RUSI in the News: 3 September - 9 September

Broadcast

North Korean Nuclear Testing

'This time they’ve chosen the national day that commemorates the beginning of the regime, so it’s really interesting that there has been a slight change in the pattern of their nuclear tests this one being very soon after the one in January'

Cristina Varriale on BBC World News

Cristina Varriale on the global nuclear stockpile for Insight, TRT World 6 September 

Op-Eds

How Would Trump Actually Handle Isis?

'In fact, team ISIS would be far more likely to choose Trump as its MVP (Most Valuable Player), due to his conflation of Islam with terrorism. Already in April this year, we’ve seen an ISIS video glorifying the Belgium attacks featuring Donald Trump in the backdrop. And it’s not just ISIS that is using Trump for recruitment: Al-Shabaab, the Somalia affiliate of Al-Qaeda, has also released a Trump video.'

Karin von Hippel for Newsweek, 1 September

Quoted in the Media

Syria Crisis

British peers and priests accused of 'chatting with mass murderer' after meeting Assad in Syria

"Inside Syria, Assad gets to say: 'Look, there are still members of the Western establishment who will openly meet with me. So while some may question my legitimacy, others at the heart of British democracy buy my claim to be Syria's rightful leader'. His cynical message to the West is: 'It's either me or Isil and not only are Isil evil creatures but I will protect Christian minorities’." 

HA Hellyer in The Telegraph 5 September

Anjem Choudary

U.K. Preacher Anjem Choudary Sentenced to Over Five Years in Prison

“Historically, many terrorist plots in the U.K. could be linked back to networks he was involved in, and more recently, groups across Europe that he helped establish were at the core of networks sending Westerners to Syria and Iraq,” said Raffaello Pantucci, director of International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute

Raffaello Pantucci for The Wall Street Journal, and Inquisitor 5 September

Counter-Terrorist Financing

Government urged to impose 'financial Asbos' to stop terrorism funding

Is it time to start considering including benefit agencies in the architecture of counter terrorism and make the benefits system part of a whole government approach to the issue

Tom Keatinge in  The Telegraph, 7 Sept

Naval Forces

Royal Navy unveils robot spy speedboat

She said: “The real issue is the public perception and the nervousness that some in the military might have and the potential legal challenges. The use of unmanned systems to deliver lethal force is still extremely controversial. It’s facing all sorts of legal challenges, so I think going down that road is quite difficult.” The Navy has already used unmanned vehicles for surveillance and for hunting for underwater mines.

Elizabeth Quintana in The Telegraph, 5 September

Watch Royal Navy test unmanned speedboat ahead of drone exercises

"They wanted to get value for taxpayer money, so they made the technology companies do this somewhere there was a problem they could potentially solve, rather than testing them in a nice clean environment," he said. "They had to prove their equipment worked outside of clean conditions."

Pete Roberts in the Plymouth Herald, South China Morning Post, 5 September