalers, Strategic Dependency, and the Case for a New Security Doctrine A strategic briefing paper · May 2026 Executive Summary We are living through the first years of a century in which artificial intelligence is not merely a technology but a structuring force — reshaping economies, realigning military advantage, and redrawing the map of national power. The emergence of tools like Project Mythos is one symptom of a far larger transformation: the moment at which AI

Artificial intelligence is no longer a future concept confined to science fiction or research laboratories. AI systems are now deeply integrated into finance, healthcare, defence, education, communications, cybersecurity and global infrastructure. As these technologies rapidly evolve, one of the most pressing questions facing governments, businesses and societies is no longer whether AI will transform the world but who governs it, how it is controlled and what future it ultim

As artificial intelligence, virtual reality and digital systems continue to reshape modern society, leadership itself is entering a new era. Organisations, governments and institutions are now operating within increasingly complex digital environments where physical and virtual realities overlap in ways never seen before.

As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes governments, businesses, infrastructure and society itself, one question is becoming increasingly urgent: are modern organisations truly prepared for the risks and realities of intelligent systems?