The state threats project has entered a second phase, shifting focus to how Western states respond to hostile state activity. Building on a new conceptual framework developed in phase one, the expanded research team examines policy strategies, response patterns and perceived effectiveness to inform thinking on strengthened resilience against an increasingly complex state threat landscape.

SOC ACE researcher Jess Davis appears on the Secure Line podcast to discuss her research on State-sponsored assassinations involving organised crime actors, and her chapter in Killing in the Name of the State: State-Sponsored Assassinations in International Politics. The episode explores why states partner with criminals and the policy challenges posed by this growing state–crime nexus.

Listen to the podcast here.

RUSI’s Kathryn Westmore launched her SOC ACE paper Flying Money, Hidden Threat: Understanding the growth of Chinese Money Laundering Organisations at RUSI on Wednesday, 12 November.

Watch the event recording and keep an eye out for more research updates here.

SOC ACE researcher, Dr Liam O’Shea (SGI/RUSI), convened the Anti-Corruption & Building Integrity in Defence and Security Network to discuss how to revitalise the security sector reform (SSR) agenda in response to a changed world.

In the lead-up to the budget announcement, media, including the Financial Times, Business Matters and City AM, trailed the initiative, referring to case studies that are unique to Eliza Lockhart’s SOC ACE paper on the role of financial rewards for whistleblowers in the fight against economic crime. Her research was also cited directly in the new UK Anti-Corruption Strategy as evidence underpinning the new policy.  

In a Frontline Club panel convened by award-winning journalist and author, Oliver Bullough, SOC ACE Director Professor Heather Marquette joined a high-profile panel to discuss whether efforts to shore up Britain’s defences and prevent Westminster from being captured by corrupt elites are enough.  

A new joint party report, Clean foundations for growth: Unlocking economic opportunity by tackling economic crime, published by the UK Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fair Banking, Anti‑Corruption and Responsible Tax, and the UK Anti‑Corruption Coalition, draws on SOC ACE research.

The new UK Anti-Corruption Strategy 2025: Supporting growth, strengthening security, protecting democracy describes the Anti-Corruption Evidence programme - including SOC ACE, GI ACE and SOAS ACE - as “world-leading” providers of evidence on understanding the scale and harms of corruption.

The recording of Dr Orly Stern and Olivia Allison’s for a webinar examining the gendered dynamics of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories is now available for download here .

They considered how women participate in – and are harmed by – the illicit financial flows (IFF) underpinning the occupation economy.The will explore how women are embedded across mid‑ and lower‑level administrative, judicial, and civil service structures, facilitatating property seizures, business expropriations, and corrupt reconstruction schemes.

In the first edition of 2026, explore the latest from the SOC ACE family, including how SOC ACE research is informing UK Parliamentary debate, join two coming SOC ACE webinars on women and illicit finance in Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, and on corruption and welfare reform in Pakistan, find out about new research projects on organised crime and state-sponsored assassinations, mapping Russian threat actors’ business networks, the politics of ports for countering organised crime, and new illicit trade ‘red-flag’ taxonomy, and listen to new podcasts featuring research on youth and gangs and fit for purpose anti-money laundering systems.

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Join Dr Orly Stern and Olivia Allison for a webinar examining the gendered dynamics of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories. They will consider how women participate in - and are harmed by - the illicit financial flows (IFF) underpinning the occupation economy.

The will explore how women are embedded across mid‑ and lower‑level administrative, judicial, and civil service structures, facilitatating property seizures, business expropriations, and corrupt reconstruction schemes.

A new research project will examine Russia’s use of corporate, financial, and legal structures to support covert activity.

This is an increasingly important aspect of the hybrid threats. Yet the business networks and intermediaries linked to individuals affiliated with Russian threat actors remain insufficiently mapped, limiting the ability of policymakers and analysts to understand these networks.

A new proof‑of‑concept project is assessing whether a single analytical framework can detect red flags across different forms of transnational crime, including illicit trade in legal commodities such as tobacco and pharmaceuticals, human trafficking, and drugs.

The research which asks whether the data that reveal cocaine trafficking might also expose tobacco smuggling or indicators of human trafficking.

A new SOC ACE research project is examining how governments increasingly rely on organised crime networks to carry out targeted assassinations.

The project will look at the networks, how they are managed and what policy initiatives might combat this threat

A new SOC ACE research project will examine the growing vulnerabilities of global seaports to organised crime, revealing how these critical trade gateways are increasingly targeted by criminal groups.

Join SOC ACE researchers - Dr Zahid Mumtaz and Dr Caryn Peiffer - for a webinar exploring the complex relationship between corruption and informal security welfare regimes, with Pakistan as a case study. In contexts where formal welfare systems are weak or inaccessible, people often depend on kinship ties, community structures, and patron‑client networks for social protection.

Register here or click through for more information!

In this edition, explore the latest from the SOC ACE family, including how SOC ACE research is informing UK policy, new publications on Chinese money laundering organisations, Iranian state threats, security sector reform, functionality of corruption in the Pakistan social welfare regime and the gender dynamics of Russia’s use of illicit financial flows in occupied Ukraine, and listen to event recordings and podcasts featuring SOC ACE researchers and research.

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Webinar video - the lessons learnt in Georgia, Columbia and South Africa addressing security forces involement in organised crime. They highlight political will, institutional control, and prosecutorial strength are vital to success.

Presenters say policy must be politically grounded, and include coherent leadership, oversight, and tackling entrenched interests.

Liam O’Shea et al discuss the lessons learnt in Georgia, Columbia and South Africa addressing security forces involement in organised crime. They highlight political will, institutional control, and prosecutorial strength are vital to success.

They say policy must be politically grounded, and include coherent leadership, oversight, and tackling entrenched interests.

Matthew Redhead has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Playing Spies documentary. He was interviewed by Gordon Corera for the programme, that was broadcast on Sunday 30 November.