Projects

RUSI State Threats Taskforce (STT)

RUSI’s State Threats Taskforce (STT) aims to support the UK and its partners in detecting, understanding, attributing and responding to the spectrum of complex state threats currently facing democracies.




Chin Leong Teoh / Alamy Stock Photo


The rapidly rising threat posed by hostile state activity is complex and multi-faceted, yet all too often, the UK’s responses remain siloed.

Although not new, non-military state-led threats come in many and often hybrid organisational forms, bridging more specific threats such as malign cyber operations, state-based organised crime and the financing of anti-democratic activities. As noted in the UK’s latest Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, ‘The distinction between nation states and criminal groups in terms of cyber-crime is becoming frequently more blurred’.

The extent to which the UK government acknowledges these threats can be seen in the 2021 Integrated Review, the proliferation of 'Counter State Threat' policy units across Whitehall, and the activities of the National Cyber Security Centre.

With this heightened government focus in mind, in January 2023 RUSI, created a track 2 cross-disciplinary State Threats Taskforce (STT) that draws on the expertise of the Institute's Cyber, Organised Crime, and Financial Crime programmes to provide input into the policy debate at this crucial time.

Chin Leong Teoh / Alamy Stock Photo

Aims and objectives

As the UK’s 2021 Integrated Review notes, the UK ‘must improve [its] ability – and that of [its] allies and partners – to detect, understand, attribute and act in response to the spectrum of state threats’. It is to this mission that the STT was set up to contribute.

Through a range of activities and other outputs, the overall objective of the State Threats Taskforce was to deepen understanding of the specific dynamics of non-military state threats and offer ideas for realistic policy responses for both the UK and its allies. Our future work on state threats will draw on the expertise and findings that came out of this Taskforce.

State Threats

Our work on state threats aims to support the UK and its partners in detecting, understanding attributing and responding to the spectrum of complex state threats currently facing democracies.


  • Reviewer of State Threats Legislation tells RUSI: “Beware the Foreign Hand

    Reviewer of State Threats Legislation tells RUSI: “Beware the Foreign Hand

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  • RUSI State Threats Taskforce (STT) Assesses UK Response Options to the Current Threat Landscape

    RUSI State Threats Taskforce (STT) Assesses UK Response Options to the Curren...

    clock2 Minute Read
  • State Threats Taskforce Briefing with Canadian Deputy Minister of Public Safety

    State Threats Taskforce Briefing with Canadian Deputy Minister of Public Safety

    clock1 Minute Read

Latest publications

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    Taskforce members*


    The Lord Evans of Weardale KCB DL

    Distinguished Fellow

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    Professor Mark Galeotti

    Senior Associate Fellow; Principal Director, Mayak Intelligence

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    Jonathan Groom

    Financial Crime Leader & Intelligence Executive

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    Tom Keatinge

    Director, CFS

    Centre for Finance and Security

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    Rhianna King

    Strategic Cyber Threat Intelligence Team Lead, SecAlliance

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    Dr Matthew Levitt

    Director of the Counterterrorism & Intelligence Program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

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    Toby Lewis

    Global Head of Threat Analysis, Darktrace

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    Jamie MacColl

    Research Fellow

    Cyber

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    Professor Heather Marquette

    Professor of Development Politics, University of Birmingham

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    Carl Miller

    Partner, CASM Technology

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    Professor Lynette Ong

    Political Science & Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto

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    Dr Liam O’Shea

    Former RUSI Senior Research Fellow

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    Alanna Putze

    Senior Corporate Partnership Manager

    Business Development

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    Suzanne Raine

    RUSI Trustee

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    Matthew Redhead

    Senior Associate Fellow; Financial crime consultant and researcher

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    Kinga Redlowska

    Head of CFS Europe

    Centre for Finance and Security

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    Stephen Reimer

    Associate Fellow

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    Melanie Smith, Head of Research, Institute for Strategic Dialogue US

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    Tim Symington

    Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Kings College London

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    Louise Taggart

    PwC Cyber Threat Intelligence, Senior Manager

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    Gavin Wilde

    GP-RCB Work Stream co-lead for North America

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    Ollie Whitehouse

    Founder, BinaryFirefly

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    * This is not an all-inclusive list of taskforce members