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timdowse.bsky.social
Consultant, after 40 years with FCO, Cabinet Office, HM Treasury. Specialties: national security, defence, geopolitical analysis.
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Posts 15 Comments 35

According to Ukrainian accounts, in the last five days alone Russia has launched over 700 armed and decoy drones at Kyiv and other cities. If UAVs are to be the weapon of the future, it seems they will be needed on a huge scale. I hope NATO members’ procurement agencies are planning accordingly.

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

Very interesting analysis. Worth reading in full.

submitted 12 hours ago • 0 comments

So, after the giant wrecked Israeli F-35 we now have a miniature wrecked American B-2. Are these being pushed by official Iranian accounts or just amateur online sympathisers?

submitted 20 hours ago • 0 comments

OK, just when I'd repaired my irony-meter, they do it again. Russian Foreign Ministry statement.

submitted 22 hours ago • 0 comments

As always, much good sense from @lordrickettsp.bsky.social on BBC Radio 4 this lunchtime. Alongside all the speculation about Iran’s immediate likely retaliation, I’m interested in the longer term issue. The nuclear programme has surely been set back - perhaps a lot - but you won’t … 1/3

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

The BBC World Service becomes even more important. www.bbc.com/news/article...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Hmm. I wonder what the “corrected” Grok will have to say about the history of apartheid. (To take an example at random.)

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Nice to see a government using Bluesky.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

🚨 AI-generated and miscaptioned footage and images are being shared widely on social media as the Israel-Iran conflict continues. Here are some of the most viral claims we’ve seen in recent days, and what to watch out for 👇

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Is this the whole picture? I thought polls had consistently shown that, while there is little public backing for generic “foreign aid” writ large, people are usually happy to support assistance for specific purposes: hunger in Sudan; clean water in Malawi etc. ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Interesting to see if this has any effect on US policy.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Evidence, if needed, that the US ‘pivot to Asia’ is as difficult for this Administration as it was for Obama, Trump 45 and Biden. (Addressed at a bit more length in my review of Blackwill & Fontaine’s “Lost Decade” in a recent edition of “Asian Affairs”. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KIQF2...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

I understand the desire to 'do something' about the horrors in Gaza and the West Bank that is driving this. But those calling for recognition now need to answer the question: "Within what borders?" If not, doesn't it just make us all feel better without moving the debate forward in any real way?

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

This is clearly now going beyond tackling any nuclear threat.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

This statement is correct. But my irony-meter just exploded.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments