Once, nuclear war haunted films, protests, and public imagination. Today, the fear has faded—but the threat hasn’t. This piece explores how we lost our nuclear anxiety, why that might be dangerous, and what we stand to forget if we stop paying attention.
Orbits of Power: From Sputnik to Starlink © Jay Allen 2025 “It wasn’t the beep that scared them. It was the orbit.” On 4 October 1957, a polished metal sphere the size of a beach ball lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It weighed just 83 kilograms and
The Sky is Full © Jay Allen 2025 Above Ukraine, the Future Arrived Early In the opening days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the war appeared to follow a familiar script. Tanks breached borders. Missiles rained on cities. Airstrikes lit the skies over Kyiv. Yet high
On June 20th, 2025, the European Commission quietly released a draft regulation that is one of the most geopolitically consequential documents of the year. Titled the EU Space Act, it mandates new cybersecurity, resilience, and environmental standards for all space systems operating within the Union. On the surface, it appears
The UK’s announcement that it will procure F-35A Lightning II jets and formally commit to NATO’s nuclear sharing mission marks a subtle but significant shift in its approach to deterrence, escalation, and alliance solidarity. After years of strategic ambiguity and a doctrine that placed Trident as the singular
@jayallen.pro [Bluesky] | LinkedIn As the United Kingdom enters a new era of strategic competition, marked by the resurgence of great power rivalry, the weaponisation of space and cyberspace, and the erosion of arms control norms, questions about how the UK manages escalation and deterrence are becoming more urgent. The
I’d just finished watching Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb when the idea for this blog struck me. Kubrick’s absurd, satirical take on Cold War nuclear brinkmanship felt eerily relevant, not because we’re on the edge of nuclear war, but
Organisations face an unprecedented challenge in the rapidly evolving digital landscape: balancing artificial intelligence’s (AI) transformative potential with the fundamental need to secure identity and access management (IAM) systems. As we integrate AI more deeply into our security infrastructure, we must confront the remarkable opportunities and the sobering risks
In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, enterprises face a critical challenge: how to harness the transformative power of artificial intelligence while effectively managing its inherent risks. Recent events have shown us that this balance isn’t just theoretical; it’s a practical necessity that can make or break organisations.
Remember Moore’s Law? It’s the famous observation that the number of transistors on computer chips doubles about every two years, leading to exponential growth in computing power. Now, as we witness the breakneck pace of AI development, many wonder: Is a similar pattern happening with artificial intelligence? The
In recent years, open-source intelligence (OSINT) has emerged as a critical tool for gathering and analysing information from publicly available sources. As the digital landscape continues to expand, the potential for OSINT to provide valuable insights has grown exponentially. In this blog post, we’ll explore OSINT, its place in
As Europe faces an increasingly complex security environment, questions around the continent’s future defence posture have taken on renewed urgency. The spectre of Russian aggression, underscored by the ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House, will force European leaders